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New Gaming Rig

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okay you guys are definitely helping me to narrow it down.

whats the radeon equiv of dual nvid 285's, and how do they stack up to it !

<3 the help!
 
Dude if your spending $2000 I'd definitely boot off an SSD. Get a cheaper case without psu included and switch the GTX 285s to a 1Gb model as you only need 2Gb for 30" monitors. That should almost get you the $200 you need for a 60gb indilinx based SSD.
 
Wow 2 285 2GB's. That will whet your graphics appetite. lol If you want bang for buck two 260's will be cheaper than 1 of those 285's and will be 50% faster unless you have a 30" monitor. Only 3 games at most need 2GB of video memory at 1920 resolution. If you aren't going to upgrade again for 2 years keep what you have picked out. If you are going to get a G300 late this year/next year I would go with the 260's. Or this... I believe two 295's are only $200 more than two 285 2GB and would be a lot faster at 1920 and would last you two years at least.

You might want to make sure you get a D0 version of the 920 if you are going to OC. Some places sell them guaranteed for about $30 more and they OC 10%-15% more at less voltage than a C0. Just a thought. $300 shipped on Ebay right now - 8% cashback.
 
Shaq i like what you said abou the 2, 260's being 50% faster than one 285, and cheaper. You mentioned the 30 inch monitor, what about a 26"?

 
A 26 inch monitor will still be 1920 x 1200 (or worse 1920 x 1080), the individual pixels will just be bigger. It will not be harder to drive than a 24 inch monitor with the same resolution.
 
Originally posted by: norfolk89
Shaq i like what you said abou the 2, 260's being 50% faster than one 285, and cheaper. You mentioned the 30 inch monitor, what about a 26"?


SLI 285's makes zero sense unless you have a 30 inch monitor and even then I wouldn't be spending upwards of 1k on graphics cards with the next generation of GPUs just around the corner.

As cheap as the 4890s are right now, I'd get a couple of those. Take the money you save and get a proper 30 in monitor. The 4890s will easily handle anything you throw at them and you wont feel ripped off when in 6 months time both ATI and NVidia have cards out there that beat those 285's at half the price. Youll be enjoying that 30 in monitor long after those 285s are obsolete.

 
Yes I would get two Atomic/VaporX HD4890's or Two GTX285 OC's as you've chosen.
2GB > 1GB with the gtx285's. You might also consider going with 3 285's, however i would not get 3 4890's.
Dual 4870X2's and Dual gtx295's is an option as well.

You're most solid choice is going to be Two GTX285's overclocked, or Two HD4890's overclocked. Your first choice is probably the best (only thing better would be having 3).

Originally posted by: ZimZum
As cheap as the 4890s are right now, I'd get a couple of those. ... Youll be enjoying that 30 in monitor long after those 285s are obsolete.

Originally posted by: Jumpem
I would go 4890 x 2 for $360-380.

Consider this as well ^
 
I'd save some money on the graphics cards (get two 4890's instead) and put it towards a 30" monitor. 2560x1600 is amazing 😀.
 
GTX260 216SP ain't half bad either long as you are willing to overclock even though 4890 have dropped in price . Most 4890 will hit 950 from 850 but GTX 260 will hit over 700 from 576.

Take my card for instance. It hit 729/1512/1242 from 576/1350/999. It's faster than a stock GTX280 or GTX275 and can hit very close to 4890 overclocked level of performance for less money.
 
You're dumping a good bit of cash in what will be a monster of a system, currently I run a pair of BFG GTX 285's OCX in SLI on a XHD3000 and loving it. BUT in your case with 5 series from Ati and 3 series from Nvidia a very short time away now I would go with a single 4890 or GTX 260 C216 and wait it out. You will be glad you did or else you might hate yourself once you see a single card from either manufacturer that will compete or even beat your dual GTX 285, 4890 etc. setup.
 
^ good suggestion. I would recomend either GTX 275 SLI or HD 4890 crossfire. If you go for the 4890's, try to get the vaporx ones, as they have awesome cooling so should OC great. Also, I would get more than a 500 GB hard drive. 1 TB drives are cheap on newegg. Go for the WD Caviar black or the Samsung spinpoint F1.
 
The X2 in 4870X2 means that there are two chips on the one card. The 4870X2 is essentially 2 4870s in CrossFire on 1 card.
 
Originally posted by: Azn
GTX260 216SP ain't half bad either long as you are willing to overclock even though 4890 have dropped in price . Most 4890 will hit 950 from 850 but GTX 260 will hit over 700 from 576.

Take my card for instance. It hit 729/1512/1242 from 576/1350/999. It's faster than a stock GTX280 or GTX275 and can hit very close to 4890 overclocked level of performance for less money.

That's true GTX260's OC like mad and go into the 280-275 range, however there are deals on the 4890 now that go as low as $117.00 - much cheaper than gtx260 216's

 
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