AlienIsGODNice cards but not really an improvement over a 4870 or even my 4850 for that matter. I am still looking at dual 6850//70s for my Bulldozer rig and BF 3.

You're joking, right? Even if it is a cut down 6870 it is still going to be hella faster than a 4870 and probably even a 4890. The 5770 was already almost as fast as a 4870 with it's 128-bit memory interface. This Barts variant with 256-bit memory is going to be a lot faster than that and you can't use DX11 with a 4870. So how is it not an upgrade?

blibbaSomeone explain to me why this isn't called a 6830.

Seems NV and AMD have dropped even the pretense of a coherent naming scheme :(

A. Because they want to sell it in the market segment that the 5750/5770 now occupy. They will probably be renamed to 6750 and 6770 soon.

B. Maybe they want to reserve 6830 for another card that has yet to be announced.

Personally, I think they should have gone with a cut down 6850 with higher clocks because the power consumption of a cut down 6870 is out of line with other cards in this segment and using the 6870 board probably makes the 6790 the largest card in the category, as well. Users with small cases won't be able to buy one. Another thing, what is the target price range for these? A quick google search shows a low price of $165 for the 6850. The latest price estimate I have seen for the 550Ti was $149 (which in itself is stupid because the 768mb GTX460 is already faster and cheaper). Does it really make sense not to just lower the price of the 6850 instead of creating a new card?