Think people need to be careful overly comparing these cards and being too compaicent.
For sure, each new card that comes out, there is an expectation of it being the best out at that moment in time.
But you need to take careful notice of the price scale these things get released at. King of the hill, imo of course, are the previous gen 8800 GTX/Ultras - but look at the price they still command - and the newer released cards are £100/$150 below, @ MRSP. To me this is a direct indicator of the manuf/nVidias expectations.
Ok, u can burst in here and mention that "xyz card performs just under the 8800 gts 640 or gtx", but they are "next gen" even tho they`re not tagged with the 9800 name tag.
Way I look at it, these base gts 512 G92 cards are gonna perform at around the par of the current "new" 8800GT cards clocked at the higher end of the scale. The likes of the XFX 670mhz+ cards. Once the new GTS has been around for a while and higher clocked ones come out, they`ll obviously perform that much better. Then a variant of the GTX will come out and be that much better again.
As opposed to a 9xxxx range of cards coming out soon, I see the 8800 GT/GTS and eventual GTX?, coming out in relacement of the older 8800GTS320/640/GTX768/Ultra -- almost like a revision of the 8800 range and the G80 generation falling away from the shelves.
It`s not until u see a card similarly priced, mrsp-wize, as high as the GTXs were, that u`ll see a giant step up in performance. And before this time, u`ll take big notice that £100/$150 price drop in the old GTXs - that`ll be the cue that something big is coming.
These G9 cards of course have some stepup in drivers to come also.
I think u shouldn`t buy an old 8800GTS, then 8800GT, then the new 8800GTS and be upset that they`re not massively outperforming each other.
. 7900 was just a shrunk 7800, and subsequently faster clock.
