when do you guys think would be the next ideal time for me to upgrade my GPU?
I'm not in too much of a hurry to upgrade because right now my x1950xt is serving me okay, but I definitely want to get rid of it soon.
Once you start looking at the latest cards out plan on replacing the board as well in order to see the full value. The latest out are PCI-E 2.0 while you are still with a 1.1 board.
Most ATi cards out there is crossfire capable anyway. I think the most optimal time to buy is at least four to five months after a major release, to wait to see if there are any major problems with the card and also for the price to go down. If there are any major bugs or problems then you can avoid that card, and also the wait goes time for reviewers to thoroughly review the card and give their opinons. Also aim for mid high range as the flagship cards are usually overpriced.
Sometimes it isn't the card but the Catalyst that sees a problem. When first getting the Radeon HD 2600XT 512mb model here the 7.9 on the software disk was buggy!
The patch released wasn't any real help. The 7.10 then better yet 7.11 versions cleared things up. At the present time the 3800s have been out for some time and have seen some newer versions of the Catalyst C.C. come out. The 2000s like the 2400s, 2600s, and 2900s are the last line of PCI-E 1.1 type cards for AMD's ATI line however.