the i7 920 and a single 4870 maxed out aion easily when i tested it. thats what i would do then you can just upgrade your graphics later by buying new cards
Buying a ATI card right now just before their next series comes out seems a bit.. dumb. Either wait just another week or two, or get a 'Nvidia 200 card seems better.
Even if OP want a card like the 4870 is it still better to wait since it will drop in price very soon.
The processor in the Gaming PC really doesn't matter too much. As was shown in the benchmarks posted earlier they are within 1~2 FPS of each other. It clearly shows that the games are more GPU dependant then CPU dependant. The only real exceptions that come to mind are Strategy Games and Grand Theft Auto IV which is multi-CPU. For a processor you want to meet a minimum of what you think games will utilize over the next 2 years. I would place that expectation at 2.66 GHZ quad core considering the current selection of processors. Most likely a later generation like a Core i7/i5, or a Phenom II.
That is trua about all newer game but older game (like Wow and many other MMO) are still using a lot more CPU power. EQ2 is the only one of the older games that actually moved the load later on.
I would still agree that the GPU is the right place to put the money unless you do some kind of rendering or converting on the computer also.
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Buying a ATI card right now just before their next series comes out seems a bit.. dumb. Either wait just another week or two, or get a 'Nvidia 200 card seems better.
Even if OP want a card like the 4870 is it still better to wait since it will drop in price very soon.
That is trua about all newer game but older game (like Wow and many other MMO) are still using a lot more CPU power. EQ2 is the only one of the older games that actually moved the load later on.
I would still agree that the GPU is the right place to put the money unless you do some kind of rendering or converting on the computer also.