Easy there tiger...put down the flamethrower and read the entire article...
I'll try to address your concerns in order:
What does these images actually tell us? That there are some differences between the two cores? Ummmm, I'd kinda expect that from the pure fact that (presumably) one is PCI-Express and one is AGP - but instead the article decides to FUD the point without any clear clue as to what is going on there. Why even bring this up if you don't know what it is? Perhaps the "very reliable sources" suggested some things about adding "complexity" because these sources have their own agenda? Dunno, but bringing this up as it was, not actually concluding anything looks like its just FUD'ing.
I believe you missed the obvious couching by the blatent disclaimers throughout that paragraph such as "supposedly" and "no confirmation" and "cannot make a judgement". Now one might say, if you cannot make a judgement why bother showing it? Well, with Ryan and I each having degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering I think we are more than qualified to comment here.
This solution will also reduce complexity board wise, and also result in fewer board differences between the AGP and PCI-Express versions than NVIDIA's solution, which will require very different boards to accommodate the external bridge.
NVIDIA dictates whether a board will be AGP or PCI-Express by either soldering this chip on or not soldering it on. Aside from that, the only appreciable differences between AGP and PCI-Express boards is their physical interface. In ATI's case, they have a specific chip for each...
So, what do we have? Another article that doesn't attempt to explore what PCI-Express can actually do for us in the future and also manages to spread some unfounded FUD. Great start.
Evidently, you missed the following...
Although the immediate success of ATI’s native implementation remains to be seen, there are some very exciting possibilities on the horizon which could take advantage of the enormous bi-directional bandwidth of PCI-Express. With this bandwidth at their disposal, developers can now begin exploring methods of offloading the CPU by bringing some tasks to the VPU. One example we were provided with is assigning the handling of physics calculations to the VPU instead of the CPU. Here, the architecture of the VPU will likely be able to process these calculations faster than the CPU would. As a result, games which were once CPU-bound now have more headroom and performance should increase accordingly. In addition, developers can also explore methods of controlling artificial intelligence with the VPU instead of the main processor. Again, this will likely add a healthy boost in performance to a taxing game engine. Despite being excellent additions to gaming, we must remember that this is all a work in progress. No titles on shelves today can take advantage of these features, so we are once again faced with a timing issue.
as well as
Taking a few steps back and looking at the big picture, we realize that neither vendor disputes the benefits nor potential performance increases PCI-Express brings to the industry. Rather, the main point of issue here seems to be when these appreciable performance increases will become evident. As it stands, the only application which we currently know of which will have any noticeable and immediate performance enhancements from PCI-Express is HDTV editing. Although this is definitely a legitimate application and an area which will surely be capturing more interest over the next few years, this is hardly a mainstream area of focus. What our audience wants to know is, “will framerates for the latest and greatest games be contingent upon having a native PCI-Express card?†Like all things in life, there is no simple answer as the real answer is dictated by your upgrade plans and time of reference.
To further ensure that this article was fair, we have a conclusion which clearly outlines the fact that the statements made were based upon the information we had been given as boards were not yet available. A follow-up with these boards is promised before we make any judgements...
