I have been reading , watching all about AMD and Navi, and if the bad news is correct and navi is not going to be the killer that we all wanted ,, then i think your only options is to put all LOW in GPUs Bar higher than ever, let me try and make more sense!
I play a game and i love playing ULTRA settings, but the other guy i play with plays LOW <-- this needs to change enough with LOW settings we need the hardware guys to SET a NEW STANDARD that all games can now be played at high settings even your 100 dollar cards can do this ,, I think the only way you can win mind share is by SETTING A NEW GAMING STANDARD this will make all low end cards look like trash from the others, this would also stop the I can see you but you can not see me because i play on low and your on ultra! When it comes to gaming there is a very big problem with games like PUBG where someone playing low settings can see everything all the time, and the gamer playing on ultra can not see them because there are more trees, bushes, grass to hide!! This is a hardware problem not a dev problem , if devs know that the 100 dollar card can still run HIGH settings they will not program for low polygon count options, like i said if Navi is not the BIG DOG killer we wanted, then you have to do something like this to win mind share ,, trust me! I may not have great writing skills but the brain makes up where you lack (human way) gaming for 25+ years I know what we need and what we need is a new bottom end STANDARD!
Also why in the world are you all still putting the CORES so close to each other you need separations the smaller the dies get, you have TO MUCH HEAT to close together, this is why 14nm 12nm could clock so much higher ,, you have a heat problem i know it and when you go to 5nm lol good luck with that i would resign the whole thing putting all cores close to edge around the outside like layers
core 14nm in from edge leaving room for
memory control
core core core core core core core
core L2cache core L2cache core L2 core
core memory control core memory control core
core shader core shader core shader core
core core core core core core core core core core
put separations between each core and you will get your clocks back
having all the cores right next to each other is killing mores law even thought that should be dead because he did not know what he was talking about!
if you look at xray its between 0.01nm and 10nm and i do believe your having more heat problems because of this, does not electrons make light (flir camera )heat, something i would look into!
Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 0.01 to 10 nanometers! "wiki"
Run a simple test to see if when electron runs throu 12nm how much heat it makes do the same test at 7nm see if it has more heat, control test with just wires at 12nm and then 7nm side by side see how much heat you get off those wires something is not right , the smaller we get! could also do with (GigaHZ AC not DC power) running through the 7nm wires you could be getting vibrations heat also something that small has to move ,, because i know back in the day when i did car stereos and i put to small of a wire going to my big subwoofers pushing to much power through those small wires those wires they would curl up together! I think because your dealing with such small sizes you could be running into stuff that no one thought about , wait there a sec, i just said something 
anyways
owner of 2 Vega 64s , Vega VII , 1700x, 2700x, 2700u
if you find my ideas right on point would love some shock shares !
Navi has not been launched yet and there have been no independent reviews and there is no detailed information about price. Hopefully it will be a great performance/price GPU.
New low end GPU's from next generation generally have better performance/cost so that generally gives the option to run at higher settings than previous gen cards.
If running a game at low settings in eSports / online Competition gives more chance of winning if you run the game at low settings / high FPS then I do not see how having the ability to "set a new standard" that all games can be played at high settings will change anything in that regard.
Nvidia have recently added a new feature to apply visual post processing / filters in GeForce Experience which they claim make it easier to see opponents and help you win competitions in supported games like CSGO etc.
The Nvidia Feature is called Game Filter. I have tested using it and I am not convinced that it is worth it.
Here is a picture of how you can access it.
You can do similar things with SweetFX SweetFX Shader Suite Download Version 1.5.1
I believe some eSports competitions consider use of post processing filtering with SweetFx cheating and ban it.
Maybe you want to ask for a similar feature in AMD Radeon Settings Overlay though.
Regarding connecting cores together closely / heat density.
Cores need to be connected witht wires that have resistance that increases with wire length.
Further cores spaced apart, more interconnect resistance, more resistance means slower speeds and higher power dissipation.
If you want to maintain speeds at increased core distance you have to use larger transistors to drive those longer wires and therefore more power is needed again.
Resistance also depends on wire cross section area. A basic equation is R = pL/A
R = resistance, p=resistivity, L=length, A = cross section area.
Newer, smaller IC design processes continue to be more power efficient, allowing for higher performance and or smaller dies and allowing cores to be placed closer together.
New automated low power circuit design techniques have also been available for some time.
Perhaps Navi will implement more of these techniques.
The "special test" information you mention, namely wire resistance/unit length is already in process design rules used to design circuits.
"Moore Law" person did and does know what he is talking about. You might want to look at information about him..
I am interested to see Navi release.
Hopefully when Navi does launch it will be available in volume at launch so you can actually buy one. Hopefully the launch day drivers might have functioning Wattman so that the independent reviewers send out a positive message rather than complain the drivers are unstable and they can't run the benchmarks they want to. Hopefully it will be released with a good cooler and low noise fans in a proper 2 slot wide form factor. Hopefully it will have a UEFI BIOS at launch and dual BIOS switches.
People are complaining that Navi is late but I would prefer it is late if it means the launch is better than the launch for Vega FE, Vega 64, or Radeon VII.
If there is a high end Navi and it has an AIO Liquid cooler I hope AMD put the Water Cooler hoses out the rear of the GPU like on the R9 Fury X and not out the side like on the RX Vega 64 Liquid.
Since you own a Radeon VII do you think it is much of an improvement over Vega 64? How are the drivers performing?
