If Polaris 10 ends up Fury/X/Nano performance and R9 390 prices then what happens to the Fiji lineup from AMD? Their top end enthusiast level GPUs become totally obsolete and AMD will have nothing at that price range. This scenario did happen before when HD 6870 mid range was released and gave HD 5870 performance for less money and lower power usage. A few months later HD 6970 was released but was always slower than GTX580.
AMD conceding the higher end enthusiast market caused them to drop from 50%+ Marketshare to ~17% marketshare in the space of ~4 years. They continually underestimate the power of halo marketing and if they do the same with Polaris it will be another failure in a long list of marketing/PR failures for AMD.
IMHO AMD have been consistently second best in a two horse race since HD7970 in 2012 and they show no signs of catching up if latest rumours that this years Polaris is pure low/midrange are accurate.
Anything lower than ~20%+ performance over FuryX will be a failure to pretty much everyone here IMHO. AMD Polaris will be totally ridiculed if Nvidia have a GPU ~30% faster.
Nope - AMD managed to hold onto reasonable marketshare during the HD3000 and HD4000 series days. Even during the HD5000 days,the GTX470 and GTX480 matched and exceeded the HD5870,and it was the same during the HD6000 days.
AMD/ATI focussed on value for money during the HD3000,HD4000 and HD5000 series and it payed dividends.
AMD actually has been far more competitive with top dog cards in the last 4 years when compared to the last decade.
1.)HD2000,HD3000 and HD4000 series = AMD had no competitive top end card.
2.)HD5000 and HD6000 series = only had top card since Nvidia did not show up to the fight and yet once they did had the fastest cards.
3.)HD7000 series - had the fastest card for nearly three months in the HD7970. The HD7970GE then was the fastest card(just about) for nearly six months until the Geforce Titan was released.
4.)AMD managed to get the fastest card for a few weeks with the R9 290X but then was pipped to the post by the GTX780TI. The R9 295X2 ended up beating the Titan Z and was generally considered the fastest card for quite a while.
5.)Then Nvidia started releasing Maxwell,with the GTX750TI.
In the first two instances where AMD only ONCE had the fastest graphics card in 5 years,they defended their marketshare gaining upto 50% of the market,even if they were nowhere near first to the market,ie,HD3000 and HD4000 series.
In the last 4 years,they have had the top card three to four times,but the marketshare rot started to take place. Plus they tried again with the Fury X which could actually challenge the GTX980TI and Titan X in certain situations.
On top of this the HD7000 series marked the first time AMD in many years tried to get close to Nvidia launch pricing. It did not work.
Why?? Look at AMD mobile marketshare which has been on downwards trajectory since the HD7000 days. The issues with AMD Enduro pushed more companies towards Nvidia,and when Nvidia launched the GM107,it made things worst and they got more of the desktop OEM market too.
Then Nvidia managed to play AMD at their own game and did a valued focussed part in the GTX970 which was £250.
Look now - outside the odd PC with a R9 390 or Fury series card,how many prebuilt PCs from mainstream companies,ie,not boutique PC companies,have AMD cards?? Not that many and its even worse in laptops.
People see Nvidia plastered everywhere in Dells,HPs,etc and you barely see a mention of AMD anywhere.
got to wear shades 
