What's the price difference between the 6950 2GB, 6950 1gb and 6870 going to be? If 6950 2GB is $300, and 6870 is $250 that doesn't leave a lot of room for pricing this new card. If it's only a few dollars more than a 6870, then AMD will be destroying sales of that card and if the 2gb card is only a few dollars more than the 1gb one then everyone will buy that one instead. Even if AMD does a price drop now it's going to be hard to see how this new card is going to establish a niche for itself.
So let's assume they split the difference and price it at $275 but the performance is similar to the 2gb model, then it will be hurting sales of the 2gb card because everyone will buy the cheaper one, and if it vastly outperforms 6870 for only $25 more then it will steal sales from that card, too. Whether you look at it from a price perspective or a performance perspective, this new card is going to hurt sales of the existing ones.
I also don't understand why Sapphire is going with a non-reference cooler but NOT the Vapor-X/Toxic one. If they thought the 6870 got hot enough for external exhaust, what makes them think this is going to run any cooler?
