Wonder if anyone can shed any light? I'm looking at getting a new PC and have the option of the following:

DUAL 256MB nVidia GeForce 7900GS graphics cards

OR

512MB ATI Radeon X1900 XTX graphics card (

I'd go for 1900XTX, because it will be quieter and draw less power. I'm not convinced about SLi/Crossfire; buy two cards now (for the price of ...erm...two) and in 12 months time you will two useless cards that you will have to upgrade together.

TBH, I would even consider a single 7900GS and spend the cash on something else altogether. The 7900GS is plenty fast. Depends whether you to go above 1280*1024 really.

Thanks for the quick response! I'll be doing quite a bit of video editing...would a low end card do the same job as the high end ones?

Vid editing has more to do with CPU speed and RAM amount. Get the fastest CPU option, and at least 2 gigs of RAM.

For video editing, an SLi setup that uses multiple graphics cards is of limited value is it's tailored for 3D graphics. I'd look for a graphics card that has more video memory and a decent (mpeg) video encoder/decoder built in.

Matrox cards are good for 2D graphics.