Help me make up my mind!!

[Secret_Window]

This is just an idea I've been toying with, so I'm not dead set on buying anything straight away at the moment.

Basically, I'm trying to figure out what will allow me to play the latest games at the highest settings at 1680x1050 for another year, or maybe atleast until the next gen graphics cards come out, I'm still undecided.

So as follows these are my ideas for a 'gaming' setup:

1.I buy a ATI Radeon 3870x2 and stick with that - so £252ish.

2.Or alternatively buy an ATI Radeon 3870x2 and go crossfire with an added 3870 XT, but I don't think my PSU would cope with both of those - so £252.61 (x2) + XT £123.36(Sapphire one) = £375.97 then add a reasonable PSU to that as well, let's say a Thermaltake ToughPower 750W at £88.11. So the total for that will be £464.08 plus there's delivery on top as well

3.Get a BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 512MB for £164.49 - but as much as it pains me I'd rather push for the 9xxx series because of the new driver features such as dynamic contrast enhancement etc.

4.Get 2x OcUK GeForce 9600 GT 512MB for £206.78, add a new motherboard for SLI: XFX nForce 780i SLI £180.94. So total for that would be: £387.72.

5.This is the one I never thought I'd come to but it does have pretty mean performance, plus I could keep my existing motherboard: a OcUK GeForce 9800 GX2 £352.49 plus a new PSU (due to 8pin): Coolermaster Real Power 620w for £78.71, which brings the total at: £431.20. But that would be my money is no object choice.

So all in all, what do you think?

 

[V3g3tto]

Number 3.

Nforce chipsets suck and overheat, i thought you needed two of the same cards to do crossfire, the 9800 is too expensive and the gains made be the 3870X2 over the GTS are not worth £100 imo.

 

[semi-pro waster]

Is there an option for none of the above? I'd run the system until it couldn't cope then upgrade with the money that I'd saved from not upgrading before I needed to.

P.S. I'd say that option 2. was more of a money no object upgrade than 5. was.

 

[Secret_Window]

Is there an option for none of the above? I'd run the system until it couldn't cope then upgrade with the money that I'd saved from not upgrading before I needed to.

P.S. I'd say that option 2. was more of a money no object upgrade than 5. was.

true lol

But the reason I want to upgrade to something now, is because certain games keep having abysmal performance with this 640mb GTS, when I up the res, like TF2, Bioshock, COD4, then there's crysis too.

Ok, let me be honest here, when the next gen comes out and I've spent nearly £500 I'm not going to be happy person. So in order to not create a major dissapointment, I should get something cheap, but has a bit of grunt too, and is faster than my GTS. Would the GT suffice do you think, or is that a downgrade at the res I play at?

 

[semi-pro waster]

The 8800GT is probably a sidestep at best, either a G92 8800GTS 512mb or an 8800GTX would be an upgrade but whether it is enough to justify the outlay is up to you. If you can sell off your old graphics card it shouldn't work out too expensive however.

 

[spb251272]

Option 3, plus a new PSU. That way you're not spending too much now, and you can save some for when the REAL next gen nvidia/ati cards are launched