New rumor about ATI Southern Islands

[tajoh111]

And the million dollar question is: how well can we extrapolate performance from 3dmark? This is a genuine question as I haven't been keeping up with futuremark scores in reviews.

Probably more than your giving credit for. Not close to ideal but 3dmark shows raw potential in processing a 3d image. It probably the reason why it is such a valuable marketing tool.

The performance of a 900mhz gtx 480.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforc...-den-review/10

The below benchmarks are to compare it to a 5970.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/zotac-geforce-gtx-480/12

http://www.guru3d.com/article/zotac-geforce-gtx-480/13

Bad company 2 is a worst case scenario(worst benchmark for the gtx 480) and a 900mhz gtx 480 is only 5 fps or 7% behind a 5970 at 1920*1200. Modern warfare is probably a best case scenario(bad scaling on 5970) and it is 39fps ahead or 30% faster.

I don't think a 200mhz overclock on the 5870 could bring the 5870 close to a 5970 unless scaling was broken.