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Video Cards: ATI HD 4870 512MB or HD 4870 X2 1GB
Your video card (GPU) solution is even more important than the CPU when it comes to directly affecting game performance (except perhaps when you game at lower resolutions, like 1024x768). The Reactor is designed specifically to handle high-quality gaming at 1680x1050 and up, including the current top-tier resolution, 2560x1600.
ATI/AMD fights a never-ending war against nVidia for dominance of the video card market, and was losing the battle until the release of the Radeon HD 4000 series. While these next-gen cards run a bit hotter than their current competition from nVidia, they do deliver significantly more performance per dollar. The HD 4850 is our primary card for the Ion, whereas the high-end Reactor makes use of the 4870 variants.
The HD 4870 can easily handle high-quality, smooth gaming at 1680x1050 (normally found on 20"-22" monitors), and is very good at 1920x1200 (normally found on 24"-26" monitors).
While the HD 4870 X2 might be overkill for 1680x1050, it's not a bad choice for 1920x1200 (especially with particularly demanding games), and it's a must for 2560x1600 (normally found on 28"-30" monitors).
Do I want more than one video card?
As you may already know, multi-GPU gaming is when two or more video cards work together to drive the same monitor. (ATI calls this "CrossfireX".) The theory is that if we split the task of generating the video image between GPUs, your games will play even more smoothly at higher quality settings. While this sometimes produces a decent improvement over a single card, some games don't show any improvement (like Everquest 2). Consequently, we always recommend bumping up to a higher class of video card before going the multi-GPU route.
At the moment, a single HD 4870 X2 outperforms a pair of HD 4870's anyway, and for less money. Consequently, we only recommend CrossfireX for 30" monitor gaming, where the second 4870 X2 will make a difference. (On resolutions lower than 2560x1600 you'd be wasting your money on a second 4870 X2 - there wouldn't be much difference compared to one card.)
The standard power supply on the Reactor (the Corsair 1000-Watt) will let you upgrade your PC later to two or three-GPU gaming without having to upgrade your power supply.
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