NV must think they are clever thinking they can get gamers to buy a mid-range GK104 chip for high end prices, while making huge margins by re-badging it as $400-500 video card with a cheap 4 phase PCB.
Fixed.
Historically NV's mid-range next generation chip has equalled or outperformed the previous high-end NV chip:
GeForce 2 Ultra (High End) < GeForce 3 Ti 200 (Mid-range)
GeForce 3 / Ti500 (High End) < GeForce 4 Ti4200 (Mid-range)
GeForce 4 Ti4600/4800 (High-End) < FX 5700 U (Mid-range)
GeForce FX 5900U/5950U (High-End) < 6600GT (Mid-range)
6800U (High-End) <= 7600GT (mid-range)
7800 GTX 256 (High-end) < 7900GT/7950GT (Mid-range)
7900GTX (High-end) < 8800GTS 320/8800GT (Mid-range)
8800GTX 768 / U (High-end) < GTS 250 / GTX260 (Mid-range / Upper mid-range)
GTX280/285 (High-end) < GTX 460 1GB (Mid-range)
GTX480/580 (High-end) <
GTX670 (Mid-range)
Except NV never was successful trying to sell mid-range chips for $400-500 (well it tried with 8800GTS 640mb and GTX260, but failed with both).
All the signs are there:
- 256-bit memory bandwidth = GTX580 = next generation high-end chips have gobbles more bandwidth than previous high-end, not so for 680. Interestingly, GTX680 is severely memory bandwidth limited at high resolutions
- Gimped GPGPU processing = Since G80 NV has pushed GPGPU as foundation for its flagship product....
- GTX670 slightly beating GTX580 is exactly in-line with mid-range next generation part performing slightly faster than previous generation high-end part.
- GK104 SMX cluster setup is a very similar to GF104. GK104 is a codename successor for GF104....
- GTX680
was GTX670Ti until last minute
- GTX680 outperforming GTX580 by just 30% is also
way off historical increases between generations
GK104 = mid-range chip, overclocks well enough to go against HD7900 series just like
GTX460 OCed was good enough to often match HD5870 in benches. NV pushed it to the max to stay in the game because they couldn't get GK100/110 out. That's why GTX680 has almost no overclocking headroom left since NV pushed it to the max with Dynamic OC. That's like shipping GTX460 with 850mhz clocks from the factory.
There should be little to no surprises that GK104 can fit into such a small PC since it's a mid-range chip after all. .....
Original Kepler rumors before GTX680 launch:
GK110 high-end chip - August 2012
GeForce GTX 690 - $ 499 (estimate)
GeForce GTX 685 - $ 399 (estimate)
GK104 performance chip - March / April 2012
GeForce GTX 680 - $ 299
GeForce GTX 670 - $ 229-249 (estimate)
Other sources noted that GK104 was a mid-range / upper mid-range replacement for GTX560Ti/GTX570:
There really isn't a cheap upgrade this gen for 6900 + 400+ 500 series owners. Oh well money stays in the bank. See ya next year Amd/nvidia
More people in BRIC countries demand PC gaming hardware. We are now competing for scarce resources globally against millions of consumers in China (1.3B people in total), Russia, India (1.2B people) and Brazil.
http://www.techspot.com/news/48449-...inues-to-grow-despite-rising-competition.html
Also, the recent enthusiast craze for lower power consumption means that NV traded in performance for power consumption because gamers asked for it after criticizing Fermi. Yet, same gamers have no problems cranking HD7970 to 1250mhz @ 1.25V, pumping 150W extra power and yet NV took the Fermi criticism to the extreme and released a gimped 170W GTX680 under 195W TDP. GTX680 should have been a 250W part with 50-60% more performance over GTX580.