Disappointment In The R600 Series

[Corbs]

I'd been looking at a few reviews from both anandtech and extremetech (it seems tomshardware hasn't posted one yet) and to be honest, I've been disappointed to see that ATI/AMD hasn't released a high end card that could top the nVidia 8800 GTX/Ultra. Granted, the 2900 XT is the best card for a budget of 400$ although I was looking forward to one that could actually beat nVidia's 8800 high end card. Not that I favor ATI, I was just hoping for a new range of high end cards.

A quote from Anandtech's review:

Originally Posted by Anandtech

In another unique move, there is no high end part in AMD's R600 lineup. The Radeon HD 2900 XT is the highest end graphics card in the lineup and it's priced at $399. While we appreciate AMD's intent to keep prices in check, the justification is what we have an issue with. According to AMD, it loses money on high end parts which is why we won't see anything more expensive than the 2900 XT this time around. The real story is that AMD would lose money on a high end part if it wasn't competitive, which is why we feel that there's nothing more expensive than the 2900 XT. It's not a huge deal because the number of people buying > $399 graphics cards is limited, but before we've started the review AMD is already giving up ground to NVIDIA, which isn't a good sign.

Here are the reviews:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2988&p=1
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...2128867,00.asp

Granted the card has potential, and it's far from being perfect (drivers). Hopefully we can expect more from AMD/ATI in the future.

What's your input on this?