There probably won't be anything faster <i>at the same price point</i> until quite a while after the launch of the next gen cards. there's some great bargains out there at the moment on 9800 & 9600 cards. I would expect the next-gen cards to retail for about £350-450 when they hit retail here in the UK, whereas I only paid £155 for my 9800Pro, which is now clocked higher than a 9800XT. So if someone's looking for a card for $X, that choice isn't suddenly going to change overnight when the new cards come out.
And do you <i>really</i> think a newbie will look at this forum and <i>not</i> see all these 6800 Pro & X800 XT threads? if they've gone so far as to find the buyer's guide, then they are doing some research.
The buyer's guide is there to address the common questions like "Should I get a 5700 or a 9600SE" (or whatever). The rest of the site and forum is for discussing upcoming stuff.
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Epox 8RDA+ rev1.1 w/ Custom NB HS
XP1700+ @205x11 (~2.26Ghz), 1.575Vcore
2x256Mb Corsair PC3200LL 2-2-2-4
Sapphire 9800Pro 420/744