2 cards or 1?

[ZeroWing]

Heres the deal . My new comp will have a 4870 or gtx 260 (cant friggin decide). I am choosing a mobo that will work great in SLI/Xfire (16x/16x) when I realize if its worth the money. I was originally going to buy the 260/4870 and when I needed to I wud SLI/Xfire to boost frames. Now I kind of want to cheap out on a mobo and keep a single card till I decide to upgrade to a more powerful one. What Im trying to ask is if SLI/Xfire is worth spending more on a mobo then just selling your old card and buying a new one. I hope I worded this right. As always, ANY feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Droogie]

Personally I've never ran an SLI or Crossfire configuration, but I'd say just get a decent mobo, and the one card. It'll be awhile before any games "need" 2 4870's or GTX 260's, and by then all kinds of new cards will be out.

As for the decision between the GTX 260 or 4870, it really doesn't matter too much because they're are virtually the same according to the benchmarks.

 

[ZeroWing]

Thanks a lot, I chose a 4870 and a nice 16x/16x mobo.

 

[fade2green514]

well, i generally buy my motherboard based upon which type of video card im getting, so decide on ATI or NVidia first. personally, i went with ATI.

an HD 4870 will run games now on high, and two of them will run games a year from now on high. personally i'd get a single card, so that you can sell it a year from now and buy a new one... but if you want you can just add a card a year from now to double your processing power.

 

[Droogie]

^^ Ehh it won't exactly double it, maybe a 40%-50% percent increase on FPS or benchmarking.

 

[TrainTrackHack]

^^ Ehh it won't exactly double it, maybe a 40%-50% percent increase on FPS or benchmarking.

On high-resolution stuff, adding another card in crossfire will result in +80% performance increase, I've heard.