Quote Originally Posted by tajoh111 View Post
Side grade means it is not a replacement and is not an increase in speed. What we would consider somewhat more of a sidegrade is the 6870. Very similar speed in both cards and even the naming is more similar.

The 6970 is a upgrade(although minor in alot of circumstances) because it is newer, faster and makes the 5870 line obsolete(hence production on it stopping entirely) and it taking place of the 5870 as AMD's top chip.

It would be weird if AMD a new series and it's next generation fastest chip wasn't an upgrade to its previous generation fastest chip, especially in all likelihood, this will be AMD fastest single chip for the 6xxx series.

What makes you think it is a sidegrade Stevil?
The topic of discussion was the 6870, if you go back and read of what you quoted from xlink.