You miss what I was saying,,,,,I have read other post from you, if you look back at my prior post you will see that it ended in a positive. I did not miss out on what you said but as you stated.....it is all positive for the 9800GTX+ and negative for the 4850.
Share the links that you have concerning the poor over clocking of the 4850. I would like to read them as well.
You see it took Nvidia 2 releases to make a 9800GTX+....to me they are loosing ground, esp when the 280 $$$$$$ runs like shit as well....getting beat out in some benches by the low end 4850 and others by the 9800GX2. ...as we read in the TPU reviews.,,,FACT.
So is it wise to buy the 9800GTX+....nope....not worth the money.
I am far from being any fan boy..... just read my signature....they all piss me off...
Firstly, your links, I didn't exactly have to go very far:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/HD_4850/24.html
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_4850/24.html
Two HD4850's in the hands of a person that I would consider a master overclocker. Both overclock like complete ass. Less than 10% overclocks is overclocking like ass, IMO, and 1% is just a joke. I could go through and find some of the other articles and forum posts I have read, but I think that is enough, and that is really all the time I want to spend on the issue. If you want to dispute it, show me some better results.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Point_Of_View/GeForce_GTX_280/26.html
You can look at another new product, and it overclocks better, and according to Wiz, it is actually harder to overclock.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zotac/GeForce_9800_GTX/24.html
There you can see the overclocks on the 9800GTX, better IMO. You can speculate that the HD4850 overclocking might get better with better software and that the HD4870 might be a better overclocker, but there is no factual information backing to that, and you are all about the facts.
If you read around you will see me saying some positive things about the HD4850, you will even find some thread of me thinking about switching to HD4850's.
I definitely agree with you that ATi is catching up to nVidia, and if you read most of my posts on the subject you will see I think that is a wonderful thing. Competition is a good thing, it forces lower prices from both companies, which is only good for for us, the consumers.
Don't get me started on the GTX 280, I think nVidia was insane on that front, but that is an entirely different discussion there.
Again, the value of the 9800GTX+ and weither it is worth buying depends on the type of person you are. Personally, I think the 9800GTX+ would be worth it to buy over the HD4850 if both were priced the same(and it seems likely they will be very close). But even more, the 9800GTX at the price it is at, overclocking the way it does, I think it is worth it if you plan to overclock. BUT, most importantly, I think the 8800GTS(G92) is the best value out of the pack for overclockers, it overclocks almost just as well as the 9800GTX, but is cheaper than the HD4850. And with the added value of PhysX support on the G92 cards, it helps their appeal(granted, not by much, probably about as much as DX10.1 helps ATi's appeal).