Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti not coming until Q3 '12

[Archean]

Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti Not Coming Until Q3 '12?

It is a rumor as far as I see it, but if it is true, AMD will have a good chance of maximizing its mid-range reach, which may mean prices will stagnate due to no competition.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Damn thats a long time to be holding my money. My GTS 450 could use an upgrade today.

 

[LNCPapa]

670 is rumored for next week so there's your upgrade path CC

 

[dividebyzero]

It will be interesting to see how this turns out. The 660 Ti is the second salvage bin of GK104- so either:
1. Even though yields are supposed to be low, those GPU's that are being produced have a high degree of functionality
2. GK104 has a level of redundancy built in (unlikely IMO due to the small die size)
3. Nvidia has significant stock of GF114 (GTX 560 Ti, 560, 560 SE abd 555) in inventory

 

[cliffordcooley]

What are you saying DBZ? Are you suggesting that there could be a re-branding with the 660 series?

I know I will not consider a 660 if it is not a die shrink. If I'm looking at this all wrong please correct me.

 

[dividebyzero]

Nope. The 660 is a salvage part based on GK104.
GTX 680 (8 x SMX of 16 TMU's each with 12 shader cores - 8 SMX /128 TMU/ 1536 shaders). GTX 670 is the first salvage part -loses one shader cluster* ( so, 7 SMX /112 TMU/ 1344 shaders). GTX 660 Ti would be the second salvage part -loses two shader cluster (so, 6 SMX /96 TMU/ 1152 shaders)
I'm suggesting that either the GK104 has good functionality when it yields a serviceable die if Nvidia need a nine months or so (Q3 starts next month**) for a supply of second salvage parts. If there were a significant amount of GK104's coming off the line only partially functional, it would stand to reason that availability of 670 and 660Ti should have been the same as for the 680.

The other alternatives are that there are a supply of not fully functional GK104, but Nvidia is holding them back either to build up stock (unlikely), or because they have significant stock of GF114 (GTX 560) still to sell- it would also preserve their pricing structure. The third alternative- which I discounted is that Nvidia had built redundancy into the GPU -i.e. having an extra shader cluster built into the design (a ninth SMX for example) to allow for those GPU's that come out of the oven with a non-functional SMX to still be able to call on a full complement of shaders.

* SMX= Streaming Multiprocessor in Nvidia PR-speak
** The story says Q3 2012 and quotes Gibbo from OcUK who says "6 months" - that makes it October....October is Q4.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Ahhh OK - Now we are clear on the subject.

 

[dividebyzero]

GTX 670 "launch" 10th May. Non-reference cards available from day 1...or even before if you're in the right place .
Performance preview over at Tweaktown...Looks like a lot of performance for a (potentially) very small card...

...right on the heels of the 680. TT's power consumption figures put it marginally higher than the 680- I'm guessing the card is working well past it's boost figure.

 

[Archean]

Most colorful bit of the review:

"Here's something you probably didn't know, though. No one really likes dealing with NVIDIA. Speaking to manufacturers, Tier 2 and Tier 3 partners tell us how poorly they're treated by NVIDIA and Tier 1 partners find them extremely overbearing and dislike the pressure that NVIDIA put on them.
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/4710/index.html
Companies actually dislike NVIDIA so much that they're willing to walk down stairs, or maybe upstairs, to their R and D department and sign out a video card to send to us. They ask just one thing from us. Never tell anyone where it came from. That's fine with us and that's the reason we won't be including any pictures. The video card we have has too many manufacturer markings that we couldn't keep its identity a secret, so we just decided not to include any pictures at all."

On the card itself, hopefully they'll set the price 'smartly' giving AMD not much chance to compete unless it significantly reduces the prices of its cards.

 

[dividebyzero]

Most colorful bit of the review...

Hardly surprising- everyone involved would be under NDA; A picture of the card likely narrows down the suspects, a shot of the PCB narrows that down further.
Nvidia marketing have set up the 1-2-3 combination to have a desired effect. The GTX 680 to take the single GPU crown, the GTX 690 the single card crown (with the added bonus of the card being compared to limited edition supercars by a number of review sites), and the GTX 670 as the value proposition. There is no doubt in my mind that under current pricing, the 670 is set up to be the performance/$ champ...and I'm also pretty certain that Nvidia aren't that keen for benchmarks to pop up this early and give AMD time to lower pricing before the NDA expires.

Nvidia have always had a certain arrogance/swagger in their dealings with both the press and other IHV's...most successful hardware vendors share the trait (Intel, Apple and IBM for example). Extreme confidence- warranted or not- and the public perception it brings has a habit of translating to marketshare....add Nvidia's studied approach to knowing what the customer base wants and you end up with a fairly classic example of iron fist and velvet glove.

On the card itself, hopefully they'll set the price 'smartly' giving AMD not much chance to compete unless it significantly reduces the prices of its cards.

I'm not entirely sure either AMD or Nvidia would welcome a price war. Nvidia would (like the 680 and 690) sell all the GPU's they produce in any case. I'm guessing that if the 670 fits in between the 7950 and 7970, then the price likely will as well. AMD could, I suppose institute some bigger cuts- but that tends to be double edged sword. Two price cuts in quick succession looks like a fire sale and AMD reacting to a market leader (as it does re Intel) when in reality, Nvidia has managed this upheaval with only one GPU -the GK104.