Due to supply issues late last year and early this year, ATI lost market share to Nvidia, especially in the enthusiast sector. The 6600 GT was a smash hit across the board, and the X800 released didn't pick up as well as it was supposed to. The X700 was rarely seen in stores and hard to come buy, and the X800 was priced significantly higher than the 6800. ATI is going to change that, with the release of the X800 GT.
"So before we see the launch of the upcoming high-end R520 and R580 graphics cards, ATI released something price competitive and definitely has got something there that can compete with the GeForce 6600 GT...
Several ATI Retail suppliers are already offering this product, including the well-known Sapphire and PowerColor. The card itself features 470 - 475Mhz VPU, 128mb to 512mb of GDDR at speeds up to 980Mhz, and 8 pipelines of high performance. It is supposed to be very reasonably priced, and since it uses a new(er) manufacturing process, may turn out to be a good candidate for overclocking or passive cooling.