Thanks Wolfram23 for your reply. It sounds like you're saying that even though I'm not an extreme gamer... the 5970 is the ultimate gaming card "that should do anything and everything" well for all other applications, except CAD. Although, maybe not the greatest bang for the buck as the 5850... it should perform the best and be more future proof (who knows maybe drivers might come out some day for the 5970 to support a little CAD... if not, I'll still have chosen the most powerful gaming card currently). I'm not sure, but I think maybe that high-end CAD cards (as high end as the 5970 on the gaming side) may be more expensive... if so, then for that comparison the 5970 would be the best bang for the buck. However, I still don't know if a high-end CAD card would perform better than the 5970 for all other applications, except gaming. Thanks!