http://videocardz.com/34981/amd-radeon-hd-8870-and-hd-8850-specifiation-leaked

Dear lord I hope that it's true (or at least close). That 8870 looks like a real winner, especially if it can hit at 300$ or lower. In January to boot!

Glad I stayed away from the current series.

I always say this, but I have no reason to upgrade at this point.
Fast forward to january and i'll find some excuse.

will have to see how the top end performs and how much it costs.

Same here. I bought a mid-range system five years ago (maybe even more) and I'm still having a hard time justifying an upgrade when the games I've played recently all seem to run on decent settings with what I have. It's almost like a perfect storm happening in the PC gaming industry right now where more than ever developers are tied to the current generation of consoles for what they can create, and thanks to the Wii, the current generation consoles all had "upgrades" developed for them which meant extending their life span in order to get that R&D investment back. Even when I do start hitting games that I need an upgrade for I might be tempted to get something on the mid to low end instead and where's the fun in that!?!

Case in point about the current generation consoles lasting longer than previous versions -

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/1779 ... Fn5cpas0cs

Even with the WiiU coming out this xmas (I think), and it having AMD's 12 month ago graphics in it, STILL being better than the PS3...Yeah consoles rule the day.

Wii U comes out mid-October actually but it shouldn't make a difference since most Nintendo games aren't developed for multiple platforms. Even the few that are (Assassin's Creed 3 is all I can think of at the moment to be honest) are mostly played on other systems so they will be developed for them first and foremost. Not sure exactly when the XBox 720 and PS4 are due out but it's far enough into the future that I'm not holding my breath just yet.

I rock a 6970 ICE-Q edition and it plays anything I play on ultra settings with stock clocks with max eye candy enabled. im in no hurry to jump on the upgrade bandwagon yet.

I did however ( I know this is from a different thread) see the new chipset bios ( 9 series ) and its pretty sweet! A very nice GUI that you use your mouse etc on, now one of those new boards I could see myself moving onto.

http://www.pcper.com/news/Graphics-Cards/Details-Leak-AMDs-Sea-Islands-HD-8970-Graphics-Card

And we have some 8970 specs as well! Basically tweaks bove and beyond the 7970 but should be a decent upgrade if anything dropping the 7970 down in price.

Well apparently no one gives a crap anywhere, and We're *probably* not going to see new video cards until just before Christmas.

Probably they don't see a need, and team green doesn't seem to be releasing anything other than a new halo product ($1000) this year either.

/sigh

i think we're starting to near the end of the custom PC market. the wind is finally starting to disappear from the gaming hardware manufacturer's sails.
Tablets and SmartTV's are going to be the next big thing for gaming. at least until holographic stuff starts coming out.