I predicted this months ago, 5850 CF performance at 600 dollars.
If you look at anandtech review where they compare gtx 285 sli vs 5970, at the very most, the 5870 is 20 percent faster and at the very least, is 3 or 4 percent slower. However in most instances it is less than 10% (all except farcry 2 or 7 out of 8 gaming tests).
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3679&p=12
This card is fast but not that fast. If NV simply shrunk the Asus Mars card down to 40nm(which should negate the heat issues) and increased the clocks by 10% percent on the card and perhaps 10 percent on the shaders, it would have a card that performs nearly the same as the 5970 at this point using last gen technology.
If NV is able to make a card that is 5% faster than gtx 285 sli, it will have a card that is competitive with the 5970 in single gpu form.
If NV is able to get their clocks up so they atleast match gtx 285 levels, it should have a single gpu card that is competitive with 5970. Even in my post that came out when the 5870 was released, I stated although the gtx 380 might not be faster than the 5970, it could be competitive.
However if clocks are abysmal, this could be a problem, unless NV got their efficiency up.
