when are the revisions coming?

[kpmkieran]

im considering a new card... i have the 4870 or the 260 in mind but is now a good time to buy? is there a card revision just round the corner... i know these things come around extremely fast but is now the beggining, end or middle of the current generation?

i currently run a NEC 2690WUXi with an 8800 GTS 640 at 1920x1200. things are good but i know they could be better...

 

[Cairnsey]

I'd say about middle I reckon

 

[Boogle]

We're currently at the end of the DX10 generation. NV are going to release a 55nm refresh later this month, including a GTX270 and GTX290. Next month a GTX260 GX2 will be released. ATI are releasing no further cards after Sapphire release their 4850 X2.

March - July time NV and ATI are releasing their next brand new architectures supporting DX11. Whether DX11 will actually be out by then is unknown - but it'll be similiar to the 9700 Pro / Parhelia where the hardware was available before the API. Thank increased competition in the market for that one.

It's never a good time to buy a GPU. If you really want to maximise time between upgrades, at the cost of, well, money - then you need to be very careful and have luck on your side. Every so often a GPU comes out that's ahead of its time - you want one of those. It's always the first of a new arch, and it heavily outperforms its rivals. Previous cards include the Radeon 9700 Pro, and the 8800GTX. If you don't care about DX11, then the GTX260 GX2 will last a rather long time.