I bet it performs <= 1080 meaning Nvidia makes much more efficient GPUs, GPU which overclocked to 2025Mhz with evga air type cooler doesn't go over 62C. I would not be surprised if Nvidia releases 1080ti to spoil it for AMD. Regardless of this, it is good we are getting competition CPU/GPU market, now let's make everyone lower their prices.
I very much doubt that. AMDs main issue in the past years was drivers and efficiency both of which they finally seem to get better at.
when it comes to silicon amd actually always did have very powerful gpus sitting around but they took ages to get the drivers right. that's why they are perceived slower by so many people who just read one of those reviews that keep on showing the performance data from launch day. NVidia does a much better job getting performance right out of the gate (especially with dx11), amds driver team seems to be drunk half the time and needs about 6-9 months to actually get decent drivers done (at least this was the case for the last few years, can't check now as I do not have an amd card at the moment).
if you look up reviews of cards that actually retest the performance repeatedly, the amd cards usually catch up or even surpass the NVidia counterparts in time but at that point no one notices anymore and so the mindshare is firmly with NVidia being faster.
when it comes to efficiency amd finally made some progress with the rx4xx cards. they are not equal yet but they are close enough to NVidia again. if vega is as efficient or an upgrade to the rx4xx series power draw is a non-argument for either side.
NVidia on the other hand seems to have issues getting any substantial gains out of DX12 compared to DX11. since their driver team is superb in my experience this seems to be a design limitation in the chip, so unless they revamp pascal or come up with something completely new within the next 6 months amd has more than a small chance to beat the 1080(ti) with vega if it pans out half as good as the leaks suggest at the moment.
And yes, I too am looking forward very much to an actual alternative to overpriced NVidia highend cards - amd being competitive in high end again will bring down the ridiculous prices quite a bit if nothing else and that is a very good thing.