Kepler Nvidia GeForce GTX 780

[kgk]

Food for thought: maybe NVIDIA realized that they don't NEED what would be deemed a "high end Kepler" to trounce AMD this round. Maybe their mid range core is more than enough.

/runs back out of thread

If that's true then Nvidia is adorable. I have no problem hanging onto a GTX580 3GB until they release GK110 or GK112 (whichever model number is the high-end single GPU). If the 7970 were a better value (or anything remotely approaching value) I'd have jumped on it already.

Unless GK104 gives significantly better performance than an overclocked GTX580 3GB @ 2560x1600, Nvidia can bugger off. And if they're serious with 2GB VRAM then that'll mean a few games will either be pushing or maxing out its VRAM already, let alone any games that haven't even been released yet. I mean 2GB VRAM on a "top end" card.........in 2012? I sure hope not.

And talking about performance... So, let's say these are 5% faster in games than 7970 (which is 25% faster than GTX580), making them ~30% faster than GTX580. Is this impressive? Not really. A simple die shrink of GTX580 (which has a hot and large die) would easily allow for a 30% overclock, so we'd end up with a cheaper (smaller die), 30%-higher-clocked-than-GTX580 card with the same 250W TDP. So, according to the rumours, we are going to pay good $250 extra for Nvidia lowering the TDP by 50W (and some GPGPU performance improvements most people don't care about). Doesn't really strike me as an awesome investment.

We need GK100 (GK110?).

Whoa, whoa, whoa wait a minute. a 7970 is 25% faster than a stock GTX580 1.5GB and that's in best case scenarios. A brand new 3GB GTX580 is still 40-50 Euros cheaper than the 7970.

Minimum frame rate is equally (or more) important than the average. A 45FPS average is worthless if you're dipping down into the teens. At 1920x1200 and below the stock GTX580 1.5GB actually beat the 7970 in minimum frame rate in Dirt 3 (coincidentally the same title that lots of 7970 manufacturers seem to bundle with their cards) http://www.anandtech.com/show/5261/a...7970-review/18

40-50 Euros higher for a whopping 6.7 fps increase in minimum frame rate @ 2560x1600 and potentially equal or lower minimums at lower resolutions? I don't see the incentive. It's still overpriced. If you ignore brand-specific features (eyefinity) I fail to see any justifiable reason for paying the 7970 MSRP.

I have zero loyalty to Nvidia but let's try to avoid Apple-esque reality distortion.

I agree that we need GK110/112/100/whatever the hell the high-end single GPU is called.