I owned one . It was a good card, and nVidia's 5 series FX cards were bad. However, as good as it was, it wasn't "complete different performance class" is was just superior. And, of course, nVidia had a better product with the 6th gen cards. I mean we saw it kind of happen again with the 480 and 5870, but again, it didn't kill nVidia.Do a Google search for "Ati 9700 Pro reviews". Then sit back and prepare to be astonished that someone unbelievably produced an "Nvidia Killer".
The claim seems to be that these specalized nueral chips will jsut be so much better than nVidia it'll kick them out of the AI space. I am doubtful.