maybe when i say "highest end part" your thinking of the name while im thinking of performance
the 6870 wasnt faster than that 5870, or even the 480, so i guess what you really mean is the 480 was the highest end part
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I believe it was not designed as a flagship gpu but when Nvidia compared it to AMDs best and it won then they named and priced it accordingly. If they had any intention to release a higher spec single gpu vid card then why name this 680 as it leaves no room in the conventional and expected naming system for a higher end card. It won't be a 685 as the numbers are too close and don't represent the gain in power it will have, so 780 it will be. This 680 will then become a $300 760 and everyone will be happy....
They could use up the dual gpu name and call GK110 a 690 but it's hardly likely ...
:(
GTX680 is high-end as a single graphics card alone without taking anything else into consideration.
When I or anyone says it is not high-end, we are referring to the Kepler architecture, If it was high-end then it would be the end of line for Kepler until the next architecture comes around, however Kepler is capable of atleast 50% more performance, which will come in a 2048cores Kepler part, it is in comparison to this that the GTX680 is not classed as high end.
I am with you on that, if it is ATI or NV's fastest card out at the time it is their current high-end card. We can go on all day that they have faster technology, that makes all the sense in the world. But if its not out, the fasted card that is should be considered "top end".
I think they should of called it the GTS 650 and made sure it was ultra low end but still raped 79XX in performance, just to be trolls.
coolface.jpg
-PB
gtx 680 is definitely high end in the current market but it is not Nvidia's highest end single gpu part for the uarch. It was shoe horned into the position because it could perform at what is currently a high end level and command a high end premium.
I remember it was being talked about last year before the 7970 launched that Nvidia was trying to subdue hyping after the fermi fiasco and that high end kepler would be late in the year with midrange launching first but in the end it would seem as though the midrange got a promotion.
I would search for the details but it's really not that important of an issue to me but for those interested the info should be out there from late last year.
I am pretty sure, if we go buy code names, the 7970 would have been designated as a mid range part or sweet spot area. That being it would designated rv1070. The last time their big chip was designated as the high end rx00 was the 2900xt which was their biggest chip ever. Ever since then they have been going with rvx00. The Rx00 being left for their dual chip series.
If we go by the production cost, such as power, pcb, and etc, which people are trying to put gk104 as a rip off and tahiti xt as not. I am almost certain the 7970 will be more similar to a gk104 in production cost, rather than Gk110 or gf110 or gf100. Gx100 are vastly more expensive to make than AMD's rvx70, but AMD decided to price it even higher than that this generation.
To give you an idea, GF100 cost more to make than a 5970, a dual card.
AMD and Nvidia midrange have been always been going after the same market. That being the under 400 market. This time, AMD came out first so they thought to themselves, lets charge high end pricing because we have the performance win. Most of these performance merit were a result of being to 28nm first however and they had no really designed performance wise a truly high end chip(a rx00 chip). What they didn't count on is Nvidia mid range performing like their midrange again, ala 8800gt vs 3870. But rather than set off a price war with AMD, Nvidia followed ship, and now both cards sweet spot cards are much pricier than they are before. If Nvidia is tricking customers, so is AMD.
The difference is Nvidia this time around performance 10% better for more or less 10 percent less, which makes it a much better value. In fact a better value than the 8800gt if we go by pricing vs the competition. 8800gt performed better than the competition but costed more. This just shows how badly the 7970 was priced in the first place.
What if nVidia decided to follow AMD on the number 9 and the "high-end" will be called 690? and the dual card [if nVidia decides to do one at all] gets the 695 or 699 name?
Wow, XS News has certainly gone downhill.
I think Nvidia has found itself in the rare and fortunate situation where there product had far exceeded expectations, this along with AMDs apparently poor performing (as Nvidia said) means we will pay more until things balance out.
A mid range card with great performance doesn't make it a flagship card, same as releasing a mid-high card first doesn't make it a flagship card even if for the meantime it is the best performer on the market, it's only minding the crown for now.
:D
Can someone with a GTX 680 on X79 please do this:
Can someone with a GTX 680 on X79 please do this:
http://translate.google.com/translat...20120323002%2F
According to that article all you have to do is a small registry edit to get your GTX 680 working at PCI-E 3.0 once again with current drivers. This is a huge deal for those of us with multiple GTX 680's. Being stuck at 8x PCI-E 2.0 is a no go.
You can test your PCI-E speed when the card is active (no idle it will go into power save mode) with GPU-Z:
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2120/mirrors.php
Click on the little question mark next to the PCI-E speed line on the right to read the proper speed during rendering.
Most of those tests are ancient nor did they take into account 3-4 GPU's in multi-display setups.
If you are losing 3-4% running a single old GPU on a single monitor I couldn't imagine how bad 3-4 overclocked GTX 680's would be hampered running multi-displays at 8x PCI-E 2.0
If you read the thread you will see that people have already got it working.
Someone reported his second card not getting the fix, but i assume that was because the registry fix was per-device and he didn't perform the same fix to the second card.
The registry fix hurts performance for some people btw, and offers no increase in other situations. A registry edit is not sufficient to "fix" the pci-e setting.
http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/q...08/img55-1.jpg
Hi there
I've had access to roadmaps for sometime and have access to the latest.
GTX 680 was intended for March/April, it is now here. Fact is NVIDIA were always intending to release GTX 680 class card now, yes the spec may have changed but this has always being scheduled launch for their top-end GTX 680 product.
Cards that will come next shall be 670Ti and 670, expect them around May time, maybe end of April, these shall both be slower than GTX 680 obviously.
GTX 680 2GB, aimed at 7970.
GTX 670ti replaces GTX 580 and shall also be 2GB at £320ish range, it will take on 7950 3GB.
GTX 670 replaces GTX 570 and no doubt 2GB also, expect £239.99 and well slightly faster than GTX 570.
GTX 560Ti and 560 are not due to be replaced until much later in the year.
All low-end, 520/550 etc. shall be re-branded into 6xx series, same cards just re-boxed as 6 series with slightly bumped clock speeds.
A dual GPU based card could and can be released when NVIDIA desire to do so, most likely called GTX 690.
Again GTX 680 is flagged on the roadmap as fastest single GPU card, will a faster single GPU card come this year. Well I guess that depends if NVIDIA feel they need one and if they do I suspect October-December timeframe.
What we can expect in April/May is AIB's making much faster and higher TDP varients of GTX 680.
Don't be surprised to see cards like EVGA GTX 680 Superclocked 4096MB soon with twice memory and higher clock speeds for £500-£600 region
Source
^^ That is the most reasonable thing I've seen in here.
Honestly i'm leaning towards the 7970 over the 680.. mostly due to the "you get what you set" clock speeds and that some games make Aero drop/performance drop in multi-monitor mode while gaming with nV..
It is clear the GTX680 is a midrange part. My Gigabyte model only came with a driver disk! In the past, when I purchased real high end cards, they always included a video game, or a web cam, or maybe a poster of a spooky skeleton with a machine gun.
Can we get the Supreme court to stop wasting time with health care and make NVIDIA sell us these mid range cards for $300?!?
Galaxy GeForce GTX 680 4GB / Hall of Fame Edition
6+8pin power connectors and TDP of 300W.
http://www.expreview.com/img/review/...galaxy_68s.jpg
http://www.expreview.com/img/review/...X6804GB_01.jpg
5+2 phase power supply
http://www.expreview.com/img/review/...X6804GB_02.jpg
source: http://en.expreview.com/2012/03/26/g...tml#more-22013