z_dori :
ok guys,
so if i want to buy next week some parts for good 1920x1200 gaming on vista with games- crysis,COH, Wittcher. COD4, and enjoy the rig for next year too what to get?
1) x48 with 3870x2/3870 & buy the 4870/4870x2 in june
That's what I'm doing, of course I'll need a Crossfire board and new CPU by then!
I bought the 3870x2 over the 3870 based on The Witcher performance, and it's great. The only Nvidia optimized game I play quite a bit of is LOTR online and I still get high 20's to high 30's in framerates. I expect that to go up with driver optimization.
Crysis, I don't play, but isn't it optimized as part of Nvidia's the way developers are meant to be paid off program? Even then, it would probably need two 4870x2's in CrossfireX or 3 way SLI with the fastest Nvidia card to actually have decent performance at high resolution.
Some comparisons between the 3870x2 and Nvidia re: The Witcher and other games:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3209&p=10
More on the 3870x2 vs. the 3870:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3219&p=2
The 9600gt in vs. the 3870:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3235&p=2
The 9600gt wins in 5 games by wider margins than the 3870 wins in 9 other games.
The problem with buying either ATI or Nvidia based on one game is that things might change. I buy ATI generally because I prefer ATI image quality and am not bothered by the few situations where it "loses" to Nvidia. As the hidden boosting of 9600gt on Nvidia boards shows, as well as the fudging the Crysis demo fiasco, Nvidia cuts corners and even keeps it's own reps in the dark about what it does to get a few extra fps when they want to be able to beat ATI in a few benchies. Whether that's unethical, or just good business sense, is not something I'll argue here, but since ATI is more transparent about their tech, I stick with them.