AMD GPG (ex-ATI) is binning the parts to a lowest denominator required for good yields and a level of performance that reaches or sometimes overtakes Nvidia’s GTX 260. But this time around, the company developed an AIB/OEM-only product codenamed "Super RV770", which will be much more powerful.
The "Super RV770" will arrive with pre-installed water-cooling and features unlocked BIOS, which enables the GPU to be pushed all the way to 950 MHz, while the memory can be pushed to 4.8 GT/s (1.2 GHz QDR). According to our sources, you may be able to push the GPU even beyond 1 GHz, if you use TEC elements, and keep the temperature of GPU low.
About the only bright side I can see for this is that it means we're going to start seeing some hefty factory-overclocked HD 4870s, even if Super RV770 isn't likely to see the likes of Newegg's shelves. This is both cool and sad.
I wonder, though, has AMD sacrificed too much for OEMs? What do you people think?