Changing from Nvidia to Ati ?

[sychnant]

I am thinking of upgrading my graphics card and as i used the Abit IP 35 Pro Motherboard I was wondering if i should change to using Ati cards , and is it worthwhile running 2 cheaper cards with less Ram or should i buy 1 more expensive card with more ram? Or should i stick with Nvidia when i upgrade?
MY present graphics runs fine but i would like a new card for the latest game releases soon (Far Cry 2 /COD 5 etc.. Many thanks for any advice...


Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB)

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler

Abit IP35 Pro (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2(1.9-2.0 Volts-CL 4-4-4-15)

Monitor HP 2207 (1680 X1050)

Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache

Pioneer DVR-112DBK 18x18 DVD±RW IDE Dual Layer ReWriter

EVGA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB Superclocked- GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) -

Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS II Aluminium Midi-Tower Case

Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU

 

[goujon945]

Go for a single 4870, crossfire has debatable benefits and imo a 4870 will handle pretty much any game, even at 1920

 

[sychnant]

thanks for advice..

 

[smilertoo]

I'm happy with the GTX260 i just got, but i tend to go for nvidia for the better opengl drivers even if the new ATI's are slightly faster for the money.

 

[sychnant]

Is open GL a BIG bonus? Do all games take advantage of this feature? I assume ATi has its own advantages..

 

[badbob]

Pretty much all games are direct 3D. Doom 3, Quake 4 and Lock On are Opengl. But since Doom 3 will probably have 200fps+ in maxed out settings with the ATI not really a problem with slightly slower opengl performance with a ATI card.

 

[sychnant]

The 4870 is looking very promising..

 

[ACESHIGH]

The 4870 is looking very promising..

The 4870 is a damn fast card and is great value for money. Best choice high end card imo.
btw, you wont have any problems running the 4870 with that gear.

 

[sychnant]

Thanks for all replies 4870 seems to win..

 

[LoadsaMoney]

Agree with the single 4870, its a waste of time going Crossfire on that board as the 2nd slot only runs at 4x, so you'll get poor performance from 2 cards.