[b1lk1]

For HD 2600 XT Crossfire, 16X/4X will not be an issue and they will both deliver their full performance. HD2900's would still only lose about 5-10% tops from one card running 4X. That is a crock of BS that you need full 16X lanes, even for 8800 ULTRA SLI.

As for performance, the HD2900 is faster than the 8800 GTS. I have had both. The HD 2900 is definitely faster. I would not sell a GTS to get a HD 2900, but if I was gonna spend the $$$ again I'd go with the better HD 2900 every time.

Tom's Hardware is not a site to use as a bible. It is a good resource for comparison, but many of their tests are flawed and just cannot be used as the only source.

If you have to have a solution now, I'd get HD2600 XT Crossfire if I was gonna spend the $$$ the way you are. Otherwise, a whole new crop of midrange cards are coming in the next few months. I would most definitely avoid the 8600 cards since they are utter crap for the price. Depending on the resolutions, a single X1950 PRO is a great choice. Higher resolutions are where Crossfire shines. If you play @ 1280X1024 or lower, you don't need dual cards of any kind since you are putting the strain on the CPU much more than the GPU.

What resolution is your monitor? What games do you play? What's your OS?