Quote Originally Posted by zerazax View Post
Wishful thinking.

Nvidia certainly had no qualms releasing the 8800 GTX and then the 8800 Ultra at $800+ prices when AMD had nothing, they certainly had no problem releasing the GTX 280 when no one knew what the 4800's had in store, etc.

They'll release what they can, when they can, if money and market share make sense (and market share is more important than ever, now that the PC GPU industry is shrinking)

Bingo. If millions are spent on R&D, you would try to recoup the costs, rather than let a product sit around doing nothing.

Playing fair has never been part of the lexicon of GPU makers, so why play 'fair'?
A 800 dollar gtx 680 would not sell very well at all. That's limited edition card pricing and the ultra fell from 800($829 to $699) really quickly and that was in a bit better economy. There's a point where a high enough price will curb off demand and I think at that point, it is reached and passed. Dual cards can sell for that much because ultra enthusiast will pay more for dual cards. And even then, 800 is alot of money to spend and we haven't reached that point yet unless we count the ultra limited editions.

If GK110 was 800 dollars not only would the card not sell well, there would be no way even with that high a price that the Gk104 could be priced at $550. The only way GK104 can be priced so high is because it is the fastest thing from Nvidia. No way a midrange gtx 660(naming means alot) could be priced liked that.

Volume is the key. And releasing a half assed gk110(not fully mature) with terrible yields are hardly going to do anything with their profits. And would hurt the price the gk104 could be sold at