In ATI's defense, they hadn't planned on having the R580 released this close to the R520, but due to some problems with the yeilds and scaling on the R520 that weren't worked out soon enough, the R520 was pushed back almost into the life time of the R580. ATI desperately needed to get SOMETHING out to compete with the 7800 cards from NVIDIA, as the aging X850 video cards weren't even getting close. Thus, X1800 was thrust into the world late and somewhat lacking, and thus, R580 comes to pick up the pieces and spread good tidings to the gamers across the land..



Link: PC Perspective