Had to return 5870, now waiting on 28nm

[flip-mode]

The awesome deal I scored - getting a 5870 for $150 - was not meant to be. The card played games splendidly but had problems doing normal tasks like playing flash video and just displaying the desktop or waking from sleep without crashing. It's too bad as I'd be a little surprised if any upcoming $150 card will beat the 5870, while the 6870 is definitely slower and continues to cost more than that.

At any rate, now I'm waiting on Pitcairn and Cape Verde and the potential for price cuts on existing cards. I'd be willing to lay down $200 for a 6950 or 560 TI - before rebates. Or I'd be willing to get a 6870 it the 7000 series sends its price down a bit. Or maybe I'll be surprised and one of the 7000 cards will offer the performance I want at the price I want.

So when do Pitcairn and Cape Verde launch?

[Arclight]

Idk when those HD 7000 mid range cards will come out but the GTX 560 Ti is already pretty close to $200 in the states:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814125401

That said, if you can wait untill the end of the year $200 might buy you more performance. There is a price range where performance kind of stagnates, or at least improves quite slowly and that's the 200 mark. It's a good market to be in but it takes between 1 or 2 years untill something comes along that can be considered an upgrade. If you got the money now, might as well use it. I waited a lot of time to buy my new rig and now i'm kinda kicking myself for not settling with something less powerful that i could of had at least a year earlier.

[flip-mode]

I definitely won't be waiting till the end of the year.

I also forgot to mention that I could very easily come by a (3) 1600x1200 monitor arrangement, making Eyefinity easily within reach. That kinda puts the damper on the 560, and also kind means the 6870 is underpowered for that task, so I'm probably looking for 6950 level performance....