Still does not explain [LOL, quoting myself] :
#0D0908 is a color. Nearly entire space under the fan is of this solid color ['sept for the heatpipes, wires and a little of other stuff (those parts being identical to those in the image of 7850, so to note)]
P.S. I am not actually sure if it is a fake or not, and never was. Just, this whole "investigation" & drama thing is fun. + intelligent debate. YAY!
To be frank, I'm on your side wrt skepticism about this picture. But I'm banking on the plausible-deniability trick PR departments play.
PR departments dealing with sensitive information deliberately don't give 100% accurate pre-launch photos/presentations to give to semi-important people who are not NDA signatories, so if leaked, they could deny them as fake (pointing out flaws). Sometimes they're Mr. Blurrycam shots, sometimes dodgy to the sharp eye.
We all know how recently, everyone pounced on the first GTX 680 picture by calling it fake on grounds of that poorly-done "GTX x70TI" marking, while others calling it a morphed GTX 580 board. Not much later, it took shape as the real GTX 680. Maybe this pic
is fake and poorly done because not even AMD has a polished-looking press-shot of the real thing, maybe it's not. Such <100% accurate pics are shared with entities like distributors. Contrary to popular belief, most leaks originate not from the press, but from the supply-chain. The press is hardly told anything about unannounced products till about a week before launch when they get samples to test.