Are you running ATI 5870, 6870 or Nvidia 460?

[Triggaaar]

Originally Posted by klem

Thanks Triggaaar,
I had in mind one of the two lower 69xx's.
http://img.hexus.net/v2/pmason/amd/6900/roadmap-2.jpg

That image only has three 69s on it. The 6990 is a dual card, so the 6970 should not be considered a 'lower' card. There's room for a 6930 later, depending on how the cards stack up against nvidia.

I would expect the 6990 to be near or perhaps more expensive than the 580 (I'm scared to look!) as it should outperform the 5970

It definitely will outperform the 5970 (or they wouldn't release it), and it will be more expensive than the 580. It's a dual card. The 6970 will be closer to the 580 in terms of price and performance.

but I'm not sure about the 6950/6970 over the 480GTX (£300 - £400 with 1.5Gb RAM, unless you mean the 480 price will get pushed down).

Although prices always fall, that's not what I meant. You said you'd look at the price and performance of the 6970, but that a 480 was above your budget - that's £300. You won't get a 6970 for less than that in the near future. By the time SoW comes out, who knows.

For comparison, the 6870 is cheaper than it's rivals 5850 and 5870

The 6870 is cheaper than the 5850 and 5870 because it is aimed at a lower section of the market. The 6870 is slower than the older 5870 because the 5870 was a high end card, and the 6870 is mid range (replacing the 5770). I appreciate that when buying a card now, with a given budget, you might compare the 6870 and 5870, but it's not a useful comparison for predicting the price of the next cards.

I would hope the 6950 will sit around or below the 5870 price, and the 6970... ????

When the 6950 is released, it will be faster than the 5870, and more expensive (5870 price will drop). It should be a good card, not long to wait and see.