Sooo, I'm looking to upgrade my video card, and I was pondering two different options. At the moment I am running 1 radeon HD 3870.

First option I was looking at was upgrading to a HD4870 or a Nvidea 260 which would cost around 300 bucks

Second option would be to just buy another 3870 and throw them in crossfire which would cost around 150 bucks

I can afford either one, but I was wondering if the performance of the 4870 outweighs the two 3870's in crossfire(I haven't been able to find benchmarks comparing the two options)

You have too much money if you are upgrading an ATI HD 3870... Isn't that card only like 1 year old or something?

I have a few hundred bucks from my bday about eight months ago and would like to prepare my rig for future games and whatnot

Found you a review of the 260 that includes 3870 x2 which is two 3870's.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvi ... ,1953.html

thanks for finding that review, I'm going to see if I can find a review with the 4870 thrown in as well Yellow_Flash_Colorz_PDT_15

You might want to make sure the other parts of your computer are not limiting the performance before you start upgrading video cards.

MB: ASUS Maximus Formula X38
CPU: Q6600 @ 3.0
Memory: 4G 1066

the main components that I know off the top of my head
I am just a hardware freak, I'll use any excuse to mess with my components

but really, I'm just looking towards the future(and computer terms that's a month ahead of time) so I think I'm going to go with the 4870 atm and if the time comes to upgrade, I'll get a second

China Im looking into a full system upgrade in the next month, and I decided on the GTX280. From the benchmarks I've seen, the raw power of the 4870 is undeniable, but as you scale up the detail (namely, turning up AA and AF) the 280 takes the lead.

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware ... view.ars/5

And this one isn't a comparison, but basically showing off the raw power of the 4870. Warning: Xtreme bias towards ATi.
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=58 ... pert&pid=8

nice reviews, the main reason that I'm looking at ATI though, is that my MB doesn't have a Nvidea chipset, so in the future, I would not have the chance to SLI