Great review as always SKYMTL. As a budget minded gamer I've never felt the need to dual card as I try to find the best bang for the buck in a single card solution so that being said your review has given me pause about my Radeon 4870 decision for my new build. Now one thing I would have found useful in your review seeing the 260 and 4870 are in direct competition is an inclusion of a factory overclocked Radeon HD 4870 such as Palit's Radeon 4870 Sonic or other ATI partners juiced up model.
I've tried to find reviews that compare this EVGA 280 with a ATI oc'd 4870 but direct comparision was difficult and scores for comperable tests didn't come anywhere near what your tests fleshed out and frankly I was puzzled untill I checked the reviews test rigs and then it all made sense. Wow thats some beast of a test setup you used in your review, I'm not very knowledgable regarding bottlenecks but I would assume that wasn't an issue with your test rig and maybe it was with the other reviews I read.
Feeling hessitation about ATI partners rather poor warranties and customer service record has bothered me ever since I've been planning my new build and your spotlight on EVGAs great "value added" warrantee, step up program, and most of all the ability to throw an aftermarket cooling solution on thier cards makes my decision almost a lock for this EVGA. Maybe I'll wait and see how ATI reacts but I'm sure every budget minded gamer is going to benefit from lower costs in the ongoing war between Nvidia and ATI in the midrange graphic card segment.
Once again awesome review! :thumb: