You are new to this forum, but when i said something similar to your line (for a while ago, before the release of 6970) I got flamed with several personal attacks.

Everybody was expecting that 6970 would beat/match 580, that was the plan. At least every AMD-fan thought and believed. But it turned out to beat the 480 after release.

But lets hope the "new" 6990 plan works.