Quote Originally Posted by RPGWiZaRD View Post
I doubt Barts XT will be much faster than HD 5850 if it really is faster, probably sth like 5% in average, anything more and it would seem like magic unless the floating around specs are inaccurate (yes I've already taken 4D shader array into account). And why do you think they'd price Barts XT @ $199 if it's faster than HD 5850 or maybe around GTX 470 levels in best case and being a lot better in power efficiency. Even a $249 it would be a very interesting, I think Barts Pro is more likely to enter $199 price if it beats GTX 460 then that would also be an interesting pick, $199 Barts Pro and $249 Barts XT sounds much more likely to me.
One can hope for ~GTX 470 performance level & US$ 199 tag price (pointing my index finger to my nose), doesn't mean that the wishes will be granted though.

Perhaps my thought is based on the idea that Bart chips will be the backbone of HD 67xx line ups, not believing those rebranding rumor out there. As such, it would be rather hard to swallow if the prices of the new x7xx series goes up double time compared to the current price of HD 5770.

Yes, the performance warrants the cards higher price as you suggested, but if the cards want to be called mainstream part, US$ 199 price tag would be seriously attractive and in sync with perhaps the biggest, profitable segment of the market (remember nVidia GTX 460 presentation slide, the pawning slide ? LOL ).

We just have to wait and see how things unfold. One thing for sure, my suggested tag price is more customer friendly than yours, hahaha.

Quote Originally Posted by RPGWiZaRD View Post
Barts XT is very interesting to me as I seem to have a dying GTX 280 here (clock stability has decreased a lot), I'd gladly wait for Cayman but don't think my GTX 280's gonna survive that long and I like the idea about Barts XT drawing much less power than my GTX 280 and still offering a significant performance boost and DX11 support, all that for something that's most likely gonna cost $250 or less.
Wait for Cayman bro, that should be the right successor of your ageing GTX 280. It would be an impressive spectacle if you pair a Cayman and your old GTX 280 as PhysX accelerator card in Ge-Deon configuration, hehehe.