Is it worth waiting until the 8970 is released, or is the 780 going to be a better graphics card? It will be used for gaming and CAD.
Also, which nVidia cards will be as good as the 8970?
I believe the new AMD cards are going to be part of the 9000 series. The 8000 series is rumoured to go straight to OEM. There's much speculation at this point, but it is almost a guarantee that AMD will release cards to compete with Nvidia's ultra-cards.
The 780 is a brilliant card for gaming, I use it on my 1440p monitor. Many future gaming titles are going to be optimised for AMD, that includes Battlefield 4. There's a good chance that AMD will have the edge in gaming performance. I don't know how either card will perform/contribute to CAD.
My advice is, if you can afford to wait and see what emerges at the end of the year, then wait. If you need the card now, grab the 780. Hopefully, new AMD cards will lower the prices of the 7xx cards.
The 8000 series is OEM, even shows it on their website. The new AMD cards are rumored to be out around October, after their reveal of their flagship card, codenamed Hawaii. It is rumored to be faster than the Titan. So if you don't really need a video card at the moment or anytime soon, I'd wait at least until official benchmarks come out of the new cards. But like Berserker said, if you need a card now, get a 780.
Rumored to be faster than titan!? WTF How big price of that card will be...
AMD cause of HSA. Games that make it to PC will be optimized for AMD since their hardware powers next gen consoles. That's not saying Nvidia won't do their best to compete but why not just go with the hardware games are gonna be built for?