Just upgrade to the 9600GTO (basically the 8800GS with a different name). It should be nearly equal for like $80 less.

Of course not. New video card generations usually have an immediate 50% performance advantage over the previous one. You're thinking of DirectX version, and I agree it takes a while to fully utilise that but new cards generally have much better performance on the older DirectX version too.

The reason why it's taking so long for DirectX 10/10.1 to be adopted is that it is Vista-only.

 Just upgrade to the 9600GTO (basically the 8800GS with a different name). It should be nearly equal for like $80 less.

You're thinking of the 3850. A new generation of video cards will be better value than the old one for sure.

If you need to upgrade now, then it's not worth doing unless you can get at least a 9600GT or HD3850.

Because nVidia probably considersthat the G100 should be the debut 10.1 cards and not a revision like the G260 and 280. 

GT200 is the new architecture. The codename replaced G100. The reason they're not using 10.1 is because few games use it and they have publicly proclaimed its irrelevance.

I would be surprised if you don't see a 3* improvement.

If the 7900gtx is 30% faster than the 7800gtx and the 8800gtx is over 2x as fast as the 7900gtx and the 4850 is slightly faster than the 8800gtx you'll be doing well with any game. 

finally Crysis in high quality.

*duck and away*

ATI are supporting the development of a FOSS driver. That, and that if AMD goes bankrupt then we will have an Intel monopoly just like the early 1990s. No-one wants that.

I wonder if the new flagship GTX 280 will be the top of single GPU performance for a long time much like the 8800GTX due to lack of competition in the highend from ATI.
I really hope the 4870X2 gives a good fight against it.

I do hope that the ATI drivers do get better.  With them being open source, they might (and probably will) surpass nvidia's binaries one day. 

-and yup, an Intel monopoly would suck. 

Look look! nVidia's GTX280!

<3 

I would imagine that Tri SLI would be absolutely brutally fast on the gtx 280! I wonder if a 1000W PSU could do it, or if you'd need more than that.

I guess also we will find out aproximate HD4870x2 performance levels from the reviews when they come out. Im sure they will be able to do Xfire and Sli to check out the scaling as well.

Tri-SLi with GTX280 whats the like $2000 with tax?
The insane thing is some people in this world would actually do it too.
world record 3Dmark benchers comes in mind.