http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxXk-iXLjiY&feature=player_embedded#!

Looks good. Then again I don't know much about this sort of thing. I imagine the price will be rather high.

@kishinfoulux said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxXk-iXLjiY&feature=player_embedded#!

Looks good. Then again I don't know much about this sort of thing. I imagine the price will be rather high.

$549

I won't be buying the 680, but I'll totally be buying the $250 price point alternative.

That sounds like pretty awesome tech, although yeah, the price is steep. Would probably buy a 580 instead.

i have a 580 dont know if i want to get a 680 but i just might. God i love hardware revisions.

Just not interested in the current cards on either side. It's the 690 and the 7990 that I'm waiting for (the dual GPU cards). I thought they were supposed to be out this month, but who knows. I'm getting anxious, here, because Ivy Bridge 3770K is here in a couple days and I'm just waiting around for the god damn video cards to get out and be benched so I can start stuffing it into my pending MountainMods case (the current build is going to be with the Ascension - Extended chassis -- a 24"Hx24D"x18W" system).

Unfortunately, if the 680 is coming out at around $600 or more, that doesn't bode well for the 690. I'm used to paying around $700 or so for a card, but that's really about the limit.

@Dallas_Raines said:

@kishinfoulux said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxXk-iXLjiY&feature=player_embedded#!

Looks good. Then again I don't know much about this sort of thing. I imagine the price will be rather high.

$549

I saw somewhere else it may actually be $499. Who knows?

So they're throttling the GPU's 3D clocks now. Yeah, I'd probably disable that.

So if I don't eat...wash my clothes in the bath...cancel my cable...steal my neighbors electricity...I should have one of these bad boys in...carry the 2...23 log 934...aghanim's scepter principle...I should have one of these bad boys in 4 months. Then I'm going to use it exclusively to play WoW so it makes people angry muhuhahahahaha

That guy from the video looks like that dude from Mega64.

But on topic, I don't see the point spending so much money on graphics, but then again I don't see much point in a lot of things really. I would want that GPU, along with a new machine, if I had the money to afford it, which I don't, sooo. Would you kindly buy me one?

So good.

Come on... come one lower the 560ti's price (or prices) down to something I could afford.

£10 preferably.

Oh god, I wonder how much that's going to cost. As long as it brings down the cost of the 570s so I can get a second one for SLI, then that's all I care about.

Awesome, this will make the other cards a bit cheaper, so I can get a 560 SLI set up going.

Looks good for lowering the 560 down. Building a new PC so wonder what I should do. Think the leap will be in the 780/760 time next year.

Looks quite interesting; still waiting on the official NDA to lapse so all the tech sites can give us the report of what they've been told, they've benchmarked, and they've considered (as it has been a couple of weeks since they got access) but it looks to be interesting. Hopefully the prices will be good (thinking more of the 670 and 660Ti products that carry the typical enthusiast friendly prices rather than the 680 really, buying big or even dual-GPU is great but it's not a great value proposition, even the 670 tier is a bit throwing money because you've got it to spare rather than sanely looking* at the performance per dollar) and their dynamic overclocking (which is what CPUs have all been doing for a couple of years, working within a thermal envelope and changing speed to get the best performance at any moment; AMD have this in their current cards but I think they sell it as clocking back when it gets too hot rather than clocking up when there is headroom, "Intelligent TDP management technology") should give some interesting performance characteristics (when you're in the most complicated scene then possibly you're flogging the GPU the hardest so it runs the slowest - how that balances out and avoid yoyoing should be an interesting thing to see).

Looks like it's not long now before everyone is looking at a full complement of upgrade options. Maybe my GTX470 is getting a bit old (and definitely a bit warm, 80 to 90 C isn't a great operating window for a chip) and could do with a cooler, quieter replacement with some extra umph. But I'm not spending $600 to do it so it'll be decided by how competitive their $350 part is and how much of an upgrade it'll provide me.

* I say this as someone who regularly lacks sanity when actually buying my hardware.

@scarace360: Send me your 580 if you do upgrade?

@DillonWerner said:

@scarace360: Send me your 580 if you do upgrade?

nope also dont know i might wait for the 700 series.

Man, too bad these cards always launch at such a high price.

@Shivoa said:

Looks quite interesting; still waiting on the official NDA to lapse so all the tech sites can give us the report of what they've been told, they've benchmarked, and they've considered (as it has been a couple of weeks since they got access) but it looks to be interesting. Hopefully the prices will be good (thinking more of the 670 and 660Ti products that carry the typical enthusiast friendly prices rather than the 680 really, buying big or even dual-GPU is great but it's not a great value proposition, even the 670 tier is a bit throwing money because you've got it to spare rather than sanely looking* at the performance per dollar) and their dynamic overclocking (which is what CPUs have all been doing for a couple of years, working within a thermal envelope and changing speed to get the best performance at any moment; AMD have this in their current cards but I think they sell it as clocking back when it gets too hot rather than clocking up when there is headroom, "Intelligent TDP management technology") should give some interesting performance characteristics (when you're in the most complicated scene then possibly you're flogging the GPU the hardest so it runs the slowest - how that balances out and avoid yoyoing should be an interesting thing to see).

Looks like it's not long now before everyone is looking at a full complement of upgrade options. Maybe my GTX470 is getting a bit old (and definitely a bit warm, 80 to 90 C isn't a great operating window for a chip) and could do with a cooler, quieter replacement with some extra umph. But I'm not spending $600 to do it so it'll be decided by how competitive their $350 part is and how much of an upgrade it'll provide me.

* I say this as someone who regularly lacks sanity when actually buying my hardware.

Sadly, I haven't paid less than $500 for a card in about ten years and I haven't paid less than $700 for a card in about five years. While it seems crazy, I just figure that the system is going to serve me for one or two full years and if I can get something significantly better for only another $300.... well... why not? I obviously wouldn't spend $1,000 on it, but . . .

I"m just worried about what price the 690 and the 7990 will come out at. I want one very bad, but if we're talking $800 or $900, I can't rationalize that (but, strangely, I'm fine with $720!). Also, since there seems to be less overhead in the newest range of cards on both sides of the aisle when it comes to SLI/CrossFire, I might even go with dual dual-GPUs.

It's fucking dumb, I know. God damn it, I can't stop myself. Worse, this new build is going to be watercooled, so on top of a pair of $700+ cards, I'll be spending a few hundred more on just the blocks and tubes for the loop the GPUs are on.

Awesome :o

I'll end up with whatever the $250 - $300 model is (GTX 660 from the looks of it). Then again the way things seems to be going by the time I get around to building my pc the mid season replacements will be in for the GTX 6 series and I'll end up with one of those XD

@Branthog said:

@Shivoa said:

Looks quite interesting; still waiting on the official NDA to lapse so all the tech sites can give us the report of what they've been told, they've benchmarked, and they've considered (as it has been a couple of weeks since they got access) but it looks to be interesting. Hopefully the prices will be good (thinking more of the 670 and 660Ti products that carry the typical enthusiast friendly prices rather than the 680 really, buying big or even dual-GPU is great but it's not a great value proposition, even the 670 tier is a bit throwing money because you've got it to spare rather than sanely looking* at the performance per dollar) and their dynamic overclocking (which is what CPUs have all been doing for a couple of years, working within a thermal envelope and changing speed to get the best performance at any moment; AMD have this in their current cards but I think they sell it as clocking back when it gets too hot rather than clocking up when there is headroom, "Intelligent TDP management technology") should give some interesting performance characteristics (when you're in the most complicated scene then possibly you're flogging the GPU the hardest so it runs the slowest - how that balances out and avoid yoyoing should be an interesting thing to see).

Looks like it's not long now before everyone is looking at a full complement of upgrade options. Maybe my GTX470 is getting a bit old (and definitely a bit warm, 80 to 90 C isn't a great operating window for a chip) and could do with a cooler, quieter replacement with some extra umph. But I'm not spending $600 to do it so it'll be decided by how competitive their $350 part is and how much of an upgrade it'll provide me.

* I say this as someone who regularly lacks sanity when actually buying my hardware.

Sadly, I haven't paid less than $500 for a card in about ten years and I haven't paid less than $700 for a card in about five years. While it seems crazy, I just figure that the system is going to serve me for one or two full years and if I can get something significantly better for only another $300.... well... why not? I obviously wouldn't spend $1,000 on it, but . . .

I"m just worried about what price the 690 and the 7990 will come out at. I want one very bad, but if we're talking $800 or $900, I can't rationalize that (but, strangely, I'm fine with $720!). Also, since there seems to be less overhead in the newest range of cards on both sides of the aisle when it comes to SLI/CrossFire, I might even go with dual dual-GPUs.

It's fucking dumb, I know. God damn it, I can't stop myself. Worse, this new build is going to be watercooled, so on top of a pair of $700+ cards, I'll be spending a few hundred more on just the blocks and tubes for the loop the GPUs are on.

You should be running, I dunno, Skynet or something on that rig by now. Gee, I'd be happy to have something that can run things at ~40 frames, medium settings. Just out of curiosity, what do you actually use all of that power on?

Until a few minutes ago I was proud of my GTX 580 :(

Probably buying 2 of these.

Second gen of Keplers probably gonna be worth waiting for. That or whatever the one after that is called I forget.

PC enthusiasts are fucking insane. I'm genuinely glad they exist, but man.

I'm still pretty happy with my GTX460.

I think I'm done with the hassle of crossfire SLI, time to go back to one GPU and this one seems like the best candidate, especially with Planetside 2 on the horizon.

@BeachThunder said:

Awesome :o

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

Does it come with a beard?

No dude, you gotta fuckin earn a beard like that.

Will I be able to simulate every individual hair in that man-playing-Skyrim's beard?

@StrikeALight said:

PC enthusiasts are fucking insane. I'm genuinely glad they exist, but man.

We're like the digital off shoot of the rev head subspecies, we tune CPU's instead of Mustangs.

I want to get a new graphics card, but my 285 GTX can max out just about everything still. Though seeing that video makes me think it's time to upgrade anyways.

Days like today I really wish I had a job. I'd buy that shit up in a minute.

LoL @ Sparky, yeah i would too haha!

The GTX 580s are still amazing, and at newegg their priced at $380, for THAT price, and THAT much horsepower, its dumb not to get one of those cards right now. the GTX 570 has gone down to what the gtx 560s price range was, which was around $270 so yeah, NOWS the time to buy up a nice monster card, i dont have 500-600 bucks to flash out on the 680s or i'd get that myself, but damn, for 380 bucks for a 580, hell yeah!

One day, Brad Shoemaker will end up with a beard like that.

A graphics card that costs more than two xbox's... When I build my PC (probably in May sometime) I'll still probably go with a 570 or something.

Gah, I wished I waited two months to build my rig - with the release of the GTX 6XX series, I could have gotten my current 570 at a better price. Although with the price drop of the older GTX 5XX series, the cash-wasting side of me is thinking about picking up another card for SLI. To those who have been using dual SLI cards for a while - what is the experience like? Do most games work perfectly with two cards right out of the box, or is it common to wait for developers to patch proper support for such a set-up?

the experience i've found with dual gtx 560s is double the frame rates in every game to when i was only using one. I think the general consensus is that when you double up GFX cards, you essentially are doubling the performance so long as you aren't bottlenecking the machine with a crap CPU.

@TooWalrus said:

A graphics card that costs more than two xbox's... When I build my PC (probably in May sometime) I'll still probably go with a 570 or something.

Yes, shocking. High end GPUs, when new, cost (typically $500-550) almost as much as a PS3, when new ($600). Still an apples to oranges but at least it isn't comparing the price of new apples to old oranges.

On SLI or CF: until the driver supports it then games may not have any performance increase over a single card. So if you buy and play a lot of PC games on the first day of release then SLI isn't the best of plans. Sometimes big name titles take a month to get good or non-broken SLI drivers, sometimes the updates comes a few days before the game's release and everyone can be happy. But you're definitely getting a machine that has more potential performance and less cost than buying a single fast card (especially to people who already own a single quite fast card). The price-performance curve goes way up so a $250 GPU is much quicker than half the speed of a $500 GPU (and the added cost of getting a good 750W+ PSU isn't bad) but the number of techy people who don't do it should indicate it isn't an obvious right choice. Personally I float on regular $350 GPU upgrades (every 2.5-4 years) rather than going SLI, but I can see the attraction. I don't think there's a 'right' answer, but go through the last releases you played at launch and the driver notes and see if owning SLI in the last year would have put a damper on your experience.

Looks like some cool stuff. I'm really glad I didn't drop the money on a 560Ti 448-core now and held on to my 5770 as long as possible.

i now kind of want to build a super high end PC.. this can only end well.. anyone want to point me in the right direction?

@randiolo: Super-high end is currently i7-3xxx (4 core 'budget' CPU for $320 or spend north of $500 on a 6 core full-fat beast) with 4 RAM slots (to get the quad channel bandwidth) on an LGA2011 motherboard (budget $300, hope you find a model you like for less).

Gaming extreme performance is (until Intel release their mild update in April-Summer area, which gives you lower heat, a mild speed boost per dollar, and a better iGPU which you won't use for gaming and so only really matters for making their video encoding/transcoding hardware potentially faster) a $220 i5-2500K, two sticks of RAM (2x4GB for $40 with DDR3-1600MHz/CL9 stuff), and a $100+ Z68 motherboard (just like CPUs, refresh incoming this Summer but it's not an incredible upgrade, you might as well buy a Z68 that is certified PCI-E 3.0 ready).

And dump the biggest GPU you can onto either of them. This 680 is probably going to be the king for a while, the AMD 7970 is definitely fast but they've spend the extra transistors they got in the die shrink making the GPGPU performance catch up with nVidia rather than making it really compelling for gaming. That means the new AMD cards are no longer weaker than nVidia for BF3 or other games that use GPGPU code but maybe nVidia will use their extra transistors to make something with real performance increase for gaming and a decent price (AMD's 7xxx cards have all been released with basically the price/performance only ever so slightly better than the 12 months old stuff they replaced - new is better but in a cynically targeted way that ignores the die shrink makes all of these GPUs cheaper to make than the things they replace at the same performance level).

@Shivoa: that isa tonne of info thanks man, since i dont have the know how to put all this together il have to look around for a pc workshop. Not easy to find here in Australia. Im hoping to have something that will keep up with next gen at least for a while.

I'll be taking the plunge for a 680. Probably around July. Coincidentally, my birthday is around then.

@Unchained said:

I'll be taking the plunge for a 680. Probably around July. Coincidentally, my birthday is around then.

If another article is to be believed, then the next generation of Nvidia GPUS will be releasing shortly after in August... I wouldn't put a whole lot of stock in that, though. It's still irritating deciding when to buy when you're seeing news of the next gen before this gen has even released.

Just not interested in the current cards on either side. It's the 690 and the 7990 that I'm waiting for (the dual GPU cards). I thought they were supposed to be out this month, but who knows. I'm getting anxious, here, because Ivy Bridge 3770K is here in a couple days and I'm just waiting around for the god damn video cards to get out and be benched so I can start stuffing it into my pending MountainMods case (the current build is going to be with the Ascension - Extended chassis -- a 24"Hx24D"x18W" system).

Unfortunately, if the 680 is coming out at around $600 or more, that doesn't bode well for the 690. I'm used to paying around $700 or so for a card, but that's really about the limit.

The truth is out there (there are a lot of rumour articles that just got debunked), NDA is lifted, reviews are up.

[expletive deleted] nVidia have decided that they're not going to let AMD talk about the GPU price war as something that had to end. GTX680 for $499, small agile rebuild of the old GPU design from nVidia means that price will go down in the future (it takes less silicon to make a 680 compared to a 580 so once 28nm is mature that should mean prices drop down) but performance is up today (while being relatively cool and quiet).

I wonder what the 670 and 660Ti will be like when they launch. I also wonder if we'll see a 685 or what the 780 will be like next year if they start to build up from this new streamlined design and bulk up the processing units or extend the memory bus back to the level they were at before.

Ladies and gentlemen (probably only gentlemen): the Geforce GTX 680 will retail for $499 US Dollars!

Too bad everyone is (understandably) out of the gate with their most expensive parts. I'm ready to buy if they're willing to give.

@AndrewB: Most expensive for now, there is a full fat GPU design somewhere in nVidia waiting to come out (that could slot into that $700 price point normally reserved for dual-GPU cards) because this (while being the fastest consumer card for games) isn't the compute monster successor to the Fermi GPU that powered the 580/570/480/470 cards. It's what you get when you rebuild the 560Ti style GPU with the new 28nm die shrink to pump it up into a beast.

Normally nVidia lead with their big behemoth GPU to take the performance crown and then release the FP64 unlocked version to their pro side as Tesla. This time their small (and gaming only, not GPGPU/compute heavy) GPU was fast enough to be the best out there so it gets the x80 name and $500 release.