Why do you think they will use the gf116 chip for it with only 256 cores?
Thats a pretty big gap. 384 shader gtx560 to a 256 shader gts550.
Imagine if there were THREE types of GTX560.
One with 384 shaders, one with 384 shaders and a reduced memory bus, and one with 336 shaders.
Wouldn't that be crazy, eh?
Oh wait, that would be exactly the same as the GTX460...
Just because you want to speculate about a card that doesn't exist, and they say why it's stupid that it wouldn't be X or Y or Z, doesn't mean it will exist.
Also currently the x50 model is a GTS not a GTX, so maybe it will be a GTS550.
I don't get why you assume that a future product will follow a different pattern than past products just because you think it will.
GTX260 and GTS250? Different GPU.
GTX460 and GTS450? Different GPU.
GTX560 and GTX550? Same GPU according to happy_medium.
Fudzilla getting happy medium excited about the GTS455
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2116178&highlight= (at least the GTX580 arrived)
BSON getting happy medium all excited about the dual GTX480
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2054190&highlight=
Kitguru and happy medium, the awesome dual GTX470
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2076128&highlight=
Fudzilla again, and the infamous GTX475
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2083019&highlight=
Fudzilla CONFIRMING the dual GTX460 card
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2089768&highlight=
Fudzilla (yet again) and happy medium telling us of the GTX475
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2093139&highlight=
1) This is why we don't think much of Fudzilla
2) Rumours and wild speculation are silly, and half the cards Fudzilla remarks on never seem to appear
3) You kept obsessing over the GTX475, and it never appeared, and now you are telling us that for sure there will be a GTX550 and a 384 shader GTX460 type card (much like the GTX475 was going to be)