Gigabyte GTX680 retail pictures

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LOL_Wut_Axel

Diamond Member
Mar 26, 2011
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I am guessing the 1/4 DP speed is ruled out for GK104. That's how they are able to keep the chip so lean/small. If you look at HD7870, that's exactly what AMD has done. They made HD7870 a full-blown gaming chip. It only has 1/16th DP performance which makes it worthless for any real world computing work. But then they are able to have a 212mm^2 chip that can come close to HD7950 with some overclocking.

I wouldn't doubt it if GTX680 is a straight up gaming chip with neutered DP performance. Nvidia also likes to sell full featured computing chips in their Tesla and Quadro lines and sell them for $3-5k+. They artificially neuter their consumer line. For years AMD has been the brand to go to for consumer DP performance.

For many years NVIDIA has been much superior to AMD when it comes to compute performance, though now AMD is on par with Tahiti. Not that it matters too much, since 99% of these cards are used for gaming.
 

Arzachel

Senior member
Apr 7, 2011
903
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Not sure how this is relevant to G80 in context. Cypress was slower than GTX480/570/580, while G80 dominated 2900 and 3800 series entirely. Either way, his implication is obvious: why would Nvidia spend 2 years to launch a "high-end" Kepler (whatever the name will be GTX780/880, etc.) and then that card end up losing to the HD7970 that's just 25% faster than a GTX580? Doubtful.

I'm saying that picking comparisons by such criteria as "uses the same arch" is silly.
 

formulav8

Diamond Member
Sep 18, 2000
7,004
522
126
Is it just me or are the posts out of order or what? I'm seeing posts that are quoted before the person even posted it and so on...
 

Grooveriding

Diamond Member
Dec 25, 2008
9,147
1,329
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Since no one has offered to yet.. why ?!?!

Please run the heaven bencmark at identical res and settings as he has in the link on a stock 7970 and provide the results here please. Heaven is actually a decent indicator of gaming performance to a certain extent.



Only care about performance here myself, rest is just peripheral. :hmm:
 

RussianSensation

Elite Member
Sep 5, 2003
19,458
765
126
Please run the heaven bencmark at identical res and settings as he has in the link on a stock 7970 and provide the results here please. Heaven is actually a decent indicator of gaming performance to a certain extent.

Same CPU, same settings on a stock HD7970.

 

Grooveriding

Diamond Member
Dec 25, 2008
9,147
1,329
126
Not sure how this is relevant to G80 in context. Cypress was slower than GTX480/570/580, while G80 dominated 2900 and 3800 series entirely. Either way, his implication is obvious: why would Nvidia spend 2 years to launch a "high-end" Kepler (whatever the name will be GTX780/880, etc.) and then that card end up losing to the HD7970 that's just 25% faster than a GTX580? Doubtful.



Could be Nvidia locked out the full functionality until the launch date drivers.
Could be GTX680 is not as fast as predicted.
Could be user error (didn't activate some +20% TDP maximum boost / some other feature in the driver panel)

Food for thought: Why is 28nm GTX680 that's supposedly high-end Kepler clocked at 706 mhz when GTX580 was clocked at 772mhz on 40nm process? GTX680 also has lower ROP count, same memory bandwidth.

Any of these are possible:

1) NV flopped and abandoned the large die strategy, there is no GK110;
2) GTX670 --> GTX680 is like HD5870 --> HD6870 (where the marketing name is not reflective of the true standing in the Kepler lineup)
3) Nvidia couldn't get the flagship out on time so they had to resort to using GTX680; GK110 will be GTX780. Perhaps the plan was always to counter HD7970 with a card +/-5% within HD7970 until they sort out whatever problems they are having with power, yields on the large die flagship.
4) Nvidia is loving the profit margins on a 294mm^2 chip. Milk the market/consumer. It seems consumers are eager to pay $550 for HD7970, why not pay $500 for GTX680?
5) Nvidia is having yield issues. It wouldn't' be feasible to get out GK110 right now at reasonable profit levels without pricing it at $800 (good luck with that).

Either way, looking more and more like this entire 28nm generation is lackluster. Even if GTX680 is 10% faster than HD7970, that's still not fast enough after 2 years since GTX480 (my opinion).

Russian, it could be so simple as the GPUz screen was captured while the card was in one of its idle states.

I'm no engineer, but I'm not seeing the 680 providing the sort of performance advantage typically seen from nvidia's vs AMD's flagship. I don't think it's pessimistic, just realistic, to think that just getting the same performance of Tahiti with a few wins and some losses is impressive enough with a smaller die for nvidia.

I think there is a GK110 coming too, but don't believe nvidia is sitting on it because they can. This whole launch looks like nvidia having had to adapt their strategy because of having the same problems they had GF100. Considering how small the market is for high end cards they could bring out GK100 for $800 today if they had it ready and likely sell as many as they would if they launched it at $500.

I think a good answer to what this card is, is going to be how much faster is it than a GTX580 compared to their previous flagships compared to the prior. Given nvidia's prior history with flagships, I think 680 is going to give dissapointing peformance contrasted against their past flagship deliveries.
 

Grooveriding

Diamond Member
Dec 25, 2008
9,147
1,329
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Same CPU, same settings on a stock HD7970.


Thanks. Well if this is consistent across benches, what we can hope for are cheaper prices with two cards that perform the same trying to differentiate themselves. That or a premium and lots of discussion of fluff features like physx.

I am probably stuck waiting till year's end for an upgrade now. Blargh.
 

RussianSensation

Elite Member
Sep 5, 2003
19,458
765
126
Russian, it could be so simple as the GPUz screen was captured while the card was in one of its idle states.

Yup, which is why I said:

- Could be GTX680 is not as fast as predicted.

I'm no engineer, but I'm not seeing the 680 providing the sort of performance advantage typically seen from nvidia's vs AMD's flagship. I don't think it's pessimistic, just realistic, to think that just getting the same performance of Tahiti with a few wins and some losses is impressive enough with a smaller die for nvidia.

Yup. The performance of a 294mm^2 chip with 192GB/sec memory bandwidth going against a 354 (365?) mm^2 chip with 264GB/sec memory bandwidth is decent. The price of $550 is "milking the market" though if GTX680 is a stop-gap GPU (ala 7800GTX 256mb/X1800XT)

I think there is a GK110 coming too, but don't believe nvidia is sitting on it because they can. This whole launch looks like nvidia having had to adapt their strategy because of having the same problems they had GF100. Considering how small the market is for high end cards they could bring out GK100 for $800 today if they had it ready and likely sell as many as they would if they launched it at $500.

Agreed. There is no conspiracy theory here. NV can sell a ~ 300mm^2 die chip for $500+ coming from selling a 520mm^2 die chip for $500 (GTX580). JHH and Read are loving this.

I think a good answer to what this card is, is going to be how much faster is it than a GTX580 compared to their previous flagships compared to the prior. Given nvidia's prior history with flagships, I think 680 is going to give dissapointing peformance contrasted against their past flagship deliveries.

Exactly. It's not even about GTX680 vs. HD7970. If GTX680 can't beat GTX580 by 40-50%, it should have been called GTX670Ti at most. But again, if NV can convince the world that a GTX680 is a flagship with just 20-30% more performance over the 580, more power to their marketing team.
 

Despoiler

Golden Member
Nov 10, 2007
1,967
772
136
Since no one has offered to yet.. why ?!?!

Please run the heaven bencmark at identical res and settings as he has in the link on a stock 7970 and provide the results here please. Heaven is actually a decent indicator of gaming performance to a certain extent.



Only care about performance here myself, rest is just peripheral. :hmm:

He actually started a comparison thread with the 7970 since he doesn't have a 1080p or higher monitor. The 7970 gets 3 points less on the same system.
 

BallaTheFeared

Diamond Member
Nov 15, 2010
8,115
0
71
Pretty "meh" for a x80 card.

It's 15% slower than 470 SLI at stock.

Best to buy up some last gen cards on the cheap, this first round of cards is pretty lack luster for the price they're asking.


Of course waiting for reviews with reviewer drivers would make sense, but it's shaping up to be a wait for the refresh type generation.
 

railven

Diamond Member
Mar 25, 2010
6,604
561
126
Well like I said we have no official benchmarks. The whole debate of mid-range vs. high-end: impossible to say. For me, I keep in mind that since GeForce 3 Nvidia's next generation mid-range card has always either beaten or tied the previous Nvidia high-end chip. (GeForce 3 ti 500 < GF4 4200Ti, 5950U < 6600GT, 6800 U < 7800GT, 7900GTX < 8800GT/S, 8800GTX/U < GTS250/GTX260, GTX285 < GTX460 1GB). Nvidia can call GTX680, GTX980 for all I care. If it performs like a GTX660Ti (i.e, 20% faster than GTX580), then some people will view it as a "next generation" mid-range card priced at $550. Someone buying next week might not even care about this classification. To them, if it's faster than GTX580, it's Nvidia's "high-end" chip at that moment in time.

I remember I presented that scenario to you previously. It seems that is the way they are going.

I noticed a lot of trends have been breaking which I blame the overall finacial state of the world mixed in with the resource scare and the overall shift in industry dominace (consoles vs PC/mobile vs desktop/USD vs World).

Nothing last forever.

Thanks. Well if this is consistent across benches, what we can hope for are cheaper prices with two cards that perform the same trying to differentiate themselves. That or a premium and lots of discussion of fluff features like physx.

I am probably stuck waiting till year's end for an upgrade now. Blargh.

And to that I say bring it! Better prices == win for all of us regardless who's logo is on our boxers. Chances are the price war will happen AFTER I buy, since that's how luck treats me haha, but for those on the fence - GL guys! May the GPU gods treat you well.
 

RussianSensation

Elite Member
Sep 5, 2003
19,458
765
126
Thanks. Well if this is consistent across benches, what we can hope for are cheaper prices with two cards that perform the same trying to differentiate themselves. That or a premium and lots of discussion of fluff features like physx.

Did you see how many GTX570/580s are still sold on Newegg? It seems NV is going to use those cards to compete against HD7850/7870/7950 for the time being. I am not seeing any indication of any other GTX6xx variants launching until April even May. Unless Nvidia pulled the biggest secret launch in its history and reveals 3-5 new desktop GPUs this week, it looks like their top-to-bottom desktop Kepler line-up is simply not ready. GTX580 is going for $370-380 on Newegg. I think that's a reasonable price drop vs. $450 HD7950. GTX570 is undercutting HD7870 by almost $100. Remember GeForce 5? AMD had a 6 months of dominant position while NV had to sell their GeForce 4s.

I am probably stuck waiting till year's end for an upgrade now. Blargh.

Prob. On the bright side, that's not a bad "return on investment" with those 480s. If those were 5870's with 1GB of VRAM, you would have been on 7970s right now! :biggrin:


I remember I presented that scenario to you previously. It seems that is the way they are going.

I noticed a lot of trends have been breaking which I blame the overall finacial state of the world mixed in with the resource scare and the overall shift in industry dominace (consoles vs PC/mobile vs desktop/USD vs World).

Nothing last forever.

I know you did . I don't think the world is changing per say. It's just taking them longer to perfect the new nodes. I believe it's harder to migrate to lower manufacturing nodes than it ever was. I think we'll still get a real flagship (so to speak), but it will just come much later because of 28nm yield issues, etc. Imagine if NV has been having trouble getting a 294mm^2 die chip out in volumes on 28nm, what kind of problems they must be going through if a 500mm^2 die chip exists (interconnects, clock speeds, power issues, horrible yields). Instead of getting huge performance increases every generation, we might be seeing 20-30% incremental gains every 8-10 months instead of 50-75% gains every 24 months as we've seen before.

In 12 months, AMD could wait until 28nm process matures and launch a 2304 SP @ 1200mhz HD8790 and call it a new generation. Just a conjecture.
 
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Despoiler

Golden Member
Nov 10, 2007
1,967
772
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maybe that run is at 700 instead of 1006?

Unlikely IMO. The card is going to run it's clocks correctly when a bench or game is active. If there was anything wrong it would be that GPU-Z was run without loading the card(meaning the chip is running on power saving clocks) or that GPU-Z is not reading the card correctly at all.
 

railven

Diamond Member
Mar 25, 2010
6,604
561
126
Unlikely IMO. The card is going to run it's clocks correctly when a bench or game is active. If there was anything wrong it would be that GPU-Z was run without loading the card(meaning the chip is running on power saving clocks) or that GPU-z is not reading the card correctly at all.

Isn't 700mhz kind of high for idle? That's like, what, double wha the HD 7xxx does?

I'd just figure GPU-Z isn't capable of reading the clocks accurately.
 

Arzachel

Senior member
Apr 7, 2011
903
76
91
Did you see how many GTX570/580s are still sold on Newegg? It seems NV is going to use those cards to compete against HD7850/7870/7950 for the time being. I am not seeing any indication of any other GTX6xx variants launching until April even May. Unless Nvidia pulled the biggest secret launch in its history and reveals 3-5 new desktop GPUs this week, it looks like their top-to-bottom desktop Kepler line-up is simply not ready. GTX580 is going for $370-380 on Newegg. I think that's a reasonable price drop vs. $450 HD7950. GTX570 is undercutting HD7870 by almost $100. Remember GeForce 5? AMD had a 6 months of dominant position while NV had to sell their GeForce 4s.

The 7870 is much closer to the GTX580 then to the GTX570, especially if you're willing to overclock, but yeah, AMD are quite willing to push their advantage.

I don't think the world is changing per say. It's just taking them longer to perfect the new nodes. I believe it's harder to migrate to lower manufacturing nodes than it ever was. I think we'll still get a real flagship (so to speak), but it will just come much later because of 28nm yield issues, etc. Imagine if NV has been having trouble getting a 294mm^2 die chip out in volumes on 28nm, what kind of problems they must be going through if a 500mm^2 die chip exists (interconnects, clock speeds, power issues, horrible yields). Instead of getting huge performance increases every generation, we might be seeing 20-30% incremental gains every 8-10 months instead of 50-75% gains every 24 months as we've seen before.

In 12 months, AMD could wait until 28nm process matures and launch a 2304 SP @ 1200mhz HD8790 and call it a new generation. Just a conjecture.

While the newer nodes are definitely causing more trouble, I think that's not what's causing problems for Nvidia. Until Fermi, they could beat Ati/AMD using parts made on older, more mature process nodes. Fermi marked a change in their strategy and we all know how well that went. If the rumors are to be believed, looks like Nvidia didn't learn anything from that which is the reason that they have to use GK104 as a flagship part.

I agree that instead of seeing a huge jump in performance with node changes and then a refresh later, we'll see the gap even out quite a bit. But AMD has to go down their HSA roadmap as quickly as possible to keep their CPU business afloat, so just a higher clocks and more sp seem unlikely.
 

Anarchist420

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Feb 13, 2010
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I am guessing the 1/4 DP speed is ruled out for GK104. That's how they are able to keep the chip so lean/small.
I would guess it is also although some things could possibly benefit from double precision, like emulation and maybe really complex physics. I think that eventually single fp precision won't be enough for graphics.
No I thought DX10.1 more easily allowed for MSAA with deferred rendering or that regular DX10 had trouble with MSAA and float depth buffers. I could be wrong about that though.
 

KompuKare

Golden Member
Jul 28, 2009
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(SNIP)I don't think the world is changing per say. It's just taking them longer to perfect the new nodes. I believe it's harder to migrate to lower manufacturing nodes than it ever was.

So at the risk of quoting everyone's favourite rumour monger, has anyone seen that article about process costs from the Common Platform conference?
http://semiaccurate.com/2012/03/19/global-foundries-shares-the-cost-of-doing-business/

Seems the costs of 32nm/28nm are a lot higher and the whole cost thing does seem to be spiraling out of control. (BTW, I like the comment asking: "Now, I wonder what Intel’s costs are?" and wondered the same thing myself after all even Intel's pockets are not bottomless...)

While I'd love to either AMD or Nvidia to give a great bargain 28nm GPU, with yields poor and costs high I don't see that happening any time soon.
 

tviceman

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Mar 25, 2008
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Isn't 700mhz kind of high for idle? That's like, what, double wha the HD 7xxx does?

I'd just figure GPU-Z isn't capable of reading the clocks accurately.

It is extremely high for idling. It could be the card was hooked up to several monitors and the high idle bug hasn't been fixed, or it was "ramping down" from full load. Only a few more days and everything will finally be answered.
 

SolMiester

Diamond Member
Dec 19, 2004
5,330
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I don't care for "monikers" on cards.
I care for the GPU on the board.

GK104 has the same performance no matter if they call it 680GTX, 780GTX or 880GTX...the latter being a useless marketing name.

You are eating up all the PR-FUD...but neglecting the devil in the details.
GF104 -> GK104.

Now try to add this:
GF110 -> GK110

You might think that 680GTX is highend.
I think it's NVIDIA's planned midrange (GK104 A2) GPU rebranded from a 660Ti to 680GTX...due to the (lack of) performance range of the 7970.

Hence why NVIDIA has been so quiet...it's another G80 round.

OMG, you are serious, that would have to be the biggest leap .......ever!
 

ocre

Golden Member
Dec 26, 2008
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The gk104 being midrange, i will propose some things.

The gk104 sounds like it evolved from the gf104. if so you can assume it was intended to be the midgrade kepler. But this may or may not be the case.

scenario 1:
Nvidia seen the potential for the gk104 as a powerful graphics card with the best performance per watt of the fermi generation. Considering this they decided to base their next high end gaming GPU off of this proven architecture. In this case they might separate their Geforce and Tesla brands where their gk100/110 is completely designed compute first.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
scenario 2
Nvidia originally had the goal for the gk104 to be midrange. it is interesting to see 700mhz out there. This couldve been the original plan. For whatever reasons nvidia has a change of plan. Perhaps the gk104 was much better than they planned. Perhaps the big kepler was with a ton of issues. The solution was nvidia pushed the gk104 clocks up, way up to 40% and power still remained under control. 40% is significant and is more than enough to turn a midgrade chip performance up to the highgrade in the same generation. The gk104 in this case was a change in plan/ maybe even a backup plan. Its performing close to what their highgrade wouldve anyway and the power consumption is exceptional. perhaps the big kepler just wasnt cutting on for a gaming card. Maybe even at 40% higher clocks the gk104 outperforms their original big kepler while using less power?

There was a leak about a bios changing their gk104 card to a beast. Considering that there couldve been cards out there with 700mhz clocks that were then flashed to 1006mhz really might mean something. it could mean that nvidia design this chip to be midgrade but then scratched those plans. Engineers would then re-evolute and start over, making it a much higher clocked puppy. A lot more time and figuring would have to be done to achieve this.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

i think it could even be a little of both scenarios. Either way its just not likely this version of the gk104 was nvidia's midgrade from the start. Its just not likely that they pulled off the 660 and slapped a 680 on the card. This i am very certain of!!!!
 

tviceman

Diamond Member
Mar 25, 2008
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Another few pics:



From here:http://www.overclock.net/t/1231113/gigabyte-gtx-680-2gb-already-arrive-at-my-shop/410#post_16751299

User says that it "can overclock far."

EDIT: http://www.overclock.net/t/1231113/gigabyte-gtx-680-2gb-already-arrive-at-my-shop/430#post_16751424
Batman AC: 4x MSAA, 16xAF, Global Settings on very high, PhysX off (to compare to AMD)
112 FPS at 1300/6500 on 1920x1080.

1300mhz is 30% overclock on the core. If this is anything close to typical then it looks like GK104 will overclock as well as Tahiti. Anyone have links to Batman AC on an hd7970 DX11 @ 1080p at stock and overclocked?
 
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RussianSensation

Elite Member
Sep 5, 2003
19,458
765
126
Another few pics:

Those scores make a lot more sense for a high-end GTX680 card but now they look almost too fast. What's a stock HD7970 getting? 55-57 fps? That's 37% faster than a stock HD7970.

If 1058mhz clocks are activated, it's easy to imagine a 40% boost in performance (i.e., the score goes from 54 fps to 78). If true, mind-blown Or photoshopped...hehe
 
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LOL_Wut_Axel

Diamond Member
Mar 26, 2011
4,310
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81
Did you see how many GTX570/580s are still sold on Newegg? It seems NV is going to use those cards to compete against HD7850/7870/7950 for the time being. I am not seeing any indication of any other GTX6xx variants launching until April even May. Unless Nvidia pulled the biggest secret launch in its history and reveals 3-5 new desktop GPUs this week, it looks like their top-to-bottom desktop Kepler line-up is simply not ready. GTX580 is going for $370-380 on Newegg. I think that's a reasonable price drop vs. $450 HD7950. GTX570 is undercutting HD7870 by almost $100. Remember GeForce 5? AMD had a 6 months of dominant position while NV had to sell their GeForce 4s.



Prob. On the bright side, that's not a bad "return on investment" with those 480s. If those were 5870's with 1GB of VRAM, you would have been on 7970s right now! :biggrin:




I know you did . I don't think the world is changing per say. It's just taking them longer to perfect the new nodes. I believe it's harder to migrate to lower manufacturing nodes than it ever was. I think we'll still get a real flagship (so to speak), but it will just come much later because of 28nm yield issues, etc. Imagine if NV has been having trouble getting a 294mm^2 die chip out in volumes on 28nm, what kind of problems they must be going through if a 500mm^2 die chip exists (interconnects, clock speeds, power issues, horrible yields). Instead of getting huge performance increases every generation, we might be seeing 20-30% incremental gains every 8-10 months instead of 50-75% gains every 24 months as we've seen before.

In 12 months, AMD could wait until 28nm process matures and launch a 2304 SP @ 1200mhz HD8790 and call it a new generation. Just a conjecture.

This is exactly what will happen from now on, actually.
 
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