Actually what matters most is to have a balanced system. For example, having a 5970 won't do you much good if you run demanding games on a dual core with 2GB of RAM, as the PC is like a pipeline that moves data around from one component to the next: it's only as fast as it's slowest component, because if the components don't match well in speed you have bottlenecks where one of them is waiting for data from another, instead of moving data back and forth at a more stable flow.

Sure, this all depends on what kind of games you run as well (what their dependence is on CPU or GPU, etc), but overall it's better to have a balanced PC instead of one with 1-2 components that stick out way above the rest (unless you are in the process of partially upgrading it that is).

This gives you the most amount of usage for all this processing power you buy, plus it makes your upgrade planning and funding easier, because you scale down the components to match and you end up with some leftover cash. Then, 6-8 months down the line when prices drop on some high end components due to the release of a new line, you can use that cash to do a mild upgrade.

I'm running a stock i7 920 at 2.7GHz (i got it so early that it's a C0 stepping batch of CPUs, instead of the easier to overclock D0 batch), two 1.5TB hard disks, 3GB of RAM and an Ati 4890 1GB on a P6T Deluxe v2 motherboard and a 700W Heroichi Cougar PSU.
I didn't buy more RAM because i couldn't use it at the time (W7 wasn't out yet and Vista was terrible at that point in time, so i stuck with XP), i didn't buy a fancier graphcs card or SLI/crossfire it because i was stuck with lower RAM and so on.

However, this system runs all i need to run today, plus it is a good, solid base to build on by changing only a few components. What i'm initially going to do is get another 3GB of RAM for SoW. Then, i might pick up a 5870 around spring-summer when prices are low enough.
In fact, i'm not touching a DX11 card until i can get what is today's top line of cards (Ati 5870/nVidia 480 type of cards) for 200 Euros or less. Finally, when sandy bridge CPUs are out and i7 prices start to drop, i will wait until i can get a six-core i7 really cheap and plug that in the mobo. By that point in time i'll have a PC that is one step below top components for the time, but bought for much less, which will enable me to save money towards my next round of partial upgrades after a further year or two. ;)

Well if you add all the parts for your system to your cart (using 'Today Only' for deals, and it doesn't come to much less than they'll build it for you, you have all the details to make the best choise for you. I bought an i7-930, 6gig 1600 ram, asus p6x58d-e for £434 ( a month or two ago) and when I added the other parts and compared to a pre OC'ed system it was a big saving (but it might not be for you).

The 69xx series has been pushed back to Dec 13th for the information release, so the cards will hopefully be out soon after that.

He's mentioned a few times about tesselation, and at the moment it looks like the cards that are better at tesselation won't get a benefit. 4-5 years will probably get extended, and we'll get new cards again by then.

I have a 5 year old 600W psu, which should do me for a new single GC, but I wish I had more power available, and could SLi/CF if I wanted.

5870 , all ok
i7 920 at 3.8

LOLs, Klem O.k. I'll buy the load time hating, I'm not fond of waiting either, so I'll put that down to personal preference at trade-off time (I'd go for the graphics, but that's just me). I will still recommend going a bit more overboard on the PS though. Good clean, and steady power at all times is the key to longevity in a gaming system (that and the quality of the rest of it, but that's a given) and you can never have to much available power. (I use the same theory in car choice to, so I may be biased)

S!

I run the 5870HD at the moment, as a guy reallyreally wanted to buy the GTX480 from my rig :D Only game with only MINOR performance issues is IL-2, but that is known. Rise Of Flight runs maxed out like nothing, so does Mass Effect 2 or any other game I play :) And add to that the 5870HD is in another league when talking noise and heat compared to the NV card. Nevertheless, nothing bad to say of NEITHER brand.

get the 6870, 100 bucks faster than the 5870, equal in most respects, slightly faster in others.
check out passmark.com's benchmarks right here

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

then look at prices.

AND LOOK OUT! the 6870 didnt fit in my computer so i took a hacksaw to it ;) damn harddrive rig.

The assembly/overclocking/testing is costing me about £50 which I think is a very fair price for an o/c I would be afraid to push for :)

Where did you get that 13th December date from? I keep coming up against a wall of silence or "can't say due to Non Disclosure Agreements".

Flanker
yes power and heat are one of my (secondary) drivers

SQB
Thanks for that but I found Toms Hardare website and several others placed the 6870 below the 5870 on gaming tests and one of those sites had similar benchmark results to your link but said "benchmarks aren't everything" (don't necessarily reflect the real world of gaming). You're right about the price but I can afford either so it's down to what will run SoW best out of the two. If the 6970 is going to cost much more than the 5870 it's looking like a straight choice for me between 6870 and 5870. Both have their advantages. The 5970, 480GTX and 580 are beyond my reach.

btw I did check the card lengths which is one reason why I chose that case.

yes, that is true, benchmarks dont reflect everything. truth is the 5870 is i teeny weeny bit better, but nothing to make it worth the extra 100 bucks. All this benchmark shows is the difference is so marginal sometimes the "worse" card beats the "better" one.

Not read through the thread, just answering the original question.

I have a 2.5 year old system with a quad core Q6600 @ 2.4GHz, 4GB RAM and a 650W PSU running 64 bit Vista Home Premium.

I just purchased a Gigabyte GTX 460 a couple of weeks ago mainly because in RoF my 8500GT was really struggling. Long term, I dunno, but the price of this card in the UK was fairly good, and benchmarks looked good compared to similar cards so I bought it.

With this card I am able to run IL-2 totally maxed out and get between 25-60 FPS depending on the map. Generally I get 25 on a busy map with some sea and with water=4 but even then that isn't too much of a problem. The majority of the time I am in the 55-60 range.

In RoF with settings almost maxed out I get around 40-50 FPS again depending on how busy things get.

I am very happy with the purchase and I have had no problems as yet. I would recommend this card.

Wow - I enjoyed doing the OC myself, and learning in the process, but £50! When I looked at Scan's OC'ed components (and overclockers) I was looking at £200.

here - although the link on the first post is down now, it worked when I first read it. I've read a few other places about the details being released in week 50, I'm pretty sure it's official. The 6850 and 6870 were on sale about the same day that the details (benchmarks, reviews etc) were released, so hopefully that'll be the same this time around.