Yeah, it's just an awful time to buy a card imo, but obviously buy one if you need one. There is a reason prices on (especially that card) are dropping...I've been saying big depreciation will happen for a while.
I'm not trying to contribute to brand wars (and apologize if it comes across that way) but when I last crunched the numbers it does become mildly confusing how some cards (will) fit.
An interesting card to watch (in terms of general overall market pricing) is the 7900GRE. Since it's such a strange beast, it can fluctuate with the market.
While it makes sense that a 7900xt may only drop so far due to intended market, the 7900GRE is that 'tweener' card that kind of gives an impression of where things should be priced comparatively for value.
A couple weeks ago, TPU
posted observational pricing of essentially €543-580.
In my mind, and others may disagree, I think whomever captures that important area stands to do well, and whomever prices scaled off that 'winner' deserves consideration.
However, 7900GRE is not a card I would *personally* buy over either saving money and buying a 7800xt or springing for a 7900xt. Hence, enter Navi 4 (at probably similar pricing).
I often thought bigger Navi 4 would be ~$600, and then perhaps drop to $500 when a $600 Blackwell releases. This makes sense to me as I postulate big navi 4 will be 7800xt/7900xt replacements while 192-bit Blackwell will be direct 7900xt/7900xtx competition. Now, if trends continue, Big Navi 4 will likely be closer to the $500 from the jump, and small Navi 4 considerably under $300.
Where does this leave cards like the 7900xt (which it's too-early-to-call but may jump the threshold line Navi 4 might or not to what I consider "enthusiast"-level perf)? It makes sense at $650 if Navi 4 $600.
Where does that leave the 7800xt? Probably at slightly less than $400, but then what about '8700xt', which will likely perform similar-to-better in raster(/rt?) but perhaps have 12GB instead of 16GB?
It becomes a cluster, for sure. The only thing that will save it IMHO is VERY VERY cheap small Navi 4 pricing. Maybe something like $249-279? That card could drop to 200-229 before EOL.
My recommendation still is quite simple:
If you're going to buy a PS5 pro, buy that. If you're a PC guy and want similar raster performance now, buy a 7800xt (and consider overclocking it for a massive perf/value leap).
If you want higher-end performance (4k/bells and whistles) buy a 7900xt (and overclock it); the next-gen from both AMD/nVIDIA in most 'gamer' budgets will target that raster perf in general.
If you want a 7900xt but it's too expensive, fear the PS5 pro may have features not present in Navi 3, or are hoping N4 makes a leap in RT/upscaling perf/quality while maintaining AMD's value, wait for Navi 4.
If you prefer nVIDIA's feature-set and want what I consider threshold-performance for paying for it, wait for GB205.
The big ? for Blackwell is if the low-end (5070?) part ($600?) will have 12GB or 18GB, likely the higher-end will be 18GB. You know,
5080 18GB 5070 Ti at
$900 $800(?).
Where the "Best Value" will land, I'm unsure, but think it's worth waiting. If you're a ~$400-600 shopper that holds onto cards for a while (say until the PS6), I would wait to see how it all shakes out because odds are you want something equal or better than a PS5 or PS5 pro, and if you're stretching your budget for one or the other, you'll get a much better experience for your money in relatively short order.
Maybe the full and/or cut-down top Navi will be 256-bit/16GB and not 12GB. Maybe cut-down (GB205) Blackwell will have 18GB (if nVIDIA learned their lesson) and not 12GB. Maybe the opposite is true.
Maybe Navi 4 can overclock to around stock 4080 performance (and hopefully has 16GB), maybe it can't (and/or has 12GB).
These are all important aspects to the equation for what's the best value in terms of buying/keeping/reselling, and similarly-priced cards (even from the same team) may better fit different uses.
All we know is that PS5 performance (7600XT/4060 Ti 16GB) will have to slip under $300 very soon, and like-wise what I (personally) consider high-end (an overclocked 7900xt) will come down to $500-600.
All of the cards in the middle are fine; like I said: 7800xt will give the raster of a PS5 pro especially if you OC, so will the cut-down version of big Navi 4 (Guess: 7168sp @ 2800mhz, same as PS5P at stock?).
I could understand how someone could make any of those purchases once they become a value they feel is appropriate, just be aware 16GB of RAM is important and Navi 4 *might* bring better RT/FSR, which may or may not be essential to make it a closer 1:1 comparison to the PS5 pro.
