Help - 4890's, 5850's, or 5870?

[SuperDave1685]

Hey there guys. I'm in the process of building my rig. I already have a i7 940 and an Asus Rampage II Extreme. I need help deciding on my graphics solution. I'm stuck between these 3 solutions:

2 x HD4890's in XFire
2 x HD5850's in XFire
1 x HD5870 (maybe another in Xfire down the road)

The reasons for these 3 are because I read Brollock's post on 4890's in XFire against a single 5850. Of course the Xfired 4890s win, but the 5850 wasn't lagging too bad. I'm thinking that if I XFired 2, 5850's, it would provide a good gaming experience, closer to a 5870.

Obviously, 5870's are hard to come by right now, which is my only reason for even considering a 5850 setup.

So, which setup do you guys think would be the better solution. Don't forget DX11 ;)

-Dave

[Gabkicks]

Do you want the power simply for benchmarks, or are you running 3 30 inch monitors w/ crysis or something? You could grab a single 5870, unless the particular games you play utilize crossfire very well. then 2 5850'sm ay be a good coice

my current pc handles crysis just fine on all enthusiast settings @ 1680x1050. depending on your res, a single 5850 or 5870 should suffice, then you can crossfire down the line and by then prices will have dropped hopefully.

[Brolloks]

If I buy new I'd recommend the 5870 (if you can find one), if packs a hell off a punch and runs much cooler than the 4890 CF. It will own any game you have now and to come for 12 months I would say.

[EarthDog]

If I buy new I'd recommend the 5870 (if you can find one), if packs a hell off a punch and runs much cooler than the 4890 CF. It will own any game you have now and to come for 12 months I would say.this ^^.

I say stay awat from multi card setups if you can. Not worth the cost unless you are rocking a 30" / 2560x1600 monitor. Hell, even my GTX260 216 can play anything south of Crysis with at least 4xAA/16xAF @ 1920x1080.

[SuperDave1685]

Thanks for the input guys. I appreciate it. Looks like the egg is expecting some 5870's in stock on the 16th. I'll see if I can't snag one ;) Oh I'm up in the air about replacing my current LCD. I have a 22" Samsung 226BW. Its beautiful, I love it. But I want to go a bit bigger so I can really push my new graphics :D I'm thinking maybe 24" or maybe a 28" Hans G.

Any ideas on a good great LCD monitor? Thanks guys!

(yes this is going to be one hell of a machine boys :) )

[Boulard83]

5850 would be the best BANG

But the 5870 is better but cost lot more.

[jason4207]

How 'bout 3 monitors?

This card can run them all by itself!