Phew, long post there mate ? Appreciate the effort, but so much pessimism can only take you so far, let's just say it's very very irritating.

Why i call you "somewhat" ignorant -not making direct, personal accusation right ? You make a STRAIGHT analogy beetween Northern Island pricing structure vs Evergreen one, spesifically beetween Juniper vs Bart MSRP launch prices and their correlation with & implication toward their bigger brothers, Cypress and Cayman. Well fella, they will certainly NOT be exactly comparable, since Bart doesn't exactly replace Juniper in AMD's market segmentation:



Fact that the competitive nature of DX 11 scenery has changed, nVidia now have competing products, affecting AMD pricing structure & strategy to some degree. Bart WILL NOT be an exact half Cayman like Juniper was to Cypress, the 40 nm process & AMD graphic div. own principle won't allow that. Yes, when launched, Cayman might stand up there on its own as the king of the hill of GPU chip, doesn't mean AMD will have all the leverage to price it at such unacceptable level of US$ 500+ like you suggested & believed. On its launch day, Bart XT is already priced reasonably @US$ 239, and one month from now, with the advent of AIBs in house designed board, getting it to US$ 219-229 level won't be all that difficult (if TSMC 40 nm production permitted). While Cayman will be AMD fastest single chip, it won't be its highest end product, there WILL be a dual Cayman for Antilles card later on.

Even the optimist of fanATic doesn't think Cayman will be more than 50% faster against Bart, pricing it @US$ 500+ has very little merit in it, and the way AMD priced Bart cards recently, your pessimism is just so unfounded, and clearly can be regarded as an annoying negativism toward AMD. Just look at the slide, Cayman will only move upward a little against Cypress segmentation speaking, a drastic launch price jump from US$ 379 of Cypress to US$ 500+ Cayman will simply be a total fail on AMD part, should that scenario really happen. US$ 500+ Cayman XT value in the mass market will be wiped by crossfire Bart XT or SLI GTX 470, creating animosity among its follower+destroying the goodwill created in the past, and nVidia will have a field day for their marketing dept.

AMD won't forever be supply constrained by TSMC 40 nm process, AMD has performance & cost leadership when HD 5870 launched vs GTX 285, yet your unfounded negativism didn't happen back then when AMD was actually being supply limited with Cypress chip for HD 58xx generation. AMD can easily priced HD 5870 @US$ 449, HD 5850 @US$ 359 and still lead the price/performance contest against GTX 285, didn't happen, did it ? You forget the nature of AMD graphic division ever since ATi was bought by AMD. Their focus is beating nVidia strong market domination in graphic market, especially in consumer graphic where it has the most chance in achieving that goal. Their very competitive pricing strategy wasn't based on charity, LOL, but the longterm viability & survivability against its nemesis demand it that way. AMD might just reach parity in overall discrete graphic market & quite dominant in DX 11 market with their headstart entrance, but nVidia is still the have of graphic industry, with its great finance situation, strong R&D, and super profitable professional graphic market domination.

Pricing Cayman XT @US$ 500+ will not be in AMD's best interest and i don't think they would be as foolish or evil as you pictured in your posts. Perhaps expecting it under US$ 400 is too much optimism for your taste, but US$ 429-469 is a very very fair pricing suggestion for Cayman XT, if the opinion comes from people that bear no negativism toward AMD. Personally, i believe Cayman XT launch price will be doubled of Bart XT street price at that moment.

Okay, if you find my assesment of your unbalanced negativism toward AMD insulting, i apologize. But i will put my credibility where my mouth is. If Cayman XT was launched for US$ 500+ like you suggested, i will stop posting in XSys forum for straight SIX months from the moment the official, correct info announced. If not ? Well, then perhaps i shouldn't apologize so early. Later .