Radeon HD 7000 Revealed: AMD to Mix GCN with VLIW4 & VLIW5 Architectures

[omega1alpha]

Also, the 5870 wasn't really innovative. It was, for all intents and purposes, a 4890 with DX11 tacked on and a higher shader count. That's what makes the 7970 interesting, because it's the first time AMD have REALLY stepped away from the architecture they used in the R600.

Good point. It always seems like people forget that. This is just my opinion, the 5870 wasn't a bad card, but it was overpriced for what you got (compared to 4800 series not Fermi). The 4870 was released at like $300 and was almost as fast as the nvidia single high end GTX 280. The 5870 released at like $370+ or something. The DX 11 felt rushed; especially tessellation performance. The DX9/10 was obviously faster, but not as much as I expected given twice the shaders. I remember the 4890 going for like $150 or something a few months after release while the 5870 was selling for over $300 just about a year ago. Those 5870 cards took forever to drop below $300 and most inventory was gone before you could get one for under $200 new. I wasn't happy with the 5800 series pricing at all. Of course, you have to factor the market overall. I'll sure have fond memories of the 4800 series, but the 5800 series just doesn't cut the mustard in my opinion. AMD has been increasing prices with newer releases. We need more competition. I sure would love to get a 7970 for $300 or lower.......