Time for change... but which way?!

I'm sure alot of these posts are made but I am looking for an upgrade and would love some advise:

I currently have a x2600HD card but my friends seem to prefer Nvidia cards, for some odd reason I prefer ATI and its not really based on any stats. I just like them! Any who!

I am really not sure what to move onto now: I have narrowed down to three options feedback wanted pplleeassee!

1. Buy another x2600HD and crossfire them. (Think this will be expensive will need a new mobo, though am thinking about upgrading that soon any way)

2. Get a brand new ATI card bearing in mind I have about £100-130 ($200 ish i think)

3. See what all the fuss is about Nvidia??


Currently running:
2Gb Ram
2.6Ghz Dual AMD
500Gb
And i cant remember what the motherboard currently is (its red lol)


Look forward to any replies!
Thanks Niall!

At this point, I'd say just wait for the new series of cards from ATI and nVidia to come out and take a look at the HD4850 as that's what I'm going to do since it's supposed to be around $200 for amazing performance. Wait, haven't we heard this before? Oh, well... I can still hope.

Lol thanks for the advice (and on the other posts!) How long till the new ones come out? Because I quite fancy seeing the differnence cross fire would make for two 2600, any one know?!!

Niall

hopefully the 4850 will be out sometime in the week following the 17th, but no one knows for sure.

hey, some of us know for sure

But yes Atin is right, the upcoming cards are going to be worth the wait. ATI is working hard to launch their new cards are price competitive points, and there are indications that these single HD4850 or HD4870 cards will out perform the HD3870X2 and do it at a lower price, so that is certainly going to be a goal we would look forward too. If you wanted to compare the specs of the current cards and whats coming, I have them listed in my database, found here and you can see just how things stack up with your current card, the ones on the market, and whats to come. I'm sure you'll find it handy

But as of right now, the spot light for ATI is the HD3850 and the Nvidia 9600GT. These two cards are pretty much the best bang for the buck right now, and are so far ahead of what your running right now, you could be running 4x hd2600s and not touch the performance these cards offer. I'm not sure of too many UK retailers, but here in the US you often find these HD3850s for about $100-$140, and the 9600GT for about $120-$160. Mail in rebates often drop prices as well. If you refer to the Ispeed chats here from digit-life, you will see that these cards are significantly faster than what you have now.

Nvidia is getting the most recommendation these days because of their specific benchmark wins over ATI, games like Crysis tend to perform better with NVidia hardware and given the demands of the game people immediately call Nvidia the better buy overall, but thats just not true and there are certainly some ATI cards that perform very well and achieve more than playable fps, and do so at a lower price tag. Not to mention you can currently Fold on the ATI cards, that'll let you help us out on the Folding At Home DEV team

So I'd suggest looking through those charts and see what you can find on your local scores or online retailers as to what falls within your budget range.

Apparently some of us may also know things which others may not... Not that I'm saying ATI won't launch them when they say they will...