And no major improvement from 5xxx series to be honest...

Without even going into the improvements of HD 8000 series. The HD 7000 series with the first gen GCN is the biggest change in GPU architecture in the company's history ever since unified shaders came into play, compared to all other steady changes that had happened prior to that.

That is really a strange statement to make.

HD5870 joins the 8800GTX for longevity

No major improvements since HD5xxx series? HD7970GE without any overclocking is nearly 2x faster than HD5870 in modern games. Ok sure, for card that came out September 2009 HD5870 is a rock star, but HD7970GE is a pretty big step up.
http://www.techpowerup.co..._7970_GHz_Edition/28.html

Interesting that the 7970 is almost 2x faster than the 5870, but when 5870 was launched it was already 2x times faster than the 4870, don't you think?

You are confusing HD5870 vs. HD4870X2 with HD5870 being 2x faster than HD4870. HD5870 traded blows with HD4870X2 because HD4000 CF scaling was sub-par but 5870 was not actually 2x on avg. faster than 4870 was, HD7970GE is almost there.

HD5870 was 62% faster than HD4870 at 1080P 4AA, and 68% faster at 1600P 4AA:
http://www.computerbase.d...st-ati-radeon-hd-5870/23/

925mhz HD7970 was 51% faster than HD6950~5870 at 1080P 4AA, and 61% faster at 1600P 4AA:
http://www.computerbase.d...st-amd-radeon-hd-7970/10/

But AMD left a ton of overclocking headroom on the 7970, allowing most enthusiasts to OC from 925mhz to 1150-1200mhz. With overclocking, HD7970 is actually 90-100% faster than an HD5870 and it has 3GB of VRAM for mods.

HD7970 is a bigger improvement over 5870 than 5870 was over 4870 if you consider overclocking. The downside is AMD raised prices to $550 and there is a larger gap between 5870's and 7970's release dates than between 4870's and 5870's, due to 28nm node issues. Prices also had to rise due to a rise in 28nm wafer costs. Nvidia sold 294mm2 GK104 for $499 while they sold 480/580 chips for $499 despite their 500mm2+ die sizes.

Did you also forget that 5870 falls apart in DX11 games with tessellation?
http://www.anandtech.com/...geforce-gtx-680-review/11
http://www.anandtech.com/...geforce-gtx-680-review/16

HD7970 is a big upgrade from the 5870. I don't expect the next big upgrade on AMD side until 20nm though. HD8970 should be a mild upgrade (15-20%).

Much will depend on the research impact from the likes of SIGGRAPH et al. MS needs certain levels of improvements to tallied up in the draft to sanction DX 12 specification and then push GPU makers to bring it to market.

There are some novel ideas right now but 3D engine makers also need input to have their say in what they feel is best for the graphics industry. A lot of good ideas never see the light of day but then go on to serve as primer for better tech to be used in future iterations of DX.

Take Intel's penis out of your mouth!

There is little need for such talk, you can convey your point with more elegance don't you think?

http://www.techpowerup.co...S/HD_7970_X_Turbo/28.html

1180mhz HD7970 is 96% faster than HD6950~HD5870 at 1080P and 104% at 1600P. It is also 72% and 79% faster than HD6970 at these respective resolutions. Those are larger differences than 5870 had over 4870 (see my post above).

HSA is doing just that and its progressing very well towards enabling its key goals.