Well I now I will be criticized for a 5850. Yes I am a ATI guy. Not a Fan boy I just have a special place for ATI. Mainly because ever since I started building they were the first card I went with. I'm sure others feel the same way with the cards that they started off with. I don't know I just feel more comfortable with ATI. The only reason for the Nvidia GTX 285 FTW right now...... is because I got it for a present. All the other cards I own in my other rigs are as follows...... HIS 4890, HIS 4850ICeQ+4, Sapphire 3870, and HIS X1650 Ice. So as you can see my track record.
Now while I'm also sure this will start a huge debate. I also don't have faith in Nvidia's next gen cards(GT300). While they might be more powerful. I don't believe they will be by that much. If they are it will be by maybe 10 to 15% and be charging 100$ to 200$ dollars more and they won't have much overclocking head room. While the ATI solution will. Plus ATI has been using tessellation for years were compared Nvidia hasn't. I believe overall performance to money ratio ATI takes this round. Not also the fact that ATI will probably respond with a 5890 somewhere in there. Again I don't mean to start an argument this is just my opinion.
But besides all that ranting .... LOL while I said that I decided on the 5850 I still haven't purchased it yet. The reason I started this post is because of the fact I am being wishy washy about the whole fact of which card to buy. I chose the 5850 because of the Price to performance ratio. Plus the fact you can overclock it almost to the same performance of a 5870. Also the size of the 5870 is just ridiculous. But with that said that still doesn't mean come tomorrow or Wednesday I won't change my mind again.
My last comment I appreciate sending me the link of the i7 CPU MOB combo. I just don't think right now there is that much performance to gained from spending that money. Cause not only would I have to by that combo. But I would also have to buy RAM to go with it. So that's another 80$ to 100$ dollars more. I just bought my Q9550 back in July. I won't be upgrading again until 32nm releases when there are enough performance gains to warrant it.
I guess that same could be said for my GPU but like I said it all boils down to DX11 and just the want to go back to ATI
After thought I really hope this didn't come off as a Nvidia Rant. I don't mind Nvidia I just prefer ATI So I hope I don't step on anyone's toes and come off as being a puke! Also these are sll really good opinions and this is exactly what I was looking for to help me make up my mind. So please keep them coming! That's the whole reason I joined this forum..... so my family doesn't kill me after talking their ears off about these types of subjects. They told me I talk Nerd too much..... LOL I don't know what they're talking about!
Well regardless even if I do order either way tomorrow I just looked and stocks of either the 5870 or 5850 are dwindling. I might have to wait to get the brand I want. So I will have more time to think about it.