And not to get too personal here, but when the 750 Ti first came out, you were extremely critical of it, and yet I've seen you recommend it over and over in the past few months. Perhaps you grew to appreciate its qualities and unique market niche. Is the GTX 980 so different in your eyes?
That's because there were many PC gamers who either had a very weak PSU or specifically wanted a card with the lowest possible power usage for games in the sub-$150 bracket. However from a gaming perspective, I'd pick a
$145 R9 270 or a
$145 GTX660 as they offer
27-31% more gaming performance for $20 or so more. Thus, as a gaming card, I think 750Ti for $120-130 is way too expensive for what it offers but if someone has PSU or cooling limitations, it may be their best option
980 is completely different. I find it hard if not impossible to believe that more than 1% of PC gamers in the world can't use a 250W 780TI reference blower in their rig but can a 165W 980. Since the heat is exhausted outside o the case in both instances, it wouldn't matter unless you had a 350W PSU limit in a very thin console-like chassis.
People who buy $500+ GPUs don't generally have 300-350W PSUs that they have to settle for a 60W GPU. If someone is spending $500-600 on a new flagship, they want:
1) Significant improvement in performance from the last flagship -- or otherwise the opportunity cost of waiting a full year from 780Ti is not worth it (i.e., in that case why not enjoy 780Ti for $100 more for 12 months up to now?).
2) Someone who is spending $500+ on a GPU is unlikely to be counting pennies saved on electricity moving from a 250W card to a 165W one. There isn't enough reason to upgrade since you'd lose more money on depreciation selling your previous 780/780Ti.
3) If you are coming from a 680//770/7970Ghz and need more power at 1600P, add 15% on top of 780Ti's 139% here and you get about
60-80% more performance over those cards. Problem is you can pick up a used 7970Ghz for $170-180 easily and 680 used for $250 shouldn't be hard to find. So this gamer would be better off grabbing one of those as well.
4) If you want the most powerhouse 4K GPU to last 2-3 years fitted in a single slot mobo and small chassis, just like 690 revolutionized this space, it would be fitting to wait for $1K+ GTX990 then. This is a very unique space since even today GTX690 still holds its own with nothing really superior to it for this usage besides possibly an overclocked 780Ti.
Having said that, NV will price their cards what they can get away with. I predict $349-399 for 970 and $549 for 980. This gives them a bit of room for them to either lower prices on these 4GB cards once R9 3xx launches OR a bit of leeway to introduce higher priced 8GB cards later.
780 non-TI that's not OCed maybe. I have trouble believing a 7970 OC CF beats an OC 780 Ti. Agreed on all your other points.
I think you missed 7970
s OC. 280Xs beat 780Ti by
23% at 1080p.
--
I really like the style of the reference blower NV will carry-over with 970/980. Interesting that VC reports both of these cards will use the same blower which seems overkill on a 970.
The power delivery looks like a slightly improved version of the 680's
680
980
Interesting that neither MSI nor Asus is following the reference design of 3x DP for their after-market cards.