Well since I'm a fellow D800E owner I'm going to have to stick up for the Nikons here Fred!
Yes it does look a bit over processed to me, or it's something else. Here is a Milky Way shot I took last weekend at the Dish at Parkes (cropped out foreground to leave upper left corner). This is ISO 6400 too but only 20 secs (ignore the star elongation - I had the camera sitting on my camera bag cos I left my tripod home!). There is very little noise visible. It's processed slightly in PS6 - levels, contrast etc. The second image is a further top left crop of the first which shows the low noise a bit better.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/2900549...ream/lightbox/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/2900549...ream/lightbox/