I'll explain it to you Rare, why AMD is in trouble.
I understand, but the only reason they are replacing mid range cards is because they don't have the performance. Nvidia are obviously aware of this hence their pricing.
So where is their high end release? I think I understand nvidias business model now, which really started with the 680. Launch a mid range card, marketed as a high end piece.
I don't think AMD are going to need to do a lot to beat these cards at all. And who gives a monkeys if they use a bit more power, so long as they can harness that and turn it in to performance.
If you understood the industry, you would understand they are are deep deep trouble.
(r9 285)Tonga is the successor to (gtx 7970)Tahiti the same way the gtx 980 is the successor of the gtx 680.
Looking at their characteristics they are very similar, power, size of die, and even shaders(2048). They starkly difference in performance which is the biggest item of value. The gtx 980 is 75% faster(maybe 64% faster than full tonga). This is bigger than most generational gaps with a node thrown in for good measure.
AMD hawaii(r9 290x) part was AMD attempt to make a monolitic chip good at computing to compete with the gk110(gtx 780 ti).
AMDs new part coming out that is supposed to be their performance part is called fiji and is upscaled Tonga(r9 285). They are based on the same architecture and are part of the same series called pirate islands.
This will be the successor to hawaii or r9 290x. This as you said wouldn't be bad if you didn't care about power or heat and Nvidia didn't release anything else. However Nvidia is releasing an update to gk110 called gm200 that uses the same architecture maxwell. Most rumors have it coming out earlier than Fiji.
So what you think is going to make a better performance part.
A part scaled up from r9 285 or a card scaled up from the gtx 980. And looking at the size and power consumption of both, they both can be scaled up 50%.
This is why AMD is screwed.
This is the type of beating Intel gave AMD 8 years ago with core 2 duo and it cratered their CPU division.