After reading your post guys, I think we forgot the fact that the current 58xx series (sorry 57xx owners, Nvidia cards conquered the mid-end performance cards ) CAN stand up to 2012 until being labeled "obsolete" technologically and trend-wise per se.
I have the nagging feeling to keep my 5850 until the warranty of 2 years expires, which is right at the end of 2011...so my point is for existing 58xx users, the end of 2011 is most likely the 'D-days' of using the 58xx series and should upgrade from then.
But this plausibly applied to the single card users, if you think of CF'ing your card, you could even hang on even longer until mid 2012 or longer.

The rumors about DX12 in 6800 Series is somewhat vague, I don't think there's gonna be DX12 cards until Microsoft decides to implement it in their upcoming OS, which I have no clue...

So if the 6 Series is the 'refreshed' version of the 5 Series, I believe CF'ing a 5 Series right now is justifiable to not get the new 6 Series because a CF'ed 5 Series should be on par with the fastest 6 Series that will come anyways...

Still, 'CF'ing 58xx VS. buy new 6 Series' will still remains an open debate and discussion until a consensus is reached, by which we hope very soon, because the price drop somewhat influencing this matter to be rushed.
User's have to choose between :
(1) to sell their card now and gamble on the price drop (if ever to happen) to get the 6 Series card (which launch date is ever so uncertain) OR
(2) just chill and relax, wait for the price drop (if) and CF their cards.

(3) Not do anything at all and STILL enjoy gaming at 'High' settings at 1920X1080 on games other than Metro 2033.

I like option no.3

Between candy~eye looking rendering with AA and high FPS, I prefer having full 60fps over smooth looking graphic, because low fps is the ultimate experience killer in gaming, smooth edged graphic with AA is a secondary priority.
So I try to switch off the AA, and after turn it on @ 2xAA/4xAA, THEN compare if the AA really makes that much of a differences on certain games, if not much difference, I rather turn off the AA and enjoy high FPS of constant 60f/s.

If you play multiplayer First Person Shooters, it's best to get the most amount of fps (60.1 with V-Sync) by turning down or turning off the AA completely...lagginess is almost sacrilegious with Multiplayer FPS games, coz you'll get shoot first in a split second when your graphics lags even a bit...

Nice!
At first glimpse it looked like my old PS2 console

Yeah this re-branding sure is hopeless...I'm used to the suffix of x850, x870 or x890 for higher end cards and x750 and x770 or x830 for mid~end cards..

WTH....Out of the blue you guys are bringing up this Metro 2033 that was thoroughly discuss months ago, by yours truly.

As far as my memories goes, recommend settings for decent playability for 5850 (non OC) were mainly:
-DOF off
-Use DX10
-1650 resolution
-Tessellation off. (don't use DX11, use DX10 instead)

When I say decent, meaning 45FPS above. Because 'decent' for action First-Person Shooter games require the highest frames as possible.
Playing FPS games below 40-45fps is hopeless, unless you play 'Easy' difficulty.
This game, you need to aim properly under stress, (if you encounter the 'Librarians' you know what I mean) so lags really take out the accuracy of your shooting/aiming in a split second movement.


(-10) Morrigan disapproves of 2 CPU cores, that why!

Future-wise it's more favorable for you to get the 6870 although a CF'ed 4870 has similar performance as the 6870 and a tiny tad more from 5850.
Having said, the 4 Series is already two generations behind, it would be a different story if you have a 5770 and want to CF it.

To sum up, both of them (CF'ed 4870 & 6870) scores similarly in a synthetic benchmark test for e.g. like 3DMark Vantage, but in the real world gaming applications, the 6870 will majorly edged the CF'ed 4870 with it's Tessellation abilities, meaning you'll miss out on the eye-candy DX11 capable games. (yeah people will say there's isn't much DX11 games, but the beautifully rendered DX11 will make up for it's number)

No, the reason is the developer's couldn't afford to spend more time to implement any DX11 elements into the game.
Delays could cost Codemaster a lot of $$$ lost on the PC platform department, they want to launch that game simultaneously with all the other consoles..(Xbox360, PS3, etc.)

IMO, I think they learnt it from Dirt 2, which was couple of months late in it's PC platform release date because of the DX11 workload...

Well, as a driving gamed fan, I'm disappointed though, F1 2010 deserves eye-candy graphics...