AMD haven't sanctioned anything, people since the 580gtx are only concerned with uniengine, which is a shame as it means literally nothing.
As for lack of improvements, the only game benchmarks we've seen flying around suggest an average of 25% faster than the 570gtx, thats not exactly anything to complain about.
People also seem to be forgetting, as I've said for a LONG LONG time, huge improvement, 80%+ on the same process wasn't going to happen.
40% would be pretty damn good, more would be astonishing. The 5870 is up to 20% slower then the 480gtx, the 580gtx is 20% faster than the 480gtx, if the 6970 offers 580gtx performance(or maybe even higher) then its come a LOT further than the 580gtx came to get there. The VAST majority of the Nvidia performance came from improved/full yield parts. Being that AMD had full yield parts already, thats 10-15% performance that just wasn't available and there for the taking as it was for Nvidia.
Its a shame Gibbo didn't bench any games, because uniengine/3dmark performance means smeg all right now, games I can play in performance means everything. It could be 30% slower or 30% faster than a 580gtx and STILL GET THE SAME UNIENGINE SCORE.
The £220/275 pricing is VERY clever, by AMD, the price on the 5870/5850 were TOO far apart, meaning very very few people went for the much higher profit 5870, reducing this gap means more people get the more expensive card, likewise overally they seem great because the top card is down £25 on last gen, but the bottom card is the real volume card of the two and £20 more means more profit.
Gibbo, did you actually pay a lot more for the cards and get rebates, or was it ordered, but not paid for the cards yet and you've suddenly been handed a much lower bill to pay for the cards?
My guess is AMD leaked pricing and let the real prices get out so Nvidia didn't tank their pricing before AMD could launch, if Nvidia found out the real pricing a couple weeks ago Nvidia could tank their pricing prelaunch and make AMD appear "normal" value, while AMD giving out fake high pricing means Nvidia don't react, and now will tank pricing AFTER launch, which will only be reported as reacting to better value cards from AMD, which looks good for AMD.
In other words, yet another part of the master secrecy/disinformation plan from AMD? If so, genius.
You're still going on?
