[wirybeige]

Hard to say why the density is that different, if those transistor numbers are accurate. A less dense design would allow for higher clocking, & while the clocks are fairly high, they aren't that far out there, but that's one factor (I'd hope they wouldn't trade half the area for a few extra MHz, when a gpu w/ 2x the tr will just be better).

It could also be in addition that the # of transistors that each company provides is different as they may count them differently (but I'm not convinced of this).

Customers pay by the wafer, so mm^2; though tr cost is a function of that so :3 .