Not too sure about the smart marketing.
We got the same sort of thing with Barcelona, and since it's introduction, AMD's share of the server market has shrunk from ~16% to around 6-8%.
We also recently had the HD 6970 thrashes GTX 580 hyperbole. I can't help but think that leaking these so-called "performance gains" set up AMD-philes for a fall, and while I would contend that the series was a success, the undercurrent flowing through the tech community was/is that of a tarnished release and an unfulfilled promise.
So while I'm optimistic that we get back to the old Athlon/Pentium days of true competition, I can't but help think that AMD is yet again painting itself into a corner to some degree. It's rabbit out of the hat time, and I'd really like to see how AMD can make concrete the claims that they can win in performance, price, performance/$ and performance/mm² while getting significantly fewer dies per wafer, 5+ years of R&D to amortize and the not insignificant matter of wrestling OEM's away from Intel Core i -given that AMD seem to have been
less than successful in outselling Intel when the latter had nothing to sell.
Intel's strategy seems to be "walk softly and carry a big stick" of late. Sandy Bridge is, at best, 20% better than Lynnfield but look at the furore the launch caused and the momentum it generated- in no small part from the lack of preconceived performance targets the parts had to hit - indeed, for the enthusiast community, quite the opposite thanks to the news that base clocks were effectively locked. For all the hoopla surrounding it's impending launch, very little information regarding relative performance was "leaked" prior to it's official introduction.
I don't know if it's smart marketing to:
Fire your CEO and two other high ranking technical officers at the same time as you launch product...
Release a card series (HD6970/6950) with spotty driver performance/functionality...
Release a card that isn't covered by warranty if you use it in the manner that it is designed to be used
So I'm reluctant to annoint AMD's marketing as anything other than mediocre based on recent efforts.