Which one of these 3870s would be best? And will they work with my board...?

[dude_56013]

Well, I'll be doing some upgrading and swapping when I build my parents their computer here in a few days, and one thing on the list is a new vid card. I just want to make sure that they will work with my current board right now though, as I play to stick with it. Here's my plan:

I'm going to get an ATI 3870 as the price/performance ratio in my mind just blows nvidia out of the water (don't get me wrong, I'm not a fanboy of ATI). However, these are newer cards and my board's almost a year old now and I just wanna see which card works best, and if it will work with my board. Keep in my I have XP, and all these new cards keep saying DX10? Will it still work??

Here's what I am debating...
Sapphire for $156

MSI for $163

Diamond for $158

Sapphire for $160

And this is the board it will go it
Asus P5N-E

Thanks to all for the help
Zac

 

[dakxxus]

Just by checking the stats, id go by: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102732

The specs seem higher then the other cards by a lil bit.

 

[dude_56013]

That's kinda what I was thinking..I just wanted to make sure it's compatible with XP and my board..I'm lagging behind on knowledge of DX9 and DX10..so that confused me

 

[dakxxus]

Its completely compatible with your pc. DX 10 is only for vista thou, nothing for XP. Id say get it.

 

[esa193]

dx10 is just the soft where
and card can run it
but the ones that aren't ment for dx10 just cant take advantage of the effects ect

 

[dude_56013]

Ok I was hoping it would work and it should then. Does it matter that the card is PCI-E "2.0" x16? vs just standard PCI-E X16? Like will it still work with my board?...Or is PCIE 2.0 just the formal name for PCI-E X16? I just wanna make sure everything is set here before I order...

 

[worshipme]

If you're going to get the rebate, go with the Sapphire Toxic, if not, go with the Diamond. Both of those cards have improved cooling over the reference cards.

 

[dude_56013]

thanks worship...and to all that helped. I think I'll end up going with the Toxic from Sapphire as originally planned knowing that all will be fine with my system..

EDIT: ALL-- I have started a new thread on the entire system build if any are interested in helping with that. Thanks again everyone.