The 4870 prices were that good because at that time NVidia was practically dominating ATI, and GT200s and 4000s were released at approx. the same time so AMD/ATI had lots of reasons for going for a very competitive price. But now things are much better for both AMD and ATI, and NVidia's new parts don't come out till Q1 so all ATI has to do with pricing at this moment is to provide similar speeds NVidia's very high/highest end products (295) and price them considerably lower.

Even if the yields and costs were extraordinarily great AMD still has no reason to price a 5870 at $300. The price will be around $400 and I can't see it varying much at the launch by any stretch of imagination. Sure, after the GTX 300's come out it's going to be a different matter entirely, but that doesn't happen until at least a couple of months.

btw: daamn, I haven't been posting here for nearly one year! love product launch days, the GTX200 - HD4800 days were aaaaawesome!