6870 or 6950

[yabadaba2177]

Ok so I think I've narrowed it down to 2 cards just looking for some opinions

Building 2 new rigs (his and hers) in the next week or 2

Proposed specs are
I5-2500K sandy bridge
8gb Ram

Made it that far and started looking for GPUs rest of the build will conform to the card I go with...

I'd like to try and Keep the GPU under 300 ea since I'll have another 50 into Active display port adapters

Monitors will be 1920x1080 X3 and an undecided 4th above. so eyefinity is a must

--2
1-1-1


First card and the one I'm leaning toward

XFX 6870 2 gb $224 rebate to $195
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150563

My concern with this card is it's the only 2GB 6870 I've seen That was not and X2 or pushing $400 and I'd like to go crossfire down the road but worry this card will be unattainable. Or is it worth the risk and then just buy 2 new matching cards and double these up in one of the machines....


Second Card

XFX 6950 2 GB $275 rebate to $245
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150530

Or is there another 6950 i should consider, I've heard some can be unlocked to = a 6970


Thanks in advance for any and all replies and if I'm way off base for what I need please let me know

On a side note current system is running
Athlon 64 X2 3.36GHz
4GB ram
512mb Nvidia 8600GT
only 2 monitors 1680x1050 and 1440 X 900
so I'm sure anything I do will blow this one away

 

[Supermuncher85]

What's the purpose of this machine? Gaming, office?

 

[yabadaba2177]

Gaming will be the biggest work load anything else is just day to day browsing MS office etc. Mostly Rift or WoW going to pick up Dues ex, Dragon Age 2 and Skyrim after they are built and I've been getting into Flight Sims IL-2 1946 and would like to Pick up Rise of Flight and Cliffs of Dover. She wants to get more into Racing Sims hence the 3 displays. We may do some playback from Media server but just regular DVD maybe Blu-ray locally.