Quote Originally Posted by highoctane View Post
I wouldn't call you a "penny pincher", you buy what you need at the price and performance level you find acceptable.

However this does not apply to the folks who consider spending $600 on a video card, this breed has a different set of standards and more power to them if it's worth it to them.

These are guys looking for performance first value second, to them the biggest value is in having maximum performance more so than price.

Hardware is a classic case of "to each his own", if it suits your needs and is within your budget who's to argue with them.

It wasn't that long ago really that I didn't bat an eye at buying a $600 8800gtx, at the time the performance was well worth it for me. Today it would take a helluva piece of hardware to get me excited enough to pony up $600 bones.
Wait what? Comparing the current situation to the 8800GTX/Ultra era is like comparing apples and bowling balls.

I am more than willing to pay $600 for a GPU. However for that price it better provide commensurate performance in the current market. The 7970 does not do that. Not at over $600. Not by a long shot.

It's also rather pointless to consider spending over $600 on a 28nm GPU (unless the upgrade is drastically needed) when competing products haven't even been released and it barely exceeds the performance of the previous generation. There is no earth-shattering leap in performance.

Leaping into the next gen (28nm) GPU high-end without waiting until both companies have their products competing on the market means a person is either in drastic need of an upgrade, prefers them for a practical reason (Eyefinity or Linux support), or they are simply an impatient rube. If NVIDIA had released first I'd be saying the exact same thing.