Video card question - to SLI or not to SLI

[moji]

I'm figuring on putting together a new system, so I'm pretty flexible to what components I can put in it. The two cards I was looking at were

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3592056&Sku=P450-8830 times 2 and in SLI, getting SLI ready everything, mb/ ram/ psu the works. or
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3947462&Sku=V261-4870

The second is obviously a better card by itself, but I was wondering if using 2 of the 8800's linked would be better performance in the long run. Cost wise, I'd be saving about $40 going with the 8800's, but with the 4870, I can disregard the SLI ready stuff and get whatever, possibly saving some clams here and there on the rest of the system.

Basically, is 2 better than 1.

[Naysayer]

The higher grade card is the better choice. It will usually perform better as well. Don't spend money on sli/crossfire unless you are doing it with the most recent released cards. Two 4870's would be excellent, and a single 4870 will outperform 2x4850's in most regular tests.

[moji]

Thanks for the quick response. For simplicity's sake, one card would be better than 2 anyway. It's just really confusing with all the techno-jargon thrown around. I'm not trying to run wow at max settings, just able to 5 box and pvp comfortably, and my POS dell from college isn't cutting it. I can solo toon just fine 99% of the time, 3 box out of the cities just fine, even 5 box at 20-30 fps, but soon as I ht town, 30fps hits 10fps or less, and about 2-3fps in a bg.

[Anozireth]

An important caveat of SLI is that it's single monitor only. I know I couldn't live without my second monitor! :)

[moji]

An important caveat of SLI is that it's single monitor only. I know I couldn't live without my second monitor! :)very good to know.... and something I wasn't aware of. I'm not a genius or super geek, and frankly would rather play the game more than talk and research about what I'm going to use to play the game, so I'm kinda noobish in the tech department. Although I'm single monitor atm, but will be getting a second eventually.

[Naysayer]

Crossfire works with multiple monitors. Crossfire 2.0 16x2 wtfpwns. My gf left me for my crossfired 2x4850's. :(

[entoptic]

The higher grade card is the better choice. It will usually perform better as well. Don't spend money on sli/crossfire unless you are doing it with the most recent released cards. Two 4870's would be excellent, and a single 4870 will outperform 2x4850's in most regular tests.

Correct! Spot on I dare say. I love my HD4870.

[viisual]

Another important aspect to note about SLI, dealing specificly with WoW. From what I have read, because I have an SLI-Capable setup, is... SLI does not play well with WoW, and a lot of people tend to agree, Hell I only get 35-40fps in a city (wich isn't too bad I guess) So I just use the other video card on the other monitor (I think it works like that at least...), but you never know nVidia may release a driver to fix it - still you can't use 2 monitors as stated previously, wich blows unless you have really big monitor.