X1800XT 256mb --> Crossfire?

[TheAMAZINGNorad]

I recently got a 37' Westy (1080p) as a sort of birthday present. I paid half, parents paid half. Now I am finding that my poor X1800 is having troubles running stuff at the native 1920x1080 resolution. Now, I know that affordable DX 10 cards are around the horizon. However, I can get a X1800XT Crossfire card for around $200. The question is should I go for it? Will I see a difference and be able to wait out the DX10 wars of Q1 2007?

Almost all of the reviews I have seen benchmark the cards last year. Since then, the ATI drivers have matured quite a bit. How is X1800XT crossfire performance in modern games? Am I better of with a single X1950XT 256MB thats $250 at the egg? I know that the X1900 series went more twoards pixel shader units and less on the pipes, which is a big factor for SM heavy games. I just want to play ST Legacy in full glory when I get it in the next day or so. Not to mention, Medevil Total War is sluggish.

Note: Is mixing and matching 512MB mastercard with 256MB going to cause problems? From what I understand, it dosent matter what brand/ram the cards are. It will just default to the lowest denominator.

Thanks!

 

[GPUCommando]

Crossfire disables the other 256mb on the master card, so its works like two 256mb cards. I say go for it if you can get a x1800 mastercard... they're rare.

 

[ITSTHINKING]

How well would the performance be compared to a x1950pro? or even the xt(x) if the prices are down? If the price is similar and performance is equal or greater than 2 x1800xt's then you might wanna go that route. If you could sell the x1800 you have that could help with the cost.