Unless of course you think AMD will be doing the same, as I can pretty much guarantee you that both sides will have vaguely similar performance, just like they always have.
Dissclaimer ( this post is my own opinion and as such is probably complete nonsense)
Well AMD have only claimed 2x perf-per-watt for their new generation. It may be that AMD are not capable of delivering quite such a drastic leap in performance with their next gen, compared to what Pascal might be capable of delivering.
And all nV will want to do is roughly match AMD. They won't want to give away tons of performance for free. Although I suppose if they were massively faster they could just charge twice as much
Either way, I think it pays not to get your hopes up for low-end Pascal cards to beat a 980ti. I don't think they will. Consumers these days would settle for much less, and still be happy to open their wallets.
e: nV will still have plenty of 900 series stock in the channel, you would assume, upon the launch of Pascal. What benefit would it be for them, if GP106 (etc) beat a 980ti? They'd be left with inventory that they could not shift unless they practically gave it away.
And when has it ever been the cast that a low end card beat the previous gen's flagship lite? I can just about see the 1070 being close to a 980ti*, but a 1060? I don't think there's a bat's chance in hell of that.
*Personally I think the 1070 will be somewhere between the 980 and 980ti. Not even faster than the ti at all
![Stick Out Tongue :p :p](/styles/default/xenforo/vbSmilies/Normal/tongue.gif)