Multiplayer Battlefield - Radeon 6870 - 6850oc - Gtx 460oc

I'm trying to decide between the Radeon HD 6870, 6850 and Nvidia GTX 460oc.
The obvious answer is "get the 6870" but for the same price I can get an overclocked
6850 or 460, both would come with two fans great Video card fans.
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE Ultra Durable VGA Series GV-R685OC-1GD Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GV-N460OC-1GI V3 GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

*** So I ask myself, When are you playing 30-40 player multiplayer maps, its probably your CPU that lags first. so as long as my CPU isnt the problem, I wonder if one of these lesser cards would hold up well enough to not drop me below 40 fps.
(As long as I dont Max every single graphical option, without AA - SSAO)

Does anyone think these two lesser cards would hold up to 40-50 fps under heavy multiplayer as long as the CPU is up to par? I know they can run these framerates during easy multiplayer.

I don't overclock my stuff, because I don't want to run it hot. (Sometimes my house is hot enough), I don't want to risk blowing my hardware. Its not excessively hot, although sometimes the summers are a @#$.

I want the highest constant framerate I can get out of 30-40-50 player multiplayer Battlefield 3. I do not mind lowering the graphical options just below Ultra. I want them to stay very high, but I dont mind losing SSAO - AA - Ultra type options.

Should I forget about the two fans? because the 6870 without overclock is plenty safe. Or should I go with one of the lower cards with the two great fans?

If I knew I wouldnt drop below 40 FPS under heavy fire (without max max ultra settings), I would just settle for the 460.

I'm not sure which is more powerful, the 460 or the 6850. Ive read tons of reviews and Overclock and benchmark reviews. with tons of mixed results.

Anyone here run battlefield 3 on heavy multiplayer maps alot ? with any of these cards? Have an opinion about its performance on these cards? (If your CPU is lower than x4 975 - ie2120, that would probably be your problem).

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Anyone have any opinions?

Then I ask myself.. Should I drop 20 dollars from the Video card and get a stronger CPU,
or should I drop 20 dollars from the CPU and get the next upgrade Video card.

What do you guys think would provide the highest constant frames per second

***** Under heavy multiplayer maps with 30 players ******

Should I just stick with the AMD x4 975 - 6870? I guess that would be the safest bet.
But I sure would love to have one of those cards with the two fans (I dont know why X_X, sure seems odd).

Both the x4 975 CPU and 6870 cost 150.
I could drop 20 from the Video card and get a GTX 460oc and add it to the CPU upgrade.
Or the other way around and get a 560 GTX. X_x.

What should I do ?
if I specifically want "highest stable framerate while under Heavy multiplayer specifically" ?
Im sure any of these hardware would do fine under standard gameplay.
Its the larger multiplayer I would like to enjoy also

bf3 will eat everything you throw at it.

I have a 6950 2gb card, and with everything maxed out with AA i only get 28fps minimum.
Lowering AA and shaders and its around 40fps.

Theres little difference between a 6850 OC and a 6870, both should handle BF3 on high. the number of players wont cause lag.

I used to play 128 player return to castle wolfenstein on an old AMD duron 1.2g with 265mb RAM on board GPU on dial up! those were the days!!