Yeah games ultimately drive the purchase of these cards...
Skyrim already runs pretty smooth with my 570 (with the occasional drop to 30 FPS with V-sync on in big cities)... So unless there is a killer game (GTA V?) that needs this type or hardware, I think I might be waiting as well...
You make great points. I am with you on this one, stickiing ith my HD 6970 and maybe, just maybe might get another for Crossfire but the price has to be super good. Though AMD might also surprize us with a solid performing HD 7970 card for an even better price
We shall see, until then Skyrim runs great on my current setup and I am sure it will run even better with my updated Bulldozer setup.
I'll still be sticking with my 6970 for a while. When the price drops on the 7 series then i'll probably make the jump. Hopefully by then some decent enough games that actually utilize available system resources will be out and if that's not the case then i again say that i'll stick with my 6970.
Just wanted to point out to everyone using Skyrim as a barometer of GPU health that it's a very poor choice. I don't even own it yet (waiting for Steam holiday sale and free savings) and yet from what I've read and know of Bethesda's long and colourful history, it clearly wasn't designed to push PC hardware to the envelope edges. It just looks good and is massive so it follows that it
must be stressful for the hardware to push.
No. Until the mod community ramps up to around 6+ months from now and produces
true HD texture packs, total model replacements, better map viewing alternatives and the very limits of uGrids=* is tested by large amounts of people using more than 8GB of RAM (not to mention it getting its "don't turn off vSync" bullshit sorted out), then Skyrim can't be said to be stressful on GPUs at all. Crashy and buggy, while its got that in spades, does not equal stressful.
Ever since Crytek gave up on the throne with Crysis 2, your best bets for GPU barometers are
BF3 on Ultra (no in-game tweaks, no CCC changes, just Ultra preset),
Arkham City when it gets its DX11 patched to a functioning state, and
Metro Last Light upon release,
at 1920x1200 and up only. IMHO measuring at 22" 1680*1050 is done because its common among the plebs, not because its what $400 GPUs were meant to cut their teeth against.
Finally 30" monitors haven't become prolific enough yet, nor do we have 120Hz monitors in large enough quantities to truly test the benefits of deactivated vSync, but those resolutions and frequencies are where you should expect the 28nm parts to shine, and pull away from the pack. If they don't, only then could they honestly be classified as "not worth it" and current GPUs considered to still be créme.
I am ready to replace my 5850. I was tempted to get a 6950, but it was such a small upgrade that I couldn't justify the cost. Hoping a 7900 card will come around with >2GB VRAM and offer better performance than a single 6970 while using less power and selling cheaper.
Hoping a 7900 card will come around with >2GB VRAM...: While possible on say the 7990, I wouldn't expect the 7950/7970 to have more than 2GB as they need to keep cost down, as well as >2 not being strictly necessary even for 30" workloads. Add the benefits of XDR remaining to be seen and whether they play nice with GCN cores to the equation, and I wouldn't want to load my flagship products with large amounts of lemons either.
...offer better performance than a single 6970...: Probably.
...while using less power...: I think it'll use less power overall, as in Idle + Load, but that performance has to come from somewhere, and I wouldn't be surprised if Load was still "high", where I'm talking about ATI "high" and not nVidia "high". I'm fully expecting the 7000/7900 series to sport a completely refined PowerPlay implementation, that's for sure.
...and selling cheaper: Nope. I truly think this is too much to ask for, and moves the 7900 series from the realm of possibility to fantasy. They'll still be the better value for money versus nVidia's retarded prices but I don't expect the 7950/7970 to sell for much less, if at all lower, than current 6950/6970 prices. And that's just fine.
