I don't disagree that HD8970 will be a minor speed bump but you are forgetting that HD7970GE has a 7-10% lead over GTX680 and GTX690 is not 80% faster than HD7970GE. GTX680 SLI is just 64% faster than HD7970GE at 1600P and those 680s are faster than a single 690:

http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/grafikkarten/2012/3x-gtx-680-und-3x-hd-7970-mit-i7-3970x/5/

Essentially, if we assume a 15-20% increase from HD7970GE for the 8970, then the HD8970 would already be 25%-32% faster than a GTX680. Based on the links above, GTX680 has 1.88x scaling over the GTX680. 85% of GTX680 SLI implies 85% x 1.88 ~ 1.60x performance advantage for the Titan over a single GTX680. HD8970 could end up at 1.25-1.32x of a GTX680 because HD7970GE is 10% faster than the 680. Suddenly the Titan is barely more than 20% faster than an HD8970 and for $900 that doesn't look so hot if the 8970 costs $549.

Using TechPowerUP's more extensive review and actual benches of the GTX690, we can narrow it down even further. Going off the rumors for Titan's performance at 85% of GTX690 here are my back of the envelope calculations:

Based on GTX690's performance at TechPowerup, GTX690 is on average 55% faster than HD7970GE at 1080P and 58% faster at 1600P. If GTX780 Ti is 85% of the performance of the GTX690, then it will be 31% faster (85% x 204/132) than HD7970GE at 1080P and 34% faster (85% x 216/137) at 1600P.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/VTX3D/Radeon_HD_7870_XT_Black/28.html

If HD8970 is just 15-20% faster than HD7970GE but costs $549 and Titan ends up 31-35% faster than HD7970GE but costs $899, then GTX780 Ti is less than 20% faster than HD8970 for $350 more!! GTX580 was about 18-20% faster than HD6970 for $130 more. That wouldn't look like such a great deal once again for the Titan. If AMD adds 2560 SPs to HD8970, and more mature 28nm node allows HD8970s to overclock to 1200mhz on air more easily, the bitcoin mining performance will rise 30% over my 7970s clocked at 1150mhz because BTC performance scales 100% linear with ALU performance.

So now, I could buy $550x 3 HD8970s for the price of 2x Titans and get faster gaming performance + bitcoin mining $$$. We'll see how things play out because if Titan can overclock to 1Ghz+, then things would play out totally differently :). Also, if Titan is just a limited run of 20,000 cards (similar to 7800GTX 512MB), I wonder what the 'real' GTX700 series will be like.

I am not in a rush to upgrade anyway since most 2013 PC games aside from Metro LL and Crysis 3 seem to be console ports, especially in the first half of the year. I might upgrade but more likely than not leaning towards 20nm chips in 1H 2014.

It's not going to be 15-20%. Clocks are not going to be higher. Die size is not going to go up.

Are you suggesting that it will be a straight up rebrand? I think that would defeat the purpose of releasing an HD8970. If AMD just wanted to straight up rebrand the HD7970 series, they would have done it already as they did for the OEM market. I think Sea Islands HD8900 is going to be revised from HD7970 but we don't know how much faster it will be due to TDP constraints. I'v read rumors of die size growing to 410-420mm², and transistor count rising to about 5.1B. I am expecting it similar to the refresh of HD5870--> HD6970 where tessellation units where improved and performance went up about 15%. Or do you think AMD will just relaunch a more energy efficient HD7970GE, call it HD8970 and drop the price to $399? 

It's just a virtual currency. Succinctly, bitcoins are a completely digital currency. You receive payouts, in bitcoins, for your work of verifying the network and ensuring its fidelity (i.e. "mining") by running a mining client (program that links into the network and sends and receives work). Then, you can sell your bitcoins on exchanges, like mtgox, for actual money.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2167303

In simplest terms you just have to download a program that allows the GPU to calculate a bunch of mathematics (BitCoin client) and you get rewarded with these bitcoins from Pools (this is basically when people team up together to do the calculations). The bitcoins then get deposited to your Pool and allocated among the contributing members. All of this is done automatically. Then you just need a BitCoin Wallet where you deposit your bitcoin rewards. Then you can sell the bitcoins for real world currencies, like USD, or buy gift cards with them at places like Newegg/Amazon. The downside is that when the graphics card is performing these mathematical operations, it gives off a ton of heat, uses a lot of power, and you can't play games on the computer (but you can browse the net and do basic things). So it might not make sense for everyone, especially people in warm climates, or those who pay high rates of electricity (Hawaii).

When people spend bitcoins online, someone has to check that the transaction was legitimate (just like if you spend $ at a store, your credit card and the store communicate with each other). The act of checking this is just a complex mathematical computation that requires GPU processing power. Because your GPU does this calculation, you get "rewarded" by the network with bitcoins. Then you spend the bitcoins and other people check your own transaction and also get rewarded. The cycle continues. 

What's your cost of electricity per kWh?

So there is 7bn of these

in that little GPU....hot damn.

Yeah it will.

The move from Tahiti XT to Curaçao XT (Aka, Radeon 7970 to 8970) will have die sizes jump from 4.3 Billion transisters to 5.1 Billion.
The OEM Radeon 8970 will be a rebrand of the Radeon 7970 and will be identical in every single way.

Shaders, TMU, ROPS increase by 25% and because it's built on a now mature 28nm node, clocks should be increased too.
Expect the same kind of jump we saw between the Radeon 5000 series and the 6000 series which were on the same 40nm node.

I'm even willing to make a bet on it. ;)

zero129 said: Thanks dude, i already set up my minor and joined a pool and now have my minor doing some work . And your right about the heat lulzs, my GPU is now running full steam ahard lulz xD. I do leave my PC mostly on anyways so this wont be a problem unless i need to play a game lulz xD But yeah wasnt too hard to set up i followed this guide http://startbitcoin.com/ And the cost of electricity per kWh over here its about 16 cent i think

Good job! You got that up running fast :)

Here are some calculators you can use to estimate costs/profitability:

http://tpbitcalc.appspot.com/

http://dev.bitcoinx.com/profit/

http://www.alloscomp.com/bitcoin/calculator

You should download MSI Afterburner and lower the GPU's memory clocks as those don't actually help achieve a higher rate. Your power consumption should fall. Also, what Mining client are you using? Make sure to set up some flags to speed up operation depending on the GPU and client you are using:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison

For example, I am  using GUIMiner on 7970s an the flag 

-w 256 -f1

Thank you for putting it into perspective for me;)

Seriously? I'm paying 59 cents per kWh... MAN thats cheap.
And because of that, it makes zero sense for me to bitcoin mine, I'll use my compute resources for Folding@Home instead where I don't feel guilty for burning down lots of trees. :)

http://www.torontohydro.com/sites/electricsystem/residential/yourbilloverview/Pages/ElectricityRates.aspx

Great seafood, hot women, amazing weather, more vacation weeks a year, hopefully they all make up for your high electricity rates :)