I'm looking to upgrade and I've been asking if I want to wait or if I want to upgrade now. I have an Amazon gift card and the 6850 will cost me 100 bucks after rebates and my gift card so I thought about getting that (my brother and my best friend both have the card as well so I've the performance of it)

Or should I wait for the 7970 and pay God knows how much it will cost? Recommendations?

Here is the 6850 in question: http://www.amazon.com/EAH6850-DC-2DIS-1GD5-V2/dp/rebates/B004IMF1IM/ref=rebate_olp_1?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

I'm also upgrading from a 5750.

IMO, there's little reason to buy the newest card since the price would be very high and the extra power is just wasted since there's nothing much you could use all that excess power for.

I will take that as a "get the 6850" lol

6850 and the 7970 are not even in the same league, the 6850 is a midrange card and the 7970 is a top of the line parenthesis card that will cost over 5x as much...

People tend to try to justify buying the higher end components to "future proof" their system, but I tend to favour the approach of buying the cheaper component and replacing it as needed.

While you may need to upgrade from the Radeon 6850 in 2 or 3 of years to another $150 graphics card to continue to play the newest games at high resolution with the highest level of detail, it is likely you would spend far more than that buying the Radeon HD 7970 and it is plausable that it will be unable to play those new games at high resolution with the highest level of detail

6850. There isn't going to be anything you can use the 7970 on anytime soon. Plus, the 6850 is a very efficient a card, it will serve you just fine.

My research has taught me this xD

so why  is the seccond choice not a 6950 that will play virtually anything maxed at 1080p? Or even a 7870? Why are the two choices so far apart?

Oh and if this was in stock I would take it over the 6850 http://www.amazon.com/HIS-Radeon-DisplayPort-Express-H687FN1GD/dp/B005JXACYC/ref=sr_1_5?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1325507997&sr=1-5 it's just $5 more after rebate and is 10-15% faster

I don't have a 1080p monitor nor will I have one anytime soon. As for why my second choice isn't a 6950, I was looking at that one and it was sold out *cries*

This

I usually follow this approach when upgrading my PC