Just thinking of where Nvidia needs to fill the void would be right "below or on" the R9 270-270X territory, and then at a price that outshines that of the GK106. If they’ve this new Maxwell part the dia. almost has to be small(er) than the GK106, while price it under those AMD offerings. If they stick to that they may effectively undercut AMD Pitcairn parts.



What’s interesting is the 650Ti Boost is effectively gone from the market, but there's still a bunch of GTX 660's at least at Egg when looking last week. Even Partspicker.com lists just 5 650Ti Boost SKU’s at a couple E-tailers, then flip to the GTX660 and there’s some 17 SKU’s ranging from $160-200+. That eludes to a lot, they’ve curtailed and cleared the Boost models from the channel, then seem to have no reason to move the GTX660 at what would be a fair price today. Consider they deliver 8-10% less performance while using a part that is 4-5% larger than a Pitcairn, $150-170... only few could garner much over $180.



If Nvidia can present a part that's like what a 7850 or GTX650Ti Boost had in performance, and do it on a Dia. of say 175-180 mm2, or say 10% larger than Bonaire while start it at a $150 MSRP then they’ll have a viable offering (at least in their mind).



Face it, we know how low AMD can go on a Pitcairn part with 2Gb (or even 1Gb?), which had gotten down to $140-150. While AMD probably has been binning some of the latest Pitcairn from R9 270/270X production that could be released with say 2 of the 20 GCN or a 1152 Sp part. I’d imagine such a part would be in the works a AMD.



Whatever happens, we need the competition, because with just a few R9 270 in the channel and almost all maintaining above $180. While 270X’s still over MSRP and many are just stupid crazy prices I want something to break this stalemate. I just hope Nvidia understands that they need to price in accordance performance. They seem happy to hold strong to old GK106 stock in the form of a GTX660, so something tells me this new Maxwell isn’t intended to upstage or supplant that performance/dollar placement.

Posted on Jan 20th 2014, 12:19 Reply