Which card(s) for X38 board

[northernlight]

Please don't shoot, I'm new here...

I'm building my first PC now. I've been building UNIX workstations and servers for past +20 years and I know nothing about PC technology. I've been spending all spare time reading about CPU's, motherboards and graphics cards to get an understanding what's happening today. I want to play games (simulators)- with fast fps!

I've bought a Gigabyte GA-X38-DS4 mobo and I'm waiting for an E8400 CPU to arrive. Next step is to buy a graphics card or two. All I know it should be a 8800, but then I get lost. As my X38 mobo has two x16 2.0 slots, should I be looking for two cards to get serious fps?

What should I go for? GT, GTS, GTX or Ultra? And how many? It would be also extremely useful to hear why?

Cheers,
northernlight

[JamesXP]

2 8800's will not work with your X38 motherboard...

2x3870 or 1x3870 or 2x3870X2(no driver support yet)

or 1 512MB GTS.

[jason4207]

X38 won't do SLI, but it will do Crossfire. The 3870X2 is the fastest card out right now (has 2 GPUs on one PCB), and you can put 2 of them on that board for extreme performance. Unfortunately, the drivers aren't out yet that support this configuration...should be out next month, though.

You can still get an X38, and a 3870X2 for now, and get another one in a month or so if the single card isn't enough for you.

Edit: 2 slow!

[northernlight]

Thanks a lot for both of you. You got me in right direction now.

I guess I might get a 8800gts (g92) for now as they are priced reasonably and should pump quite some fps. If not, I'll get a SLI mobo and a couple of 9800gtx2's when they come out... :beer:

Cheers,
northernlight