Quote Originally Posted by Mr. K6 View Post
Either way, I still think AMD has done well with the 5870. They packed some incredible performance in a small package (only 190W TDP!, 28W idle!) as well as some revolutionary features. I don't think you can expect a guaranteed 100% performance boost per generation anymore. The 8800 series jump was an exception, not the rule. Having dedicated vertex and pixel shader units was a gross inefficiency in GPU design, so it was no surprise how much performance was gained when that inefficiency was surmounted with nVIDIA's 8800 series. However, the more "perfected" GPU designs become as companies learn from their (and each other's) mistakes each generation, it becomes harder and harder to innovate over great designs. Sometimes there's still great room for improvement (3870 -> 4870 in my book), sometimes there isn't.
There's no question that 5870 is/will be an awesome card (and my next card). However, I am disappointed on its level of awesomeness - the hype had made me expect something like 2x GTX 285 performance on Crysis.