Excellent post; but instead trivial metrics that consumers don't care about such as perf/mm2, die size. The only reason we even discussed P10 and GP104's die size was to gauge their standing in their next Ben lineups relative to Vega and Big Pascal. Even if 1070 was a 120mm2 did, unless NV's is going to sell it for $299, who cares if P10 has worse perf/mm2.
You don't care; and that's completely fine. Other people like to discuss the technical merits of a chip, including transistor count, die size, available headroom, driver features, peripherals, etc. with the cost to the consumer not withstanding. What is wrong with that? This is a "Video card and graphics forum" and not " video card and graphics hot deals sales forum."
Why can't we talk about the technical merits of a GPU without being assaulted about prices?
AMD is also attacked for bringing this level of GPU power to $199/$229 price levels as if we should cheer paying more for graphics cards?! It's amusing people trying to crap on P10 by using useless engineering metrics like perf/mm2 when the same people bought GTX780/780Ti over 290/290X.
Anyone who is ridiculing AMD for bringing great perf/$ is an idiot. Anyone that wants to argue WHY AMD is bringing great perf/$ is not an idiot but is equally attacked the same as the ones you suggest are attacking AMD for low pricing.
Right now as it stands $379 1070 costs 90% more than $199 RX 480 4GB, 66% more than the RX 480 8GB, and still 52% more than AIB $249 480 8GB variants. As hard as some people are trying to prove that 1070 is better value, it simply isn't.
USUALLY (not always), as graphics cards climb the ladder in performance, value goes down. The 1070 is obviously not a better value at $379. It's still probably not a better value at $329, but if Nvidia were to drop the price to $329 upon RX 480's release, I'd sure as heck have no qualms saying it'd be a good investment to step up even if it's still worse perf/$. Would you, or is having the best perf/$ the only metric that matters? If GP107 or P11 comes out, lets say at $129 and offers 25-30% better perf/$ than RX 480, are you suddenly going to start telling people that RX 480 is overpriced and not to buy it? And what is a 1440p or 1080p 144hz gamer to do when the gap in price for 25% more performance exceeds the best perf/$ card that is borderline adequate or inadequate for the games he/she plays? Suck it up and by the cheaper card anyways even if it doesn't deliver the performance desired?
It's also amazing seeing the elephant in room being ignored over and over -- 84-85% of PC gamers buy GPUs in the $100-300 range. That means it practically doesn't even matter even if 1070 was 52% faster than the 480 8GB because most of the target market isn't going to increase their budget from $229-249 to $379-449.
You're probably right, but at the same token Nvidia sold more GTX 970's than GTX 960's according to Steam and the 970 spent most of it's life above $300.
Simply said, 480 hits the sweet spot and NV has no response and its fans have run out of arguments other than starting to pull out 4GB VRAM limitation at 1080p 60Hz without even any proof of a faster Fury X being bottlenecked by the same VRAM limit at 1080.
Isn't it a bit premature to say Nvidia has no response? RX 480 won't be out for another 27 days, GP106 die shots have been on the web for two months now, and Nvidia still can release a third GP104 SKU that can sell for ~$279 or so and still be ~15-20% faster than RX 480 if need be. I'd go ahead and say that with GP106 and GP107 coming in July/August and giving them a complete top-to-bottom refresh (sans the ultra high end) means AMD has no answer for Nvidia. But that's just me.
Smart mainstream buyers either buys a $199 480 4GB, and upgrades again in 2018, or he/she can spend a bit more for the 8GB version.
Unfortunately, the "smart" solution isn't always the be-end-all best solution for enjoyment. Put a price on 60fps for us all... or not, because I'll tell you right now it doesn't matter what card I have; if I can't play with minimum frame rates rarely dropping below 60fps (sans turning down a very select few bells and whistles), I just wait until graphics drivers fix possible performance issues or until I upgrade again.
Another point: Engineer's perf/watt TPU uses are useless for PC gamers. Trying to claim that 1060 is world's more efficient if it uses 90-100W is highly misleading since in an actual gaming rig, it'll be 170W PC vs. a 230W PC. Who cares!!! This is literally engineer's water cooler talk. You cannot use a videocard in a vacuum. What matters is the Consumer's perf/watt and that is a function of Total System Power Usage.
So again, we're not allowed to discuss the merits of a particular chip's attributes? Perhaps we should have split the video card sub-forum into "graphics cards prices" section and "technical discussion" section. And then, from there, further divide each section into an AMD and Nvidia section. I wouldn't want to get caught red handed talking about die sizes or transistor counts in the face of consumer dollar signs! How dare I discuss my own interests and fascinations!
