Price drop on the 6970 when 7970 releases?

Hello guys, first off thank you in advance for helping.

My friend has around $200-$250 to buy a new graphics card. I was wondering if we wait until Jan. 9th when the 7970 releases will the price of the 6970 drop? and if so how much? (I know its wishful thinking it would drop to 200-250, but he could get extra money while he waits if it's worth it).

Here's his rig:

Intel Core i7 2600K 3.4Ghz
16Gb DDR3 RAM
ASUS P8Z68-V LE LGA 1155 Intel Z68
Corsair Enthusiast series 650W PSU


If the 6970 won't have a price drop (or only a very small one), what GPU do you recommend to get for $200-$250? I was thinking either a 6950 ($240) or a 6870 ($200).

Thank you!

I doubt it. The 7950 is supposed to be around $450, which is still more than the 6970. It might go down a bit, but not likely dropping more than $20-40

On the retail market, I would expect all cards to sell close to their price/performance curve. That means no big price change. AMD and Nvidia will sell their new cards at what the traffic will bear.

On the used market, you might be able do do better, since I expect some users to be unloading their current top end cards in anticipation of the 7970.

Here is a link to the best gaming cards for the money from toms in december.
http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 085-4.html

Considering you can pick up a 6970 for $300 after MIR, I wouldn't expect it to drop too much. I think AMD intentionally pushed prices up on 7970/7950 not only because it fits with current NVidia performance and price levels, but because it also allows them to continue selling 6950/6970 until the replacement products hit.

I'd honestly recommend your friend shoot for a 6950 1GB (falls in the price range with some money to spare). The performance is not far off from a 6970 and it represents a far better value.

Honestly I don't see why you would need 16gb ram you could save plenty of money by getting 4 or 8gb.