Joeteck

AMD has, well impressed me this month to no end. I thought a few years back when ATI admitted defeat, that it will no longer battle for the top video cards, and just focus on mid range cards, was well, a sad day. No more high end competition for Nvidia. When AMD announced the 5000 series cards at a ridiculous price point of $379, I never thought it would come any where near the GTX 295 performance. Man I was wrong! Yesterday I started reading about the 5770, just to see what a $179 card can do.. HOLY CRAP! AMD has definitely raised the bar in budget cards... I've always been a Nvidia fanboy, and never thought of moving to the other side. however, this might change very soon.

As many of you guys already know, I'm really into PC gaming. Getting the best bang for my buck is my goal. I've been itching to upgrade my system to an i7 860, typical Gigabyte board with 2x PCI-e slots, and 4 to 8 gig of RAM. Keeping my current HD arrays. (avatar).

The current AMD offerings kick some major butt, and having two in xfire is just mind blowing. Do you think (from what we have seen so far) having two 5870 cards in Xfire will come close to a single GTX380? Mere speculation here, I understand. But from the history of what Nvidia has pulled out of their hat, do you think it would be any competition? And by the time the GTX300 series is here should put more pressure on Nvidia to lower their costs... Since I'm sure the 5870 will be lower too... and maybe having some in stock... Low yields does not work here...

thoughts?

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AMD+nVidia

ATi has seemed the cheaper/smarter/more efficient solution for the past while.

If I hadn't got such a sweet deal on my GTX280, I would have gone ATi for sure.

ATi Crossfire really seems a good option.

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PCdestroyer

man after my own heart <3

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subliminally incorrect

its too early to jump on purchasing a new card. vendor competition has always provided better pricing. the wisest decision for you is you wait and see what nvidia has to offer then once the reviews settle in, make your decision to go either ATI or NVIDIA. besides its not as if the gtx280 is a slouch when it comes to gaming. unless you want to max out crysis RIGHT NOW, then go ahead and buy 3 5870 and trifire them.

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Joeteck

Not really an option for Tri-Fire, however Xfire is starting to become an option for me, for ultimate gaming... two 5780's seem to be the choice as of right now... However, I'm sure the i7 860 can push my GTX280 harder with much better frame rates... Thanks for the advice... Will wait... December 2009??

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CPU: E6850 @ 3.7Ghz 1.408v (412x9)
HSF: AC Freezer 7 pro
Video: GTX 280 650/2422/1399
Mobo: GA-P35-DS3R
RAM: OCZ OCZ2N1066SR2GK 4 x 1 gig
PS: PCP&C 750 QUAD, orange edition
Hard drives: two 150gig Raptor RAID 0 - Boot, 4 x 410AS RAID 0 - games (931gig)
Windows 7 RTM 64bit

jericohs@work

Again,

I partly agree with OP. But your point is moot. Why would you be happy that Nvidia has cornered the market. If no one competes with the GPU mogol consequently you end up with a stagnant market where high-end GPU development is almost regressing to the point where the public is led to believe the product we're buying is top choice... We need competitors that keep the mogul on its toes. Without it, we the consumers lose. And, I don't know about you but I've been paying attention to the success ATI has been having with their 4800's series and 5800's GPUs. These cards post slightly lower benchmarks and are half the price of their GTX 280-290 competitors. Sure, they were late bringing these cards out which was to Nvidia's financial gain but they are increasingly better every time around. Kinda makes me sad I bought a GTX 285.

And, to go as far and say ATI is down and out is a LIE. Have you noticed their stocks or their deal with AMD that's reported to be a 5.4 billion dollar partnership. They reported annual gains in the hundreds of millions last year.

JorgyBaby

The most sensible option seems to be wait until around December/January time and see where its at. I know what you mean though, its like an addiction wanting to upgrade :P, even though you dont really need to. Hopefully ill order my 5850 (another later for CF) within the next couple of days. I couldn't help myself, i needed an upgrade lol

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mxthunder

Its hard to say at this point. Personally, I am waiting to see if 5890 comes out before I pull the trigger on a 5 series card. I am looking to go back to the simplicity of a single gpu solution. Less heat, less of a pain, etc. Although its kind of nice to have 2 gpu's laying around to throw into other systems.
I have been back and forth between nvidia and ati over the last year or so, and id have to say I still prefer nvidia by a small margin, but ATi has really impressed me with its drivers. Since I got my 4890's in august, after driver updates, my P score in vantage went up like 1500 points, as well as 3-7fps in crysis benchmarks.

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FSF-Foxhound

how about both? Lucid hydra

lucid hydra!

LUCID HYDRA!

Chant on!

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