When AMD decided to cancel the editors party in Amsterdam, people were disappointed that the R600 would slip into the 2nd Quarter. Speculations of the reasons behind the move, ranged from releasing high, mid, low end parts at the same time (to capture more market share) to making the chip more energy efficient.

Now we know that AMD is planning to leverage TSMC's manufacturing capabilities to etch all the chip circuitry in 65nm and reduce the power consumption of the 700m+ transistor R600 and the lower-end RV610/630 chips.

As if it's not tough enough that ATI's naming strategy is down the drain, the Inquirer seems to be thoroughly bought up by AMD's marketing money, since the hype generated is tremendous.

Statements such as:

"That means that even though AMD is more than six months behind in terms of the G80 vs. R600 battle, AMD actually now has a six month levy over the NV55, better known to people as ex-G81, currently known about as G90 - or the NV55 in the halls of Satan Clara. " just show how what kind of journalism they are used to. (More like News of the World than even the SUN).

Finding reasons to mess-ups isn't the answer for messing things up twice (with RV510/580), meaning that a combination of bad PR hype, lack of availability, delays & inpatient partners, it might well be that ATI's money is running thin and will cause the company to retreat into private ownership.

For most people though, it's the final price to customers that determines the sale. If there was a budget card for AGP that I could stick into my secondary system and get the same power as a G80, I'd be happy to do so anytime.