Nvidia Crowbar Explained : GTX 690 Promo

[lavaheadache]

Could have fooled me

I didn't know BF3 was what determined the fastest card out. I haven't even played it yet nor will I. What have I been doing?


btw, that is only about a 5% lead.

 

[Don Karnage]

I didn't know BF3 was what determined the fastest card out. I haven't even played it yet nor will I. What have I been doing?

You don't play BF3?

 

[imaheadcase]

I still can not wrap my head around a $1000 graphics card.

Why not? Its pretty normal

 

[Screech]

The crowbar is obviously for killing the headcrabs around the card......

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Why not? Its pretty normal

I guess cause I'm not rich. A $1000 could buy me a freaking car. Yes a dumpy car that would need work but a freaking car! lol!

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Can't wait until a graphics card costs over $9000!

Yes. And in house financing at 25% interest. Sweet..

 

[imaheadcase]

I guess cause I'm not rich. A $1000 could buy me a freaking car. Yes a dumpy car that would need work but a freaking car! lol!

I guess some people keep the pennies they get and others throw them to the ground /shrug.

 

[nitromullet]

I didn't know BF3 was what determined the fastest card out. I haven't even played it yet nor will I. What have I been doing?


btw, that is only about a 5% lead.

I don't think it is what determines the fastest card, but it is probably the most demanding game that is relevant to most people right now.

 

[blastingcap]

Weapon's grade, lol

Put enough NVIDIA chips in a supercomputer and it *is* a weapon and you would not be able to export it.

http://www.nationaldefensemagazine....rcomputingRaceChinaMovestoFrontOfthePack.aspx

On the other hand GTX680/90 is the non-HPC version of Kepler so it would not be as easy to weaponize as masses of BigK chips.

 

[blastingcap]

Snip

http://techreport.com/articles.x/22653/8
http://techreport.com/articles.x/22653/9 (example of gtx680 stuttering more, though to be fair the way TR measure stuttering may not reflect real life due to the rest of the graphics chain)
http://techreport.com/articles.x/22653/10
http://techreport.com/articles.x/22653/11


Looking at sub-50ms stutter metrics and framerate numbers, even stock vs stock the 7970 holds up okay against the gtx 680 and the 7970 has more overclocking headroom on average. When both are oc/ov'd to the hilt, they are on par with each other though the 7970 will have more power/noise/heat.

The bottom line is that the gtx 680 is not noticeably faster or smoother than the 7970 when averaged across lots of games (anything less than a ~15% difference is difficult to notice unless you're already in the unplayable fps range) and has 1GB less VRAM, no ZeroCore Power feature, and apparently lack of voltage control for reference cards. Where the GTX 680 does better is feature set, with CUDA, PHYSX, SLI (smoother than CF right now, from what I hear), adaptive VSYNC, adapterless Surround, GPUBoost, and power efficiency with the noise/heat benefits that entails (at least at load). Is it worth $50 extra (or more than $50 if you consider the Three for Free games that AMD is bundling with the 79xx series starting in May?). Only you can answer that question for yourself. For me I needed more compute functionality, but if I just wanted to play games, I would rather get a Kepler, probably the lower-priced GTX 670 though since I feel that the GTX 680 is overpriced right now.

You don't play BF3?

I don't either. People tend to play games that are fun the most. TF2 and L4D2 on triplescreen are more fun for me than games like BF3. I bet people play Diablo3 and Starcraft II way more than BF3, on a daily total hours basis. And believe it or not, Counterstrike 1.6 and Source are still insanely popular despite the aged graphics. Of course the posterboy for popularity-despite-graphics is probably Minecraft. I still haven't played that and don't intend to, but not for graphics reasons.

 

[Stuka87]

When is the 7990 expected? June? July? Nvidia is just killing Amd

I fail to see how nVidia is killing AMD. nVidia has a single card that is marginally faster than the 7970. AMD has their entire range of 28nm cards out. The top end cards are a very small market. Where as the 7850/7870 is where the bulk of sales are going on. nVidia has zero competition in this price range. And lets not mention the mobile GPU space for AMD is way ahead of nVidia currently. Oh, and then there are those game consoles than AMD won contracts for.

As for the bench you showed above, its well known that BF3 is optimized for nVidia cards. If you listed multiple benchmarks as opposed to a single cherry picked one you will see they are equal with each card being a tiny bit faster in some games than the other.

 

[thilanliyan]

I'd much rather get 2x680s. How many people buying this card don't have a motherboard with 2 free PCI-e slots? Likely not many.

 

[blastingcap]

I fail to see how nVidia is killing AMD. nVidia has a single card that is marginally faster than the 7970. AMD has their entire range of 28nm cards out. The top end cards are a very small market. Where as the 7850/7870 is where the bulk of sales are going on. nVidia has zero competition in this price range. And lets not mention the mobile GPU space for AMD is way ahead of nVidia currently. Oh, and then there are those game consoles than AMD won contracts for.

As for the bench you showed above, its well known that BF3 is optimized for nVidia cards. If you listed multiple benchmarks as opposed to a single cherry picked one you will see they are equal with each card being a tiny bit faster in some games than the other.

AMD is being killed by Intel. CPU, chipsets.
ATI owns consoles (looking ahead at next-gen consoles) but is shut out of mobile (except for APUs) and is barely competing in HPC and pro graphics. Pretty much a tie in gaming graphics with NVDA.
NVDA got shut out of next-gen consoles and Intel destroyed its chipset division, but it's active in mobile and in a good position in HPC and dominant in pro graphics. Pretty much a tie in gaming graphics with AMD.

The x-factor in gaming graphics is Intel. They seem to have taken a new interest in graphics and if they really wanted to, they could compete in gaming graphics simply because of their process advantage. I don't think they will though, since they have bigger fish to fry in mobile and limited sub-28nm fab space.

 

[realjetavenger]

Do i think amd will lower prices? Ofcourse not. They've enjoyed ripping us off for months and yes i am

And another area where Nvidia beats amd. AMD has only ripped us off for months but Nvidia has been doing it for years.

 

[realjetavenger]

I'd much rather get 2x680s. How many people buying this card don't have a motherboard with 2 free PCI-e slots? Likely not many.

I've been thinking the same thing. For people in the market for the 690, those without 2 pci-e slots would be the exception to the rule, not the norm.

 

[MrK6]

Doesn't really matter how many phases it has on the GPU if they still lock down voltage control. Any word on that?

 

[chimaxi83]

I don't see this card being any different on the locked voltage control front. Yep, phases on this card mean nothing in their current form.

 

[Arzachel]

This is a card made of two cherry picked chips, that are already cherry picked in the first place. I really don't understand you all being mad about the price when reviewer samples are probably going to make up for more than a half of all the cards shipped in the coming months and that's being generous. This is a card to fuel fanboy wet dreams and benchmarks touted in pointless pissing matches, not to be, you know, actually used by more than a handful.

 

[destrekor]

Wood. Wow.

For $1000 it should come in a platinum box with velvet lining.

At least stainless steel with a velvet lining, 7 games bundled with it, every possible connector needed, and even then it should not be over $899.

Y'all do know this isn't the retail box, yes?

It's a press reveal/review/hype-machine kit.

LOL, i predicted right XD

Same.
Didn't see your prediction, but I had it nailed down perfectly. Aside from how they dressed up the wooden box, it too was exactly what I assumed. It helps that it is basically the exact same approach as the 590 press reveal, they just changed the container. "ammo crate" instead of ammo can.

 

[TheUnk]

Wood. Wow.

For $1000 it should come in a platinum box with velvet lining.

I like it. Maybe it has some wood screws included inside too.

 

[Insomniator]

Who cares about this? All 300 people that are gonna buy it?

Not that they should have special unveiling of mid range cards but... in a year (or hell 6 months) they'll be another card worthy of a stunt like this. Does anyone care about the GTX295 anymore?

 

[Stuka87]

Y'all do know this isn't the retail box, yes?

Well I guess them showing us non-existent packaging held together by wood screws is better than them showing us a non-existent products held together by wood screws

 

[paul878]

The $1000 price will keep demand low, I doubt they will be ship too many of these anyway. Newegg still have no GTX680 in stock.

 

[SHAQ]

No wooden crate/crowbar no buy.

 

[OCGuy]

I guess cause I'm not rich. A $1000 could buy me a freaking car. Yes a dumpy car that would need work but a freaking car! lol!

$1k wouldnt even pay for the nav system in my new toy.....