What to buy now ATI 4870X2 2GB or 5850 1GB?

[caposcore]

System Usage from Most Important to Least Important:

•Heavy gaming
•Surfing the internet
•Document processing
•Watching movies
•Media converting

Here is what I have so far. Lookin for suggestions on a GPU

Antec Nine Hundred Two Case $119
ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3 $109
Antec TP-750 Blue $105
AMD PII 955 BE 3.2GHz $189
OCZ Platinum AMD 4GB DDR3 1600 $119
Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB HDD $55
Windows 7 Ultimate Upgrade $99

I am wondering what the best bang for my buck is going to be. Price is not too heavy of a concern (though im not eager to spend more than $300), I really want the best for my rig. In looking at the new ATI 5K series cards, is it better to go with those or an older 4K series X2 or 2 older cards in crossfire? What about Nvidia? I have always used ATI for no real reason other than they havent failed me yet.

Are there any suggestions that using ATI and AMD together is better than NVIDIA and AMD(given ATI/AMD are same company)?

 

[hunter315]

For that board, ATI is the only brand you should consider, or you should consider dropping down to a 770 or 785G chipset. The 790X supports crossfire, which will allow you to run 2 ATI cards, but does not support nVidia SLI. A single 5850 can run everything out there extremely well, and uses less power than a 4890. It would also give you a nice upgrade option in the future. Using an older 4k X2 card would require you upgrade your PSU in order to move to trifire or quad fire and they tend to generate a lot of heat.

What monitor resolution are you using as that is the primary factor in picking out a GPU. If you are only running 1280x1024 then a 5850 would be a silly investment, however if you are running 1920x1200 or 2560x1600 then it would be a great investment.

 

[caposcore]

Hunter,

Thank you for your reply. Currently I am running a 22" Acer LCD that does not support 1080+. However, I intend to upgrade to a newer 24" 1080+ supported LCD soon. Currently, my resolution is at 1680x1050.

In looking at the results of the benchmark comparing the 5850 and 4870X2 2GB, the later seems a much better choice. I was able to find the X2 for less than $330 shipped. For about $100 more would you go with the X2?

I am also unclear about the need to upgrade my PSU to use the X2. Is 750w not enough in non crossfire set up? Why would I need more than 1 GPU with X2?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.