gtx 460 or 2 4850 or 2 gtx 260

[Bond007]

460. On a motherboard that supports SLI in case you want more performance down the road.

[Phill]

Originally Posted by Bond007

460. On a motherboard that supports SLI in case you want more performance down the road.

I completely agree. I own 3 GTX 260's but most of the time I only ran two way in SLI. The performance was and still is good but I think it only smart to get the 460 instead. That is unless the 260s are obtainable for incredibly cheap would I consider them. The new features of the 460 should prove valuable going forward as we start to see games make good use of tessellation.

IMO the -AR denotation only reflects the warranty policy and is not an indicator of higher binned silicon (Overclocking). Please correct me if I am wrong.

[ForTheGG]

Originally Posted by Phill

I completely agree. I own 3 GTX 260's but most of the time I only ran two way in SLI. The performance was and still is good but I think it only smart to get the 460 instead. That is unless the 260s are obtainable for incredibly cheap would I consider them. The new features of the 460 should prove valuable going forward as we start to see games make good use of tessellation.

IMO the -AR denotation only reflects the warranty policy and is not an indicator of higher binned silicon (Overclocking). Please correct me if I am wrong.

Correct. AR offers the lifetime warranty, which is what is usually sold in retail stores. The TR version of the card is usually offered to system builders like ibuypower or alienware.

[JD]

The only issue is, if you go Intel, you'd need a P55 board with SLI support and those are a bit expensive. Then the CPU itself is also more.

If you can afford it, I'd suggest an i5 750 with a ASUS P7P55D EVO/PRO/Deluxe or Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4P or EVGA P55 SLI or MSI P55A Fuzion. They all have SLI and Crossfire support, and the MSI board actually allows you to pair up ATI and NVIDIA graphics together. Not quite sure how well it operates though.

However your original choice of the MSI NF980-G65 may be fine for AMD + SLI. It's just tough to find reviews. And well NVIDIA chipsets failed quite badly in the Intel world, and no longer exist.

[qT_Tp]

Hey sempifer,

I've been studying up(catching up more like it) for my new rig - from what I've seen gtx 460 as a stand alone card is the best in its price bracket currently. Even oc'd cards are down in price. As far as dual sli they're awesome. Every review either addresses the ease of oc with card being reviewed or refers to ones.
Being my first post & the fact I'm on my cell I can't link you - consider Galaxy and Palit(esp Palit/Gainward - same company) for a decent card. Spend some time checking them out if you have not already.

Good luck with your build my friend! I'm in the same boat right now with more $ intel build for sli or go with amd...
Cheers.