4870 - Should I buy?

[Smithy]

Hi,

I'm currently running with a 9600GT (512MB). It has served me well up until now but I've found that it struggles somewhat in games of late. My thoughts are that if I could sell my 9600GT for a fair second hand price (nudge nudge wink wink), then a new 4870 could well be within my price range.

Is this a good time to buy a 4870? Are we likely to see much of a drop in prices following the release of the 5xxx series?

Tom's hardware tells me that if in the future I decide to crossfire a pair of 4870s then I could see some impressive results.

 

[Smithy]

The 1GB 4870s in crossfire don't seem to benchmark as high as the 512MBs in crossfire. It's a marginal difference I'll admit, but its worth noting. Is this difference irrelevant given the benefit of higher memory count especially at higher resolutions?