NV 480...and it cuts thru games like butter:grin:

but now the 580 is out and it's cheaper than the 480 and faster to boot.

sorry, I didn't mean that to put urs down, just that obviously the 580 is now the one to get if you are going NV.

In a few months it will be 600. And so it goes. I've always been happy with NV.

Good luck with that :)

Damn. Now I will probably have to wait for Nvidias Kepler GPU released in first half of 2011 which is in 28nm instead of 40nm.

Reputedly, it will have more than double the power.

One thing we must remember is these GPU manufacturers have to sell stuff to make profits.

The difference is going to be minimal between monthly releases of these GPU's

The only way you will see a real difference is over a 12 month span or completely renewing your PC every time a new GPU comes out with the latest and fastest everything :)

I am pressurized into holding stock from manufacturers on sale or return these days as they know there's too many products out there and the market is swamped with out of date motherboards CPU's and GPU's too much for smaller business like mine to hold stock out of my own pocket as its all redundant after 3 months some times.

Don't let the hype confuse you into buying ..................

Good advice bro!

I have a 5850 in my racing/sim rig and a 5870 in my work PC. The ATI card is the way to go in the $300 price range. The new NVidia 580 is looking like an awesome card but it should be at the price point it's coming in at over $500. Plus with NVidia you cannot do multi-screen gaming without SLI so basically $1000 in cards to do 20% more than what one ATI card can do for $300.

For reference I run an E7400 CPU at 3.8GHz with the 5850 and run IL2 at 5760x1080 on the highest detail level across three screens and average around 60fps. Can go higher if I overclock the 5850 but there's no need. The 5870 is even better.

Running two 5870's in crossfire, no problems what so ever with any game I run.

Was thinking of getting 2 x 580's just to see how nVidia is now and to play with CUDA, but I'm staying with ATI.

Klems proposed new rig spec
 

Sorry guys I should have posted those details:-

Intel i7 950 3.06GHz overclocked to 4.2GHz by supplier (o/c under warranty)
Prolimatech Megahalems Rev B,Super 6 Heatpipe Tower Cooler
6Gb DDR3 RAM
XFX 5870 GPU....... ???????????????
ASUS Sabertooth mobo
SSD for the OS and Flying software (IL-2, FSX, SoW)
600w Silverstone Tech. Element PSU (4 x PCIe 6 pin connectors for a future second card)
Coolermaster HAF 912 case
plus DVD R/W and a couple of HDDs I already own for other stuff (photos etc)

It's based around a Scan.co.uk "3XS SLIK i7 X58 950 BlackOps Bundle"

Budget is around £1100-1200.

Really good replies guys, thanks. I'll keep collecting them over the weekend :)