All the versions of radeon is starting to get a bit confusing. Esp when the only differences is in the memory and its interface.

Considering that you probably didn't buy a ati product until the 9800 had been out for 6 mos and it was aparant that nvida wouldn't be making a comeback for awhile, you probably don't know about this. back in the radeon 8500's heyday ati said they would change their naming pratices or that they wouldn't do different versions of the same model. Lots of people bought radeon 8500se's or some other version and found out they weren't a 275/275 clock, more like a 225/225 or 250/250. ATI said they wouldn't do that any more to avoid the confusion.