Red

As a veteran graphics card buyer since begining of time . I have had countless Radeon, 3dfx , Matrox , Nvidia cards.

My ATI cards have always been the most feature rich cards and have lasted the longest before I felt I needed an upgrade. Picture quality was also generally better on ATI, I also have to say that the diffrence is not that prenounced today, but I still like the in my view a little crisper ATI colors. I also prefer the ATI Control Center, for me its much easier to use than nvidias controls.

But the most important consideration to look at is to buy for the games which you are playing right now and look at the performance level you desire. Never buy the more expensive card with the intention to future proof, its just a waste of money as the price will go drastically down and new cards will be released before you need the future performance.

So if you got the money now my suggestion is to get a 4870 if you run at 1920 * 1200 or a 4850 if you run at lower resolution.

These will run anything you throw at it with AA except Crysis, note that Crysis actually have edge detect MSAA always enabled when you use HIGH and very HIGH so no big need to use AA in Crysis.

You will also see that the game companies will program for this level of performance in the next year.

We are currently blessed with ATIs strategy to create performance for the masses. For 150$ you get a 4850 thats better than the last generations 500$ cards.

Finally the days of having to buy a card for 500$ to play the latest games seem to be over, this is largely thanks to ATI. I believe PC gaming should make a nice recovery the next couple of years due to this.

Bamboo

With a 22", I would say the 4870 is a good bet. An there are lots of deals out on the card already. I'm still waiting to see what the aftermarket cards have to offer though, like with overclocking and stuff.

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Grieg

Right now I'd say: 4870 > 260 > 4850 > 9800.

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Switch

You can get 2x 4850's for just over 300 bucks if you look hard enough. I think that's the best performance value you could possibly ask for.

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Better known as:
That noob who crashed the chopper.
That noob who ran over the mine.
That noob who TK'd me with a sniper rifle.
That noob who hit that APC at 300m with light AT! Our APC...

Dick Blonov

You must be a veteran if you bought a Matrox (or a 3dfx) card

DB

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Fighter

little sidenote, but i love ur sig switch sounds just like me!!

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Steeler

Anyone here running a Crossfire or SLI setup? Is there any real benefit to a dual card (or X2) system or are you just pumping testosterone and cash into your case at that point?

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Just G

I dont run SLI or Crossfire but have read enough to know that it didn't represent good value for money in the sense that you DONT get double the speed of your single card.

Sounds like a mouthful but when you think that the cost of a decent mid-range GPU is £140-£200 ea, Why would you opt to purchase another one if it doesn't double (or near as damnit) the speed/framerate of the single card.

I recently read a piece in the magazine Custom PC and in the lab tests they carried out, Some SLI/Crossfire setups ran slower than a single GPU in certain games.... although that is down to the fact that those games require an SLI profile to get the maximum benefit out of both cards, I think it would put of some people if they knew how little they gained (framerate wise)with games they play.

With the price war going on at the moment, we are seeing a large amount of new GPU's coming onto the market that are competing at the mid to top range level, this has the side effect of price cuts on relatively new tech gpu's which at some point, will probably make an SLI or Crossfire setup cheap enough for me to warrant thinking about.
Although there are very good single slot cards out there, we are now at the point where prices have fallen so quickly that the the purchase of 2 relatively new and quite powerful cards will cost about the same as the the single dual-slot monster card that powered all!
Now if only they could get the drivers/profiles to the point where they could guarantee adding another card WOULD double (or near as damnit) your framerate on ALL games they would certainly get my money.....Doubt it will happen, but I can dream I suppose.

Long Bow

I would have to say that with the new release of cards a dual card set up is starting to look very tempting. I could buy a 4850 now and in a year grab a second one as there price drop and spend less then a 4870. In the end though it would be faster then a 4870 in games that support it (thats the catch )


Back on topic. I assume your 22" is a 1680x1050 res? The 4850 will be a solid choice at that resolution. It will be outdated quicker then a 4870, which would give you a longer life at that resolution. The 4870 is going to allow you to prolong replacing your card but it does cost more up front. It also may not offer much more in most games for you over the 4850 at that resolution. Save a little now and upgrade sooner or the inverse.

I would say go ahead and get a company to build your computer but be sure you get to pick all the parts. You don't want a crapy motherboard that will restrict future upgrades. Second try and get a home version of windows, not just a recovery disk.

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Bamboo

Just got an e-mail about this deal on newegg.

Buy an Asus P5Q-Pro motherboard and a Asus 4850 and save an extra $30.
Plus, the gfx card has a rebate on it still so the price drops to $164.99

If you are looking to build, those are both good components. Free shipping too.

http://promotions.newegg.com/asus/07...-_-ASUSEbanner

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Switch

I currently run a single card, and was rather opposed to the SLI concept back when it was new and extreemely expensive but the value of SLI/Xfire is begining to manifest for the mid range market. The true value is not in doubling performance out right. Rather, two 200 dollar card (in the case of the HD4850 for example) can outperform a single $500+ or $600+ card. In terms of FPS, once you exceed a certain point the issue becomes moot with no effect on gaming. You don't necessarily need to double a single card peak performance to make it worth while. Moreover, at higher resolutions with increased graphics settings (basically the way people want to play their games) SLI shines. SLI value lies in increased MINIMUM performance along with better handing of high end graphics settings-- the thing you notice most.

If you have a game that is averaging 50 fps on a single card but dips down to the 20's for intense scenes or action then you are experiencing hardware shortcomings that are really effecting the enjoyability and playability of a game. If using an SLI set up your FPS only increases to 70, but you never drop below 50 during the action then you have certainly recieved a benefit from the investment.

With enough searching you can find 2x HD 4950 at just about 300 dollars (with rebates or combo deal, etc etc) making the 300 set up far more effective than spending twice as much on a 'super card'

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Better known as:
That noob who crashed the chopper.
That noob who ran over the mine.
That noob who TK'd me with a sniper rifle.
That noob who hit that APC at 300m with light AT! Our APC...

MrShawn305

I run my 4850 on a 24" widescreen and it runs everything great on 1920x1200 everything maxed. On CSS I typically dont see anything less than 60fps on glass maps and to be honest I cant tell the difference between that and 120+fps I get at other times and on other maps. BF2 runs great, although it doesnt do widescreen so I can only go up to 1600x1200 and max it out. Those are really the only 2 games I have tried. I messed around in HL2 lost coast the other night and it handled that great too. I intend to try it on FEAR as I still have a copy of that laying around somewhere. Keep in mind that my rig is an aging system- A64 4000+ 939, 3GB DDR400, SATA2 drives, Asus A8N-SLi Deluxe and a cheap ultra PS I got for $5 on sale at tiger direct lol. Im hoping to build a new rig this fall, but as you all can see this card can really scream even on an older single core rig.