FPS fluctuates all the time depending on number of objects, number of players, overall activity etc,. Things absolutely slow down when dropping down onto Berlin with 15 flak batteries spread out on 5 towers and a handful of aerial adversaries chasing each others' butt.

The statement is that, for me, it's still playable and smooth with frames over 30 even under historically stressfull conditions. Maximum frames are irrelevent IMO. Minimum and average frames are the only things that really matter and when my average frames, at my settings, stay in the high ~70's without vsync and at ~58 with vsync getting new hardware to get an extra 10 frames in a group of games that already looks stunning is a waste. I don't do it for a living, but I allot funds monthly because fiddling with pc's IS a hobby of mine that is important, but I don't "play" 3DMark.

When there are a couple games that will benefit from the new hardware, I'll be cruising through newegg on the double first in line to grab it...and the price will be lower. ;)

I couldn't agree more, Thunder and it's the exact approach I have.

Even the average FPS is hoax, when using the ingame measurement. In my first run, before that last post, I had an average FPS of 238, because I ran the game without vertical synch. IMHO it's just a digital version of a ruler, if you know what I mean. ;)

If my games run with 30-35 FPS I'm even more happy than with FPS reaching from 200 to 25.

Synthetic benchmarks don't show anything anyway. ATI and nVidia have years of experience to optimize their drivers for these tests, without really having any positive effect on games.

LOL killer card indeed but iL2 is CPU limited... hell my 7900GTX OC is enough... had 2 of them in SLI but deaseable one for the SLI prob that all know about...

So a fast CPU... mine a E6600 OC to 3.4 is way more important than the latest and greatest GPU. Hell my FPS rarelly drop under 60 (low over large cities) with everything maxed out and EFFECT=2... I also run VSYNC so I'm limited to 60 FPS...

Hope you play other games...

As far as bang for $$$ goes ATI are king right know but I guess you new that ;o)

The future may not be as bright as we would hope if you're an Intel/nvidia fan. Seems like they are having an intense love hate relationship at the moment. If you have dreams of running the new Nahalem CPU and nvidia SLI, it may be a pipe dream if you get a mother board using Intel chipsets. They will not support SLI. nvidia at the moment does not have a working chipset that will support Nahalem and SLI either. So if you were planning on buying all this when available, you may have to wait awhile longer or opt for the the single GPU nvidia has now. Only time will tell.

I've used sli twice. Once with dual 6800GT's and again using a 7950GX2. Performance with both systems was great...for their time. The reality, though, is that there are single slot solutions that are truly badass cards that are already putting the bottleneck back onto the current crop of CPU's.

I'm using an 8800GTS 512 right now and I love it. If I were building new, I'd get a GTX280 period, but wouldn't be at all unhappy with a 4870 or maybe even a 9800GX2.

I use a 8800GTS 640MB ATM, but I am switching in the next weeks.

Performance is not an issue, but various hardware- and driver-problems are and after years of that with nVidia, I'll give ATI another chance.

I'm not a fanboy of any hardware or anything at all. I chose my options from what suits me most. Right now, I have massive problems with BF2 (88xx's hexagonal black-holes), LockOn (shining beaches, no active shadows) and World in Conflict (Texture flickering and massive drawing errors after the first map). This is basically 75% of the games I play.

This is my 2nd 8800GTS, before I had 3 different 7800GT until I finally got one that worked.

Not representative for sure, not typical for nVidia or something else, but annoying nevertheless and considering the bang for the money, my conclusion for the moment is pretty clear.

Before jump forward with advices: I got 2 120mm fans cooling my 8800GTS, so it never comes close to 70°C and I got a very good 750W PSU.

On the funny side, I also got an nVidia-mainboard. Top of the notch, when it was new, especially for overclocking and it works great - until people found out, that any PS/2-keyboard will constantly crash when overclocking with this chipset....

With respect to OP: fine response sir! I had you down for a braggart, but I agree with your points. Pleasse forgive my admittedly aggressive response - I was in bad form. Good to see good debate.

Looks like I will be getting rid of my 8800GTs as well. The SLI Stutter is a problem and though the new DLLs make it slightly nicer it's not worth running.

I will be looking at the new ATIs once they hit the streets. I don't think I want to pay 400Plus for a card right now when my 2 cards for half the cost perform faster.

IL2 is the only game I have problems with SLI. Such a shame because its the game I play most.

the battle rages...
 

It's been very hard for me to get a handle on this issue of one gpu or dual cards. On the one hand, a single powerful gpu seems to be the most elegant solution (for gaming), but the "latest and greatest" gpus cost a million dollars. To offset this one can buy two lesser gpus and run them together either in SLI or Crossfire mode. Of the latter option it appears to be frought with scaling issues. I've read here and at other sim forums that getting dual cards to operate properly in our favorite genre is often a chore. My understanding is it's a matter of proper drivers from the card manufacturer. Based on that, one might very well opt for a single card.
Hopefully when SoW_Bob comes out there will be an adequate driver suite to run dual cards in that sim. Two 4870 in Crossfire would be very nice, and less expensive than the 4870X2 (but is that X2 at 2ghz of ramped gddr5 memory worth the cost, and willit show up as one card?). Does that, and the huge price drops put the GTX 280 in play? What to do?

Like some of you I will be shortly changing my aging 2x 7900GTX OC for a new ATI 4870. I don't plan waiting for the 4870X2 as this is as you know a 2gpu card and could have the same prob that SLI have with iL2.

I think that $299 is a good price for a high end card. NVIDIA are just screwing their custumers... And it shows... as soon as the 48xx series from ATI hit the street the prices of the 2xx series from NVIDIA came down. Hell analyst predict that NVIDIA was not selling more then 3000 cards per month (280s) in the entire US. LOL Talk about a good business move... NVIDIA is now banking on the 8800GT to get them true this slump... its their only card that shows any kind of sale volume since the 48xx series from ATI became available...

As for reliability all my previous ATI card perform flawlessly till I got tired of them and just trew them away due to old age. Hell my X850XT ran highly overclocked (with catalyst) for over to years without a problem. Ran hotter then hell but still add no problem. Both my BFG 7900GTX OC had to be RMA within the first six months because the cards just died on me. Also setting up is a pain... having to install new drivers... test... rollback drivers... test... rollback somemore... test... udgrade drivers... etc.. its a pain...

With ATI... install the latest Catalyst..... and follow Coesties setup guide ;o)

Well just my 2c