And so what? Nvidia finally has a low end mid range card. It performs like the competition it was designed to compete against. I dont see how that is garbage. Unless we are going to value a card by the timeline from which it is brought out. Which I think is a pointless argument when it comes to buying a card right now. If I am looking at a 5770 or a GTS 450 today. What do I care if the 450 came out later than the 5770?
The "problem" is that if John Q. asks his tech-buddy, "hey, I'm thinking of buying the GTS 450, what do you think?" the tech may answer, "eh, AMD's had the same performance for nearly a year, and they have new cards coming out in the next month or two, so you should wait."
It has nothing to do with being
bad, but the product doesn't generate any good will, no positive vibe.
Edit: I suspect, though, that Nvidia already has a Plan B for the Radeon 6-series, in that they can whip out a competitor to the 67xx quickly, and the $170 GTX 460 /768mb squeezes AMD in terms of pricing for the 67xx. The GTS 450 @ $130 may be merely a short-term placeholder.