Quote Originally Posted by ohnoitseddy View Post
Indeed I've seen many AMD fans dearly hoping for AMD to "beat" nVidia. And no doubt they were disappointed. But does that mean the HD69xx are disappointing products? Definitely not - they've got excellent bang for buck, and an excellent set of features. The disappointment was in that AMD didn't even try to make the fastest GPU, but rather went for a smaller, more sensible one.

If you don't understand why AMD doesn't go for the single GPU crown, and in spite of all fanboy cravings deliberately hasn't done so in the last two years, please educate yourself by reading the following, truly excellent articles by Anand:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2679
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2937

If you like GPU tech, you'll definitely enjoy it!
Yes, HD69xx are disappointing products, indeed! Bang for the buck is good, but that's in mainstream. The high-end is all about the crown!. That's why you have a gig price-gap between 6970 vs 6950, and 580 vs 570. That's why, 10% more performance costs you 30% more price in high-end, ruffly. This is so clear and obvious that I shouldn't waste time on explaining it.

This doesn't mean HD69xx is a total waste, but don't tell me "bang for the buck" was the plan. AMD tried, but underestimated the flexibility of Fermi-architecture.
As I've said before the release of these round, since they both were using the same old 40nm node, the flexibility of their architecture would deside the outcome. AMD wished, and tried too, with a couple of delays too, but couldn't beat nVidia.