TSX-Crytek :
Wow, so many answers for a thread I posted what, an hour ago? I think I'll grab a GTX 770 over the 7970. By the way, I have an FX-8350 so I don't think I'll even be able to use newer cards to their full potential (I'm talking about a GTX 780 and over.)
If you're talking about using PCI Express 2 or 3, don't bother unless your running 3 monitors at 1440p. If you have just ONE monitor, there is literally no discernible difference between PCI Express 2 and 3. I've proven it with benchmarks.
I posted about it in this thread:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1791176/pci-express-revisions.html
Zero Cool :
I'd go for the GTX 770. It's 13% faster (relative) than the 7970 and everything I've read points to the 9970 using a 28nm chip that performs very closely to the GTX 780 but at a cheaper price point. I know it's still all speculation right now but if my card was crapping out on me I wouldn't want to wait weeks, maybe months to see what the new cards bring. However, if you wanted to buy another 7970 then I agree with the1corrupted that for the price they cannot be beat!
13% faster? I beg to differ... http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/829?vs=768