Kepler Nvidia GeForce GTX 780

[Rollo]

My expectations is to have a healthier industry which is not artificially slowed down. No different than what we had 5 years ago when nVidia rolled out 8800GTX even though the 8800GTS was enough to absolutely kill the competition. If you have what is best -out there- the sooner, the better it is for the whole industry (from a technical point of view) given that the industry will *have to* move faster.

That's another common misconception. That the flow of tech is entirely within the control of companies and they can do things when they "have" to. Look at last years Bulldozer launch, or the FX5800 launch for all the evidence you need this isn't true. These things are high tech inventions and you can't just tell your engineers "Invent faster and better! Our competitors have a lead!". Besides which things like the state of the fab process and cost of VRAM and silicon come into play. Maybe in the infancy of 28nm yields on 500mm chips are too low to sell them for less than a thousand a piece. Maybe it makes more sense with current yields to sell 300mm (rumor) at $500(unknown) than 500mms for $600 due to bigger margins on the 300(rumor). You're still thinking like a consumer and "What is best for me is also best for the industry" when the two are unrelated.

Sure nVidia is also business out to make a profit but also she is the benchmark of hardware development on home computers which has actual, tangible effect on our lives. In short the faster we get the best parts out in the marker, the faster the industry will evolve and the faster it will have solutions to whatever problems may come about. Home computing (on in itself) is a luxury no different than a car yet the development done there affect the society at large multiple times more than any super-car would.

History is littered with defunct companies that had one good idea. NVIDIAs responsibility is to the stockholders to provide a profit on investment over the long term. Who knows? Maybe they have a better chip they're holding back because it's all they have in the works now that looks feasible and they want to buy time to come up with something else. Maybe the rumored 680 is what they planned all along for the 680, the best they had come to fruition. Maybe the fabled "better chip" couldn't be brought to market now, and even if it was a 100% increase on 7970, a Q4 sale date would have meant a years lost sales and response "Geez Louise, in 10 months it BETTER be 100% faster! Late!". We'll never know. (and BTW in the life cycle of the development time of these chips 10 months is nothing- time for a couple respins only- main design happens over many years)

Just think of the applications that such computing is starting to have for medical purposes, scientific purposes. At first we'll get a few more frames, but the side-effect (of the development that gives a few more frames per second) is huge and cannot be ignored. For more purposes than one we have a supercomputer stored in the tiny shell of our GFX cards and the faster it develops the better it is for all...

What can make the industry like it was (is the real question), not why nVidia doesn't release its high end parts (if there are those around to begin with).

This I can't answer. (why there are occasional huge leaps like the Athlon X2, the C2D, the 9700Pro, and the 8800GTX) My guess is they're the product of rare intersections in business/invention/market conditions.

I do know this. Anyone who's a gamer has a LOT of reasons to be excited about Kepler if the rumors are true. Leading performance, lower power, new AA, new vsynch, 4 monitor output, PhysX, 3D Vision, forced AO, CUDA.

If all the rumors are true the only reason I can think of anyone caring about a 7970 at all anymore is if they are one of the eight people on the planet with a 75X16 display set, or their decision hinges on the Skyrim texture pack and high AA at high res. Going to be a VERY small market for 7970s in that case.