GTX 680 really a high mid range card??

[smoggy12345]

Are Nvidia secretely doing what AMD did with the 6xxx series and rebranding their mid range cards??

It seems strange to me that Nvidia pop their, apparently, high end card that:

a) Only uses 195w TDP and only using 2x 6pin connectors
b) Only has 256bit memory bus
c) Is priced LOWER than AMD's flagship card
d) Only has 2gb VRAM vs AMD's 3gb (although this isn't unusual for Nvidia to have lower VRAM nowadays)
e) GTX 670 is to get the Ti branding (previously only used in the MID RANGE CARDS not the LOWER HIGH END CARDS) as if to say that this is infact THE midrange card unlike previously the GTX 460 and 560
It feels like the gtx 680 is a high mid range card (taking place of the 470 and 570)

....there's HUGE head room to increase that TDP. Which tells me their is a bigger better card coming...

Because the 680 is already topping the 7970...has this card been brought out as a top end card first getting the rush buyers to pay huge premiums only to top that again with a GTX685? or similar to get another rush...


DISCUSS...

 

[renz496]

It feels like the gtx 680 is a high mid range card (taking place of the 470 and 570)

its more like 460 and 560.

 

[wolfram23]

Yeah... old news. It's the GK104, and their top end architecture will be GK110. But since their GK architecture is so good, their 560 Ti (GF104) replacement ended up faster than the 7970 so there's no point in them cutting into profits.

 

[Rockdpm]

Well since there is higher end Single GPU cards coming in a month or so. I would say yes you could call it a High Mid end but the GTX 670 and supposed GTX 670 ti are gonna be the mid high end true players

 

[smoggy12345]

None of your posts make sense lol!!!

renz...i didnt mean 460 and 560 i meant 470 and 570. The GTX 680 feels like it should have been branded GTX 670 if it was to be sticking to previous branding.

AND...

560Ti better than 7970??

GTX 670 / Ti better than GTX 680?


EH?? Am i missing something here.

 

[Max1s]

Well your right, there is a bigger card: GTX 685.
That card is gonna be a boss!
Anyone remember the gtx 285?

 

[smoggy12345]

Sorry Wolfram i get your post now although im sayin its their 570 replacement rather than 560ti replacement....so what should have been 670 is renamed to 680 to gain profits.

GTX 685 a deffinate....not just a rumour??

 

[bystander]

None of your posts make sense lol!!!

renz...i didnt mean 460 and 560 i meant 470 and 570. The GTX 680 feels like it should have been branded GTX 670 if it was to be sticking to previous branding.

AND...

560Ti better than 7970??

GTX 670 / Ti better than GTX 680?


EH?? Am i missing something here.

They were right. It makes more sense if it was a 660ti in the design department. The 570 and 470's were cut down 580 and 480's. The 460 and 560's were different architectures, which the 680 was planned to be the mid ranged architecture of the series, it turned out to be really good.

 

[renz496]

renz...i didnt mean 460 and 560 i meant 470 and 570. The GTX 680 feels like it should have been branded GTX 670 if it was to be sticking to previous branding.

i understand what you were saying but right now nvidia doesn't have anything that faster than current fully enabled GK104. so i think it doesn't make sense to name the card as GTX670 because it will lead people to believe nvidia still something up their sleeve with GK104 while there is none. the worst of all these people will not buy the card because they believe 'GTX680' will come and they don't want to waste their money on none perfect GK104.

GTX 685 a deffinate....not just a rumour??

not sure about the name but most people believe nvidia will have something bigger coming when you look at GTX680 spec. the biggest hint was the chip inside the card was named as GK104.

 

[captainvera]

I think that if there is indeed a GTX 685 Nvidia will release it soon enough...

 

[wolfram23]

Yeah right, they can't even ship 680s.

 

[yyk71200]

I don't think there will be 685. There should be 690 that consists of 2 680 GPUs. The top of the line Kepler (GK110) should make into 700 series which, considering Nvidia just started rolling out 600 series, should come no earlier than near the end of this year and will compete against 8000 series AMD GPUs.

 

[ojas]

Well, i know when i downloaded the initial press material from their ftp server when kepler launched, there were a few pics that had 670 Ti as tags in windows explorer. So it's possible that it was supposed to be a 670 Ti, but last min Nvidia wanted to keep the best for the last. Or, the pics just got messed up.

When i brought this up with Nvidia's PR rep, she said something about this (680) being a mid range card, and didn't know about the 670 Ti thing.

Anyway, i was like "but this is a 580 replacement, it's a $500 card!" and she was like yeah but then there was the 590 after the 580.

So i dunno. She meant there's a dual GPU card lined up, i guess, but well we all knew that.

But what was the GTX 680 that ran the Samaritan Demo? Was it really the same GTX 680 we got for launch? Maybe THAT was the original GTX 680?

 

[yyk71200]

Well, i know when i downloaded the initial press material from their ftp server when kepler launched, there were a few pics that had 670 Ti as tags in windows explorer. So it's possible that it was supposed to be a 670 Ti, but last min Nvidia wanted to keep the best for the last. Or, the pics just got messed up.

When i brought this up with Nvidia's PR rep, she said something about this (680) being a mid range card, and didn't know about the 670 Ti thing.

Anyway, i was like "but this is a 580 replacement, it's a $500 card!" and she was like yeah but then there was the 590 after the 580.

So i dunno. She meant there's a dual GPU card lined up, i guess, but well we all knew that.

But what was the GTX 680 that ran the Samaritan Demo? Was it really the same GTX 680 we got for launch? Maybe THAT was the original GTX 680?

I think I've herd that running the demo on 680 they only used FXAA which gives almost no performance reduction.

 

[wolfram23]

Like I said, the 680 is GK 104. There is also going to be GK 114 and GK 110, probably others. GK107 is also out already, in the mobile market as the GT 640M, GT 650M, and GTX 660M

The 500 series 580, 570, 560Ti 448 were GF110 (520mm^2), the 560 and 560 Ti were GF114 (360mm^2), 550Ti was GF116 (238mm^2), etc.

I guess they are changing the naming a bit, but GK110 is supposed to be the biggest one. Now, the question is whether they have it working or not. It's entirely possible that the GK104 is the best chip they are currently able to make stable. We don't know. They might wait and revise the GK110 for the 700 series, they might not. It's literally impossible to say - I think it really depends on AMD.

AMD is rumoured to be revising the 7970 already, so there will be a Version 2 7970. We also know that they have the "Sea Islands" in the works, so maybe they will push those out sooner than later to compete with Kepler's top offerings. The Northern Islands was the 6000 series, and the 7000 is the Southern Islands. Sea Islands are the next step.

My question is, will the Sea Islands be ready in time? Or will Nvidia already have Maxwell on the go?

 

[monsta]

Please be the GK110...

http://www.techpowerup.com/164422/NVIDIA-Teases-Upcoming-Product.html

 

[mightymaxio]

I just hope they go back to original naming methods. Make the high end card the gtx 690 and the dual gpu card the 690gx2 or something like they did with the 7 series and 9 series from Nvidia.

 

[shoot you]

I read somewhere that though there may be a more powerful card than the GTX 680 but Nvidia is having a hard time producing the card at the ideal performance.

Well Im not really sure of that but if stocks for the 680 dont improve I guess that what I read was right, else I just think they are really trying to get more business out of it.

Getting my 680 was really a no brainer since it just costed about USD 20 more than a GTX 580 here (no price drops) and about the same price if I went SLI with my GTX560 Ti (which has been sold). Besides its more than enough to satisfy my gaming urge for high/ultra settings on a single monitor.

Honestly though the thermal performance, power consumption and a boost in performance is quite good and worth it for me but was a bit underwhelming see the boost wasnt as much as older generation boost from one another. (im just happy I got mine at a "good" price).

Though I would want to see more powerful cards from both Nvidia and AMD, I hope it wont be too soon and if there are price drops it wont be by much (Sorry to those who are waiting for the next big release)

 

[hannibal]

Please be the GK110...

http://www.techpowerup.com/164422/NVIDIA-Teases-Upcoming-Product.html

690 guite possible, GK110 noup... It would be too expensive at this moment to produce GK110. Maybe next year if rumours that GK110 is suposed to be released as an 700 series is accurate. But not like to be even that.
We can be sure that they have plans and maybe even test chips for GK110, but they have so much problems produsing enough GK104s that it is hard to see them releasing GK110 at anytime soon... Maybe never. It is guite possible that 700 series is the next upgrade where bigger chips are released. 28 nm production will be more mature. TSMC is suposed to get it production to full run in early 2013. So it is economically more sensible to produce allso bigger chips!
AMD 8000 is rumoured to introduce bigger chips (48 rops compare to 32 at this moment) so it is easy to see that we will see allso bigger chip from Nvidia. Nvidia was suposed to release GK110 in Q3 but if the 28nm production situation does not change, it is hard to do. As we have seen, Nvidia is desperately drying out to find other partners to produce their chips. They have the consept, but they don't have a partner who can produce it at this moment!

 

[ojas]

Meh Maxwell is still a good 2-3 years away...I remember an nvidia (official) slide that slated Kepler for 2011 and Maxwell for 2013 (Computer Power User, January 2011, pg 74). That's at least a year behind, maybe more if Nvidia doesn't get a foundry.

Prices in India are absurd, there is a Zotac and i think an ASUS 680 available, both selling for around $730, same as the 7970. The 580 sells for $650 here. High end cards are so out of reach...

Awesomely stupid thing is that the 590 and 6990 sell for around $770.

btw GTX 635M and below seem to be rebrands...