Video Cards: What to get?

Radeon HD 4870 X2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125233
GeForce GTX 280
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121261
GeForce 9800 GX2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150284
GeForce 8800GTS (G92)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150267

Simple Question:
If I 4-way SLI or Crossfired, which is best? (IF POSSIBLE)

Please dont start a ATI Vs. Nvidia flame-a-thon just give me the facts.
>.<
YES, I tried google.
Nothing helped me out.

You can 3 way SLi the GTX 280 if you have that type of money (and a 780 or 790 SLi board). Best bang for the buck? The HD4870, but you could also do 2 9800GX2s for quad SLi. However, it doesn't scale as well as 3 GTX280s. So.... depends entirely on your budget bud.

To break it down for you...

GTX 280 = most powerful single card in the world.

HD4870 = highest performance per dollar spent.

GTX 260 = good performance per dollar + CUDA

HD4850 = same situation as 4870, just cheaper and less performance.

9800GX2 = outclassed, but capable of quad SLi.

8800GTS = lol, why consider it.... get a 9800GT or 9800GTX+

Issue I found is that the actual clock speeds are way diffrent.

4870
Chipset
Chipset Manufacturer ATI
GPU Radeon HD 4870 X2
Core clock 750MHz
Stream Processors 1600 (800 x 2) Stream Processing Units
Memory
Memory Clock 1800MHz
Memory Size 2GB
Memory Interface 512-bit (256-bit x 2)
Memory Type GDDR5
3D API
DirectX DirectX 10.1
OpenGL OpenGL 2.0

GTX 280
Chipset
Chipset Manufacturer NVIDIA
GPU GeForce GTX 280
Core clock 670MHz
Stream Processors 240 processing cores
Memory
Memory Clock 2430MHz
Memory Size 1GB
Memory Interface 512-bit
Memory Type GDDR3
3D API
DirectX DirectX 10
OpenGL OpenGL 2.1

So, the issue here to me is. Do I go for performance, or do I go for quality?
4870 Comes with the most up to date stuff however look at that differance in clock speeds!! It's crazy >.<

GTX280 /// 4870X2 /// Differance
DDR3 - DDR5 = (-) DDR2???
2430 MHz - 1800MHz = 630MHz
670 MHz - 750MHz = (-)180MHz???
240 processing cores - 1600 Stream Processing Units = (-) 1360 Processor
things???

Is there someone out there who's blown over 5 grand and campared these "new" cards?
O.o
Can't find it anywhere......Best I found was a compare of a 4850 and a 9800.
(On Crysis, no less)
*EDIT*

Personally I believe your going about it in the wrong way. Looking at clock speeds is rather irrelevant, I would advise looking at reviews for cards.

Three GTX280 in SLI outperforms 2 4870X2 in CrossFireX at any game and any resolution. That being said, you would need to fork out quite a lot of cash ($1380 on video cards and $350 for the 790i motherboard). What games are you looking at playing?

Here's the review that compares 3 way GTX280 and 4870X2 CF:
http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews....d=609&pageid=5

clock speeds mean jack squat in this day and age. not to mention, you are comparing a card with two GPUs vs one (HD4870X2 is a "crossfire on a stick").

the HD4870X2 is probably the most powerful single card available, simply because the two GPUs are very powerful already and crossfire scales extremely well with two GPUs. however, putting two of these cards together and you'll get an effective 4-way crossfire, which scales horribly.

So.........it's either 3 way SLI (Even though 4-way is plausible) or 4 way Crossfire?

O.O Great link, ty!!

I'd love to see 4 of each card go agianst each other on Crysis, in real-time. XD
But I don't think my uncle would actually test it though >.> he hates FPS.
>.<