I see the personal insults have started flying.

I'm an AMD fanboy am i?

Well that would explain why i've owned a GeForce 3 Ti, GeForce 6600GT, GeForce 7600GT and a GeForce 8800GT then, would it?

My basis for the 5870 choice at the moment, is 1) performance far better than both of my 4850's with a single gpu solution (and therefore fewer driver issues) 2) driver performance is due to improve 3) the price is appealing

Currently, idle power is far lower than any current offering than i can see which can only translate into lower temperatures. As for my 4850CF setup generating noise, they're both sat at 56-58*c and 35% fan speed. They're pretty quiet and definitely quieter than my evga 8800GT 512mb, which, at idle, would sound loud enough to irritate my ears.

If you *read* my posts, you'd see that i choose cards on more than just the sticker basis. And as for calling me a retard - who the hell do you think you are?