It's so insanely powerful. I knew it would be but it is ridiculous. The article is right two 6800 Ultras is $1000 right there.
Just to compare GPUs:
For example -
Xbox 360 - 48 billion shader operations per second
PS3 - 100 billion shader operations per second
Looks like the Nvidia vs. ATI war is moving onto consoles big time as well. It will be interesting to see what the next next gen consoles will introduce.
This machine will NO WAY sell for as low as Xbox 360. It would be such a big economic risk to do that. It is good that Sony is marketing the PS3 as a multimedia machine not only a console to justify the estimated price tag of $700.
I think they are using PS3 to inflitrate the Blu-Ray market and establish it as a standard with consumers to force industry to set it as standard. This is my speculation of course but time will tell. Gaming consoles are becoming all-out multimedia machines now. It will soon replace conventional DVD players and etc. It could serve as a home entertainment system.