The first "proper" Kepler news Fri 17th Feb?

Nightglow · 13 Mar 2012 at 11:04

Yes, but some 6950's unlocked to 6970's, so we might be lucky.

CTF, hadn't thought of that option.

Duff-Man · 13 Mar 2012 at 11:07

ALXAndy said:
I must say there is a part of me that hopes that is true and they did not lazer cut it out.

When the 7970 was first released, with significantly worse-than-expected transistor density, I also speculated that there may be hidden / disabled SP in the design.

However AMD have formally denied that there are any disabled shaders:

Chris Hook AMD senior PR exec said:
There are no hidden cores… there is no room for couple of hundred million additional transistors "doing nothing."

e.g: here, here.

straxusii · 13 Mar 2012 at 11:08

GTA767 said:
i told u guys yesterday truth as my friend is testing it 2 6 pins

low power consumption ver cool card and equal to 7970

and overclocks very well

but as no one knows about pricing except gibbo

in usa it will retail 499 by his opinion

one good thing for this card u didnt need 2 coolers thats great

blame amd for this as 7970 should be much more powerfull

Thanks for the info mate, didnt realise your mate had one

ALXAndy · 13 Mar 2012 at 11:19

Duff-Man said:
When the 7970 was first released, with significantly worse-than-expected transistor density, I also speculated that there may be hidden / disabled SP in the design.

However AMD have formally denied that there are any disabled shaders:

e.g: here, here.

Then they have cut them out. Ah well.

McBain · 13 Mar 2012 at 11:19

£400, lol.

Gregster · 13 Mar 2012 at 11:26

My major dissapointment is the fact (after realisation) they are calling a 670 card a 680, which from the consumers POV is bad, purely because we will be getting a 670 card at a 680 price (570 - 580 comparison). This only sank in whilst re-reading this whole thread.

IMO, this is not realy being fair "unless" they bring it in with a price that reflects it as being the originally intended 670TI but this, I believe, is wishfull thinking.

Time will tell and again we are going on rumours and as "nothing" came out of the Nvidia camp, we can't argue the toss.

straxusii · 13 Mar 2012 at 11:31

I think it is even worse than that gregster, GF104 and GF114 were 460 and 560 respectively so it isnt even the 670

ALXAndy · 13 Mar 2012 at 11:35

gregster said:
My major dissapointment is the fact (after realisation) they are calling a 670 card a 680, which from the consumers POV is bad, purely because we will be getting a 670 card at a 680 price (570 - 580 comparison). This only sank in whilst re-reading this whole thread.

IMO, this is not realy being fair "unless" they bring it in with a price that reflects it as being the originally intended 670TI but this, I believe, is wishfull thinking.

Time will tell and again we are going on rumours and as "nothing" came out of the Nvidia camp, we can't argue the toss.

Nvidia is a business. A business that exists to make money.

It's that same old scenario of something for nothing. In business you sell what you have. You don't down play it and you don't undercut it to make it worth any less.

I wouldn't, you wouldn't.

It's quite clear what has happened. Initial reports were "670ti beats a 7950 doesn't beat a 7970". Now, after some tweaks and optimisation it goes toe to to with a 7970, and quelle surprise ! it's now called a 680.

No one will care Greg. In fact, many will be positively pleased that it competes at the top end and comes with a bigger number on to make their epeen look larger.

You'll see. Watch how quickly they sell no matter how high the price.

Gregster · 13 Mar 2012 at 11:46

straxusii said:
I think it is even worse than that gregster, GF104 and GF114 were 460 and 560 respectively so it isnt even the 670

I couldn't agree more. I was just using that as an example.

ALXAndy said:
Nvidia is a business. A business that exists to make money.

It's that same old scenario of something for nothing. In business you sell what you have. You don't down play it and you don't undercut it to make it worth any less.

I wouldn't, you wouldn't.

It's quite clear what has happened. Initial reports were "670ti beats a 7950 doesn't beat a 7970". Now, after some tweaks and optimisation it goes toe to to with a 7970, and quelle surprise ! it's now called a 680.

No one will care Greg. In fact, many will be positively pleased that it competes at the top end and comes with a bigger number on to make their epeen look larger.

You'll see. Watch how quickly they sell no matter how high the price.

Don't get me wrong, I understand how buisness works (sort of) but just dissapointed because what could have cost £270 will now cost £400. From a consumers POV, this leaves a bad taste in my mouth as I was realy looking forward to a card that beats the 7970 easily. I don't know that it wont but if it is the same price as the 7970, then I will be gvhkjghzlkrjghkjgkrhighghirghhzghghzrgh.

I don't mind paying top price for top performance as a lot of us enthusiasts would agree, it's just this doesn't feel like top performance and yet probably will be top price.

I know Nvidia will have guys reading the forums and just hope they use common and undercut AMD.

straxusii · 13 Mar 2012 at 11:53

ALXAndy said:
Nvidia is a business. A business that exists to make money.

It's that same old scenario of something for nothing. In business you sell what you have. You don't down play it and you don't undercut it to make it worth any less.

I wouldn't, you wouldn't.

I couldn't agree more, I don't blame Nvidia for doing what they are doing. I'm just very disappointed on a personal level that it means I won't be getting a shiny new toy at the end of this month

andybird123 · 13 Mar 2012 at 11:55

I think basic model 580 being dropped to 299 gives you a hint that 680 will definitely be more than this, but possibly under £400, I would be hoping as low as £350 but I would be guessing close to the 4 mark

drunkenmaster · 13 Mar 2012 at 11:58

Who on earth is calling it efficient and for what reason. AMD TDP rating != Nvidia TDP rating.

THe 560ti has a circa 170W tdp rating, the 6970 250W, the 6950 200W, the 560ti uses 25W more than the 6950 and 20W less than the 6970 in Metro 2033 average power(Anandtech, similar difference on Crysis 2 on techpowerup) while being slower than both.

So a 200W 6950 uses 25W LESS power in games than a card with a much lower TDP... and the 6950 is faster than it.

190W is likely to be much closer to the actual average gaming power and the 7970 uses 160-180W depending on the game for the same thing.

Sampsy · 13 Mar 2012 at 11:58

Honestly I would have thought it would have been a PR win for Nvidia if their mid range card beat the 7970 with a mid-range name. It would make Kepler and Nvidia seem even more impressive. To those who don't follow all the news and just go to buy a card, it will seem the two companies are even (high end vs high end).

As far as I as a consumer am concerned, yes this is bad. A lack of competition (presuming Nvidia & AMD aren't being naughty) may lead to me paying more for the same device.

Gregster · 13 Mar 2012 at 11:59

straxusii said:
I couldn't agree more, I don't blame Nvidia for doing what they are doing. I'm just very disappointed on a personal level that it means I won't be getting a shiny new toy at the end of this month

I have a feeling this is my thoughts also. £400 was my aim for a card that comfortably beats 7970 but £400+ for an =

Meh just meh

MichaelM · 13 Mar 2012 at 12:00

Sin_Chase said:
Cooking you breakfast.

What do you think?

Stone Giant? Batman AC?

Unless they did a techpowerup style of benchmarking at multiple resolutions, I wouldn't know what to think.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 13 Mar 2012 at 12:08

It will be interesting to see how the dual GPU card pans out though. It could mean the Nvidia dual GPU card ends up faster than the AMD one,if the GK104 has HD7970 level performance for a lower TDP.

ALXAndy · 13 Mar 2012 at 12:17

straxusii said:
I couldn't agree more, I don't blame Nvidia for doing what they are doing. I'm just very disappointed on a personal level that it means I won't be getting a shiny new toy at the end of this month

It does suck, but sadly that is business.

Nvidia did no one any favours with the 570 and 580, not even after selling people flux capacitor 470s and 480s.

I'd like to say that it would have been nice of them to extend the olive branch and offer some sort of step up on those cards, but that would have seen them go bankrupt. I guess at the end of the day you buy something that you have researched, and if you haven't then I guess that's down to you.

You don't make many friends in business, but you sure as hell make a lot of enemies. Just part and parcel when you deal in money and take into account the nature of human greed.

Unlike Fermi I do believe that they have almost got Kepler spot on tbh. They haven't promised anything this time around, and it looks like they will deliver what people were expecting (well, the realistic ones any way).

Zeed · 13 Mar 2012 at 12:20

I expected this move from them tbh.
Why would you give free preformance ???
Most of my mates will never buy AMD card. Even if it would be 30% faster for same price they would still buy NV card.
NVIDIA knows .... They know that like 70% of their customer base are freeking fanatics and they will buy new cards even if they would be overpriced compared to AMD product.

I hope AMD will do big price drop once Kepler is out 50-70f on 7970. That would be sensible and maybe planed move from AMD after they drained Fastest card on the market pool.

RavenXXX2 · 13 Mar 2012 at 12:22

Lord_ZED said:
I expected this move from them tbh.
Why would you give free preformance ???
Most of my mates will never buy AMD card. Even if it would be 30% faster for same price they would still buy NV card.
NVIDIA knows .... They know that like 70% of their customer base are freeking fanatics and they will buy new cards even if they would be overpriced compared to AMD product.

I hope AMD will do big price drop once Kepler is out 50-70f on 7970. That would be sensible and maybe planed move from AMD after they drained Fastest card on the market pool.

They gave free performance with the 8800gt, it basically killed off the 8800GTX at half the price.

ALXAndy · 13 Mar 2012 at 12:27

RavenXXX2 said:
They gave free performance with the 8800gt, it basically killed off the 8800GTX at half the price.

But the 8800 series was stuff of legend, pure win.

2xx series were totally underwhelming and gave 8800GTX owners no real reason to bother upgrading. The 8800s really were that good.

2xx? not so good. Only die hards bought them IMO.

Fermi? less said about that at the beginning the better. I would find it surprising if it even paid for itself, though no one will ever really know.

So given that they have not had the same fortune IMO since the 8800 cards they can't afford to go around giving things away.