GK106 die shot, once again with new specs

[tviceman]

http://videocardz.com/34621/nvidia-geforce-gtx-660s-kepler-gk106-gpu-pictured

Rectangular shape, newest rumors peg it at 6 smx cores. If picture is to scale, die is about ~230mm^2. With
6 SMX cores, it would likely outperform the hd7870 almost across the board. Interestingly, this is the same specs as the rumored gtx660.

I don't know if the screen shot is faked, or if the specs are accurate...

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

http://videocardz.com/34621/nvidia-geforce-gtx-660s-kepler-gk106-gpu-pictured

Rectangular shape, newest rumors peg it at 6 smx cores. If picture is to scale, die is about ~230mm^2. With
6 SMX cores, it would likely outperform the hd7870 almost across the board. Interestingly, this is the same specs as the rumored gtx660.

I don't know if the screen shot is faked, or if the specs are accurate...

Not sure if serious. The GTX 660 Ti is barely faster than the HD 7870... This would compete with the 7850, tops. And we all know how good the HD 7850 is once you overclock it and how good its power consumption is...

 

[Rvenger]

Not sure if serious. The GTX 660 Ti is barely faster than the HD 7870... This would compete with the 7850, tops. And we all know how good the HD 7850 is once you overclock it and how good its power consumption is...

+1


I doubt that GK106 will exceed the performance of the 7870, that wouldn't be a smart business move for Nvidia. At the very most it will nip at the heels of the 7870 in some games and mostly be inline with the 7850. If Nvidia holds the $250 price tag then the $220 - 250 7870 probably would be the better buy.

 

[Homeles]

Nvidia's low end cards are definitely less appealing than AMD's — it's my opinion that AMD really nailed it with Pitcairn and Cape Verde, and blew it with Tahiti. Conversely, Nvidia nailed it with GK104 and blew it with GK107... and likely GK106 as well.

I'm just glad that Nvidia's lineup is finally going to fill out. More price drops incoming!

 

[chimaxi83]

Heh, outperform the 7870 across the board? 660Ti barely beats and/or loses to the 7870, like LOL said. Anyway, good one!

 

[Homeles]

Heh, outperform the 7870 across the board? 660Ti barely beats and/or loses to the 7870, like LOL said. Anyway, good one!

Not sure if serious:

 

[Rvenger]

Not sure if serious:

8% faster, whoopeedoo... Zotac AMP doesn't count.

That 8% can easily be made up with a small overclock.

 

[chimaxi83]

lol, you can cherry pick a single graph all you like bro (660 Ti overclocked vs stock 7870 ), but my statement stands. Games like Battlefield 3, Shogun 2, Portal 2, those are no contest Nvidia winners. Everything else though, it BARELY beats and/or loses to 7870. Also, the 7870 is cheaper. But hey, another nice try!

 

[Lonyo]

lol, you can cherry pick a single graph all you like bro (660 Ti overclocked vs stock 7870 ), but my statement stands. Games like Battlefield 3, Shogun 2, Portal 2, those are no contest Nvidia winners. Everything else though, it BARELY beats and/or loses to 7870. Also, the 7870 is cheaper. But hey, another nice try!

It is a consolidated graph, so not cherry picked very much, but that also makes it silly.
Better would be to look at 1680x1050 and 1920x1080 since those are the resolutions the cards would likely be used at. Combining all resolutions potentially distorts things and isn't meaningful.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

The GTX 660 Ti is a whooping 9% faster than the HD 7870. Unless NVIDIA is okay with completely cannibalizing their 660 ti, then there's no way the 660 is gonna compete with the HD 7870. Competing with the HD 7850 is gonna be incredibly hard from a price point of view given it's now $200-220. Even the HD 7870 is at a decent price in the $250-270 range. If NVIDIA prices at $250 then that's too much because the 7870 will be faster and the same price or slightly higher and if they price at $200-220 then it'll have a good price but then they'd leave a gap between $200 and $300. I also doubt in terms of overclocking it'd be better than the 7850.

 

[tviceman]

Not sure if serious. The GTX 660 Ti is barely faster than the HD 7870... This would compete with the 7850, tops. And we all know how good the HD 7850 is once you overclock it and how good its power consumption is...

+1


I doubt that GK106 will exceed the performance of the 7870, that wouldn't be a smart business move for Nvidia. At the very most it will nip at the heels of the 7870 in some games and mostly be inline with the 7850. If Nvidia holds the $250 price tag then the $220 - 250 7870 probably would be the better buy.

Taking into account the gtx660ti is memory bandwidth starved... 16.6% less shaders, same bandwidth, running at a higher core clock. Just like the performance of the gtx670 is so close to the gtx680, this situation will be very, very similar. Do the math. No wait, don't do the math. It's more entertaining that way.

 

[Homeles]

8% faster, whoopeedoo... Zotac AMP doesn't count.

That 8% can easily be made up with a small overclock.

You can overclock the 660 Ti too, genius.

lol, you can cherry pick a single graph all you like bro (660 Ti overclocked vs stock 7870 ), but my statement stands. Games like Battlefield 3, Shogun 2, Portal 2, those are no contest Nvidia winners. Everything else though, it BARELY beats and/or loses to 7870. Also, the 7870 is cheaper. But hey, another nice try!

Are you illiterate and completely incapable of seeing color? The stock 660 Ti is quite clearly labeled in blue. Cost also has absolutely nothing to do with this discussion.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

You can overclock the 660 Ti too, genius.


Are you illiterate and completely incapable of seeing color? The stock 660 Ti is quite clearly labeled in blue. Cost also has absolutely nothing to do with this discussion.

The HD 7870 overclocks a slightly higher percentage and gains a higher percentage of performance from it as well.

On average you'll get 1150-1200MHz effective out of a 660 Ti and 1200-1250MHz out of a 7870. Like I said before, it scales better with increased frequency too.

Actually, screw the HD 7870. The HD 7850 overclocks about the same on average and is only 5% slower clock-for-clock. And it's $200. How is NVIDIA gonna compete with that?

 

[chimaxi83]

You can overclock the 660 Ti too, genius.


Are you illiterate and completely incapable of seeing color? The stock 660 Ti is quite clearly labeled in blue. Cost also has absolutely nothing to do with this discussion.

Meh, personal attacks don't get you very far in life. If you're mad that I'm just pointing out facts, then say so.

 

[Homeles]

Meh, personal attacks don't get you very far in life. If you're mad that I'm just pointing out facts, then say so.

Not a personal attack, just an observation. You seem to have trouble reading, so I pointed that out. Also, you aren't "pointing out facts." You're spewing irrelevance.

The HD 7870 overclocks a slightly higher percentage and gains a higher percentage of performance from it as well.

On average you'll get 1150-1200MHz effective out of a 660 Ti and 1200-1250MHz out of a 7870. Like I said before, it scales better with increased frequency too.

Actually, screw the HD 7870. The HD 7850 overclocks about the same on average and is only 5% slower clock-for-clock. And it's $200. How is NVIDIA gonna compete with that?

I'm actually not advocating the 660 Ti at all. I agree that the 7950 and 7870s are better buys. It's just that the arguments being thrown around here are highly flawed, saturated in confirmation bias and devoid of intelligent thought in general.

The 660 Ti's lead over the 7870 at stock is statistically significant -- well outside of margin of error, and yet is being downplayed as being nonexistent. That is not the case.

Now, if you were to say "hey, the 660 Ti is slightly faster than the 7870, but the 7870 is way better for your dollar," I would be in total agreement with you.

As far as overclocking goes, yes, you are correct. However, your comment is irrelevant. While the 7870 may scale better/overclock higher, that has nothing to do with my argument. It's frequently said "oh, you can make X card faster than Y card if you overclock it," but that argument doesn't hold any water if you're able to overclock card Y as well. This is all that I was saying, nothing more.

And yes, the 7870 will almost undoubtedly beat the 660, with the assumption that potenial upcoming drivers won't change relative performance.

The only reason why I care about GK106 at all is because it will likely demand price adjustment from AMD, regardless of the 660's and 650's performance.

 

[chimaxi83]

Not a personal attack, just an observation. You seem to have trouble reading, so I pointed that out. Also, you aren't "pointing out facts." You're spewing irrelevance.

Sure dude. The card is barely faster than a 7870, you should probably try to get over it. The only irrelevance here is a 660ti at its current price, but I guess its cool because of PhysX right? Why some of you people get sooooo worked up/mad and cry tears over video cards, we normal people will never know. It's pitiful.

 

[Riek]

Not sure if serious:

Honestly including 1280 and 1680 might be scewing results a bit.

I don't think anyone is saying the 660ti isn't faster, it just has such a thin margin that you can't get another card in between. At 1920 it is indeed 9% faster but it drops rapidly with a simple resolution increase . So i don't think a 660 without the core advantage will be faster than the 7870.

 

[96Firebird]

Why some of you people get sooooo worked up/mad and cry tears over video cards, we normal people will never know. It's pitiful.

Bahahaha, this is good stuff. "We normal people", looks like you're the one that was faced with the cold truth and then were forced to come up with stipulations (take some games out, bring price into the discussion) to back up what you said. And you're still wrong, no matter how much you try to justify it.

Riek, who would buy either a 660 Ti or a 7870 for 2560 resolution?

 

[chimaxi83]

Oh look, you're fighting the good green fight. Can't say I'm surprised.

Bahahaha, this is good stuff. "We normal people", looks like you're the one that was faced with the cold truth and then were forced to come up with stipulations (take some games out, bring price into the discussion, bring up resolution) to back up what you said. And you're still wrong, no matter how much you try to justify it.

Riek, who would buy either a 660 Ti or a 7870 for 2560 resolution?

Fixed that for ya bud.

Riek, who would buy either a 660 Ti or a 7870 for 2560 resolution?

Gotta love hypocrites. :wub:

Drop the smug bastard act before I drop you. We're not having any of this.
-ViRGE

 

[96Firebird]

I'm much happier with the "all resolutions" graph, if that works for you. I don't nit pick, try it sometime.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

I'm much happier with the "all resolutions" graph, if that works for you. I don't nit pick, try it sometime.

I say we just stick to 1920x1200/1080 for this type of card: that's the target resolution. Including results that combine resolutions like 1280x1024 and 2560x1600 isn't doing anyone any favors given who this card is targeted at.

Both stock, the GTX 660 Ti is 9% faster than the HD 7870, and that's that.

 

[SirPauly]

If offered, may compete with the HD 7850's price-point but may offer performance closer to the HD 7870 from a default point-of-view. If this comes to fruition, more strong competition and choice is welcomed - prices may drop - consumers may have more choice to consider.

Must be pretty tough to compete with the HD 7850 with a GTX 570, one may imagine, specifically from a performance/nm and performance/watt point-of-view.

 

[Haserath]

Why not the resolution they can both handle well without being bottlenecked much if at all?

Showing the stock 660Ti is 9-10% faster than the 7870 at a decent resolution.

Include everything and you get results from more CPU bottlenecked resolutions and a resolution that the cards would trip over themselves in.

 

[96Firebird]

I say we just stick to 1920x1200/1080 for this type of card: that's the target resolution. Including results that combine resolutions like 1280x1024 and 2560x1600 isn't doing anyone any favors given who this card is targeted at.

Fair enough, I agree. I like that TPU uses 16:10 resolutions, as that is what I use (1680x1050 ) and what I would like to use for my next monitor (1920x1200). I realize some games favor 16:9, but for some reason I prefer 16:10.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Fair enough, I agree. I like that TPU uses 16:10 resolutions, as that is what I use (1680x1050 ) and what I would like to use for my next monitor (1920x1200). I realize some games favor 16:9, but for some reason I prefer 16:10.

16:10 is definitely better for productivity. Unfortunately, I am still on a 1680x1050 monitor as well and that is why I haven't upgraded my GTX 460. In one or two months I'll upgrade to an HD 7950 and I'll buy one of those CrossOver 2560x1440 monitors. That is twice the resolution, so I'll need twice the amount of GPU power.

The only decent, relatively inexpensive choice for a monitor with a 16:10 aspect ratio is the Dell U2412M and that is $300. For $100 more you can get a CrossOver that has the same ergonomic features and an elegant design plus a much, much higher resolution and a higher-end panel. If you don't care for the ergonomic features like pivot and swivel then the Catleap and Shimian are available for $300. I'd say those are a bigger upgrade than the U2412M. Going from 1680x1050 to 1920x1200 is a good jump, but not nearly as good as going all-out to 2560x1440.

Getting back on topic, the HD 7850 is an epic card in terms of price/performance.