Yeah I've heard about all this, I a posted a topic here a while ago on something I heard about the R520's yields.
I think what we'll have is a 16 pipelined card which has monstrous core/memory frequencies, perhaps at a unusually low price for a brand new card?
It's still going to be an interesting shoot-out; SLI 7800 GTX vs XFIRE R520. Perhaps ATI will have an edge in the pricetag?...