The 520 or whatever they've renamed it this week is not gonna compare with a 7800 card. It is a 16 pipe card, and by the time it comes out nVidia could have 3 generations of GPU's out. They are only waiting ofr ATi to come out with the next card, and then the next after that. Right now, they don't need to release any new cores because ATi has nothing that can compete with the already superior 7800 series.
I wouldn't hold my breath on the r520. It has been put off so long now, that it's already obsolete before it made it to market. There is a chance that they will scrap the entire deal. They've already lost the race, and many of their potential customers for that card have already bought the 7800 series.
As long as it's taking to get that thing out, I would be afraid of getting near it. It's obvious it has major issues. The r580 was supposed to be the next big bang for ATi, but it too is proving to be vaporware, and I suspect without the needed yeild they might very scrap it too.
I would go with a known good card. There is always going to be something better out there. The 7800 series is as good as it gets right now. It currently holds all records, and that will continue until nVidia's next release.
If you wait on ATi, you can expect seeing the 8000GTX's out by the time they ever get another card out. Cards change every 3 months.
The sad part is without ATi pushing nVidia we won't see the quick releases we were gonna see. They were actually at a place where they were helping us nVidia users, but they have lagged so far behind now, nVidia is just kicking back and watching now. It's actually a good thing to have ATi there, because they help drive nVidia to give us better and better cards even if they get beat out every time.
