Nvidia Ampere & Turing (next GeForce) rumor thread

[happy medium]

Not at first because we get the mid rangers, remember? Mid range cards barely faster than a 1080ti that cost about the same money as one. No special cores on those. The new Ti card, when it comes about a year from now, will probably have the special cores and cost about as much as a Titan used to cost, only $1,000. The new Titan brand is now a $1,500-$3,000 product.

I believe the $379/ $450FE gtx1070 was/is as fast as a $650 gtx980ti. The $600 gtx1080 was/is ~25% faster than the $650 gtx980ti. Those prices were MSRP almost 2 years ago before the mining crap.

If history repeats itself, the gtx2070 will be as fast as a gtx1080ti and $200 cheaper, and the gtx2080 will be $50 less than a gtx1080ti but ~30% faster.
Titan XP cards are $1200 MSRP.
BUT prices have been going up about $50 every performance tier the last couple generations.

 

[sao123]

Before I can properly reply, what models do you regard as mid range?

Non -TI xx80 cards are midrange.

 

[TheF34RChannel]

Non -TI xx80 cards are midrange.

Not in my opinion but each to his own 🙂 2080 would be high end in my book, the Ti enthusiast.

 

[sze5003]

Ti would not be mid-range but that all depends on one's budget. I considered the 1070 mid range when I had one. But I'll always go with a Ti from now on.

 

[TheF34RChannel]

Ti would not be mid-range but that all depends on one's budget. I considered the 1070 mid range when I had one. But I'll always go with a Ti from now on.

I wish I had the patience to wait for the Ti or the luxury to. I hope to start with a 2080 and hop onto the Ti later, and remain in the Ti cycle.

And darn, we need some info on the next generation asap

 

[sze5003]

I mainly use my oculus to fly in VR and sometimes play battlefield so for me it will hold out fine. But yeah kind of odd as when I wasn't so keen on upgrading in the past, I would always see a new line of cards every 6-8 months. Strange that no news has come yet.

 

[moonbogg]

Before I can properly reply, what models do you regard as mid range?

Small die cards like the GTX 1080/1070. They offer mid performance of the generation, not high end performance. Nvidia tricks you into thinking they are high end because they simply release the mid range cards first, so they seem better than they really are when compared to the current stack of products, but really its just a next gen mid range card with an enthusiast price tag. The GTX 1080 is the kind of thing that used to cost $2-300. Now its like $700.
The Ti cards used to be the uncut full die GPU's. Those are called Titans now and cost between $1,200-$3000. The Ti cards we have now are cut down big die cards. Those used to be the cut down high end ending in X70 and cost about $400, but now they took the top end enthusiast price bracket. Nvidia simply shifted their entire product stack up a massive price bracket, across the board, and created the Titan price segment, which in the past would have been straight up laughed at. Now nobody cares.

 

[TheF34RChannel]

I mainly use my oculus to fly in VR and sometimes play battlefield so for me it will hold out fine. But yeah kind of odd as when I wasn't so keen on upgrading in the past, I would always see a new line of cards every 6-8 months. Strange that no news has come yet.

We do know that Nvidia always plays it close to the vest, but credible leaks would be appreciated. If it's not launched/announced at that next thing (GTC/GDC - I confuse the two) when's the next oppertune moment?

 

[happy medium]

Small die cards like the GTX 1080/1070. They offer mid performance of the generation, not high end performance. Nvidia tricks you into thinking they are high end because they simply release the mid range cards first, so they seem better than they really are when compared to the current stack of products, but really its just a next gen mid range card with an enthusiast price tag. The GTX 1080 is the kind of thing that used to cost $2-300. Now its like $700.
The Ti cards used to be the uncut full die GPU's. Those are called Titans now and cost between $1,200-$3000. The Ti cards we have now are cut down big die cards. Those used to be the cut down high end ending in X70 and cost about $400, but now they took the top end enthusiast price bracket. Nvidia simply shifted their entire product stack up a massive price bracket, across the board, and created the Titan price segment, which in the past would have been straight up laughed at. Now nobody cares.

Die sizes in the past 6 years.....
Gtx680 294mm ,gtx690 2x 294mm
Gtx780/ti 561 mm, titan x 561mm
Gtx980 398mm
Gtx 980ti 601mm
Gtx1080 314mm
Gtx1080ti 471mm
Nvidia seems consistent with the x80 chips at 300mm to 400mm, except for the 780 that was stuck at 28mm which made it larger.
X80 cards were around $500
Ti card $600 to 700.

6970 389mm
7970 365mm, 7970x2 365mm X2
290x 438mm, 295x2 438mm X2
Fury 596mm ( first enthusiast single chip)
Vega 64, 484mm
Its hard to compare Nvidia to AMD because AMD was using dual chip cards to compete with Nvidia's larger dies like the 780ti, titan series until the $650 Fury X.

 

[Elfear]

Die sizes in the past 6 years.....
Gtx680 294mm ,gtx690 2x 294mm
Gtx780/ti 561 mm, titan x 561mm
Gtx980 398mm
Gtx 980ti 601mm
Gtx1080 314mm
Gtx1080ti 471mm
Nvidia seems consistent with the x80 chips at 300mm to 400mm, except for the 780 that was stuck at 28mm which made it larger.
X80 cards were around $500
Ti card $600 to 700.

6970 389mm
7970 365mm, 7970x2 365mm X2
290x 438mm, 295x2 438mm X2
Fury 596mm ( first enthusiast single chip)
Vega 64, 484mm
Its hard to compare Nvidia to AMD because AMD was using dual chip cards to compete with Nvidia's larger dies like the 780ti, titan series until the $650 Fury X.

We don't need to compare AMD to Nvidia though as they both had different strategies through the last decade (and still do). If we look at just Nvidia, they have changed their product stack up a price bracket just as moonbogg stated.

 

[happy medium]

We don't need to compare AMD to Nvidia though as they both had different strategies through the last decade (and still do). If we look at just Nvidia, they have changed their product stack up a price bracket just as moonbogg stated.

The reason I showed die sizes was to prove that they didn't change their price bracket they simply made a larger more expensive chip. The ti and Titan chips are larger and more expensive to make just like AMD' s Fury chips were. Instead of making dual gpu cards they went with a larger more expensive single chip. The X80 series has been around the $500/650 mark for years. Gtx680 was $500 ,the 780 was $650, gtx980 was $550 ,and the 1080 was $599.

The gtx780ti was $699. The gtx980ti was $650 , and the 1080ti was $699. The ti series comes later in the cycle and the X80,X70 series gets price drops right as the ti series is released.

It easy to see Nvidia replaced the dual gpu cards with larger single high performance dies, just as AMD attempted with the Fury series.

So no the x70 and x80 series are not mid range they are high end.
Nvidia simply added a enthusiast tier with the X80ti series.

The 1080ti enthusiast (dual gpu replacement), gtx1080 high end, gtx1070 lower high end, gtx1060 mid range mainstream, gtx1050 ti lower end, gtx1030 e- sports gamer.

 

[Timmah!]

The reason I showed die sizes was to prove that they didn't change their price bracket they simply made a larger more expensive chip. The ti and Titan chips are larger and more expensive to make just like AMD' s Fury chips were. Instead of making dual gpu cards they went with a larger more expensive single chip. The X80 series has been around the $500/650 mark for years. Gtx680 was $500 ,the 780 was $650, gtx980 was $550 ,and the 1080 was $599.

The gtx780ti was $699. The gtx980ti was $650 , and the 1080ti was $699. The ti series comes later in the cycle and the X80,X70 series gets price drops right as the ti series is released.

It easy to see Nvidia replaced the dual gpu cards with larger single high performance dies, just as AMD attempted with the Fury series.

So no the x70 and x80 series are not mid range they are high end.
Nvidia simply added a enthusiast tier with the X80ti series.

The 1080ti enthusiast (dual gpu replacement), gtx1080 high end, gtx1070 lower high end, gtx1060 mid range mainstream, gtx1050 ti lower end, gtx1030 e- sports gamer.

You conveniently excluded older generations from your previous post, if you did not, it would paint different picture. GTX 580,480,280 etc...were top cards of their generation, featured the big 500-600mm uncut chip (so no, this is not some new "enthusiast" tier, chips were big like this before) and they were like 500-700. There were no Ti´s and no Titans, and BTW, dual chip GTX590 with 2 600mm2 Fermi chips was 610 EUROs in 2011 - i should know, i owned one. Bottom line, Nvidia´s approach changed between Fermi and Kepler, pretty much the same way Moonbog described, and denying that would be revisionism.

This is not Nvidia bashing, i just take things as they are. Additionally, i dont consider current X80 to be mid-tier, as they provide pretty much 2/3 of high-end performance of their generation, but at the same time, they would be hardly ever called high-end, if the Ti cards were released at the same time and not 8 months or so later.

 

[happy medium]

You conveniently excluded older generations from your previous post, if you did not, it would paint different picture. GTX 580,480,280 etc...were top cards of their generation, featured the big 500-600mm uncut chip (so no, this is not some new "enthusiast" tier, chips were big like this before) and they were like 500-700. There were no Ti´s and no Titans, and BTW, dual chip GTX590 with 2 600mm2 Fermi chips was 610 EUROs in 2011 - i should know, i owned one. Bottom line, Nvidia´s approach changed between Fermi and Kepler, pretty much the same way Moonbog described, and denying that would be revisionism.

This is not Nvidia bashing, i just take things as they are. Additionally, i dont consider current X80 to be mid-tier, as they provide pretty much 2/3 of high-end performance of their generation, but at the same time, they would be hardly ever called high-end, if the Ti cards were released at the same time and not 8 months or so later.

"You conveniently excluded older generations from your previous post,"

NO, I went back 6 years, before that things were different.

We had dual chip cards that were priced like the Ti cards of today.
​

Since the gtx980 series, Nvidia's focus has been on efficiency.
Smaller dies , with more performance. The 20nm screw ups didn't help.
We were stuck on 28 nm for too long.

The gtx 280 had a 512 bit bus which made the die larger at 567mm and cost $ 650 ,more expensive than todays gtx1080, and that's 10 years ago!

The gtx 480/580 was a mess , 550 mm, hot, power hungry and inefficient.
And that was 8 years ago and was $500!

The gtx 690 was the last dual chip Nvidia card, that was 6 years ago.
The card was priced at $999, the same as todays Titan and more expensive than the Ti series.

That's why I used 6 years ago.

Lets look at it this way, the way that makes total sense.

Here is 10 years of X80 products $500 to $650.
gtx 280 $650
gtx580 $500
gtx680 $500
gtx780 $650
gtx980 $550
gtx1080 $599

Dual gpu cards vs todays Ti/Titan prices. $650 to $999

10 year old gtx 295 $500, The gtx280 dropped from its $650 msrp to $350 with competition from the 4870 which made the msrp of the gtx295 lower.
8 year old gtx 590 $699 , huge, late, hot and power hungry. Price comparable to todays Ti cards
6 year old gtx 690 $999! price comparable to todays Ti / Titan cards.

End of dual gpu era.
5 year old Gtx780ti $699 , $50 more than the gtx780, 6 months later.
3 year old gtx980ti $650 , $100 more than the gtx980, 10 months later.
1 year old gtx1080ti $699 , $100 more than the gtx1080,10 months later

Dual gpu cards = gtx Ti series
The new large Ti/ Titan dies replaces the dual gpu cards.
The X80 series cards are about the same size ,and about the same price as 10 years ago.

The proof is in the stats , not people's opinions.

 

[tviceman]

Small die cards like the GTX 1080/1070. They offer mid performance of the generation, not high end performance. Nvidia tricks you into thinking they are high end because they simply release the mid range cards first, so they seem better than they really are when compared to the current stack of products, but really its just a next gen mid range card with an enthusiast price tag. The GTX 1080 is the kind of thing that used to cost $2-300. Now its like $700.
The Ti cards used to be the uncut full die GPU's. Those are called Titans now and cost between $1,200-$3000. The Ti cards we have now are cut down big die cards. Those used to be the cut down high end ending in X70 and cost about $400, but now they took the top end enthusiast price bracket. Nvidia simply shifted their entire product stack up a massive price bracket, across the board, and created the Titan price segment, which in the past would have been straight up laughed at. Now nobody cares.

We don't need to compare AMD to Nvidia though as they both had different strategies through the last decade (and still do). If we look at just Nvidia, they have changed their product stack up a price bracket just as moonbogg stated.

It's entirely true that Nvidia has raised the price of it's "second best die." There is no denying that. But AMD raised prices pretty considerably, too. The HD6970 was $379 at release, the HD7970 was $549 at release. Both were very similar in die size. That happened BEFORE Nvidia introduced higher prices with it's mid-range chip. Everyone needs to get off the Nvidia hate train when it comes to mid-range to high end pricing (I'm not going to defend the $1,000 pricing models both companies have no adopted). RX480 and RX580 were priced accordingly to the GTX 1070 pricing, while Nvidia priced GTX1060 to lineup with the RX480 and RX580. Vega came out and was priced exactly like it performed against the GTX1080. Each company is charging for their cards based off the other's competitive performance.

If AMD finds massive improvements in it's perf/mm2 to catch or surpass Nvidia, do you think they're going to pass the savings onto consumers? LOL no.

 

[happy medium]

The HD6970 was $379 at release, the HD7970 was $549 at release. Both were very similar in die size. That happened BEFORE Nvidia introduced higher prices with it's mid-range chip.

Very good point.

Back on topic,
I wonder if the release of the new Metro game in September will coincide with the new Nvidia gtx2080/2070?
It would be a good showcase game with special Nvidia features for their new cards.
That would be a 3Q release, some rumors are saying 3Q release for the gtx2080.

 

[moonbogg]

gtx 280 $650 (good)
gtx580 $500 (good)
gtx680 $500 (bad) shoulda been $250 because mid range die
gtx780 $650 (not bad actually, well...shoulda come out with 600 series, so bad actually)
gtx980 $550 (Bad!) shoulda been $250 because mid range die
gtx1080 $599 (TRAGIC!) shoulda been $250 because mid range die

 

[nitromullet]

gtx 280 $650 (good)
gtx580 $500 (good)
gtx680 $500 (bad) shoulda been $250 because mid range die
gtx780 $650 (not bad actually, well...shoulda come out with 600 series, so bad actually)
gtx980 $550 (Bad!) shoulda been $250 because mid range die
gtx1080 $599 (TRAGIC!) shoulda been $250 because mid range die

The thing is that it's not really about the price you're paying for what chip, it's the price/performance vs. what other options are available. Case in point, the GTX 280, which you rate as a good value at $650 was actually forced down to $499 after the Radeon HD4800 series launched.

https://hothardware.com/news/nvidia-geforce-gtx-280-price-dropping-to-499

Some of the AIBs even offered rebates to people who purchased their GTX 280s and 260s at the original price because their perceived value had dropped so much.

https://www.fudzilla.com/news/graphics/9984-bfg-also-does-gtx-280/260-rebate

http://www.techist.com/forums/f78/bfg-gtx-280-260-customer-rebate-181702/

 

[TheF34RChannel]

Very good point.

Back on topic,
I wonder if the release of the new Metro game in September will coincide with the new Nvidia gtx2080/2070?
It would be a good showcase game with special Nvidia features for their new cards.
That would be a 3Q release, some rumors are saying 3Q release for the gtx2080.

It won't. Games and hardware releases aren't intertwined. Either could also easily be delayed, messing up any such schedule.

Lastly, a September release would leave a gaping gap with no new or current product. No way they'll let that happen.

 

[happy medium]

gtx 280 $650 (good)
gtx580 $500 (good)
gtx680 $500 (bad) shoulda been $250 because mid range die
gtx780 $650 (not bad actually, well...shoulda come out with 600 series, so bad actually)
gtx980 $550 (Bad!) shoulda been $250 because mid range die
gtx1080 $599 (TRAGIC!) shoulda been $250 because mid range die

What is your definition of a mid range die. I already showed the x80 series die sizes for the past 10 years and they were similar.

Nvidia's die sizes were also similar to AMD's and so were the prices and performance.

Just because Nvidia cancelled the dual gpu cards in favor of a huge single chip does not mean lower performing chips were mid- range.

Are you saying that AMD has not released a high end chip in 6 years?
Was the 390x 8gb a mid range chip vs the gtx980? No.
Was the Fury X a mid range chip vs the gtx980ti? No. It was a enthusiast high end chip, they replaced the dual chip cards like the $1500 295x2 or the $1000 gtx690.

Again, I give statistics and real examples to my argument, you bring your opinion.
Back up your claims with something better than " it was mid- range".

 

[happy medium]

The thing is that it's not really about the price you're paying for what chip, it's the price/performance vs. what other options are available. Case in point, the GTX 280, which you rate as a good value at $650 was actually forced down to $499 after the Radeon HD4800 series launched.

https://hothardware.com/news/nvidia-geforce-gtx-280-price-dropping-to-499

Some of the AIBs even offered rebates to people who purchased their GTX 280s and 260s at the original price because their perceived value had dropped so much.

https://www.fudzilla.com/news/graphics/9984-bfg-also-does-gtx-280/260-rebate

http://www.techist.com/forums/f78/bfg-gtx-280-260-customer-rebate-181702/

" price performance available"

Another good point.

 

[Timmah!]

"You conveniently excluded older generations from your previous post,"

NO, I went back 6 years, before that things were different.

We had dual chip cards that were priced like the Ti cards of today.
​

Since the gtx980 series, Nvidia's focus has been on efficiency.
Smaller dies , with more performance. The 20nm screw ups didn't help.
We were stuck on 28 nm for too long.

The gtx 280 had a 512 bit bus which made the die larger at 567mm and cost $ 650 ,more expensive than todays gtx1080, and that's 10 years ago!

The gtx 480/580 was a mess , 550 mm, hot, power hungry and inefficient.
And that was 8 years ago and was $500!

The gtx 690 was the last dual chip Nvidia card, that was 6 years ago.
The card was priced at $999, the same as todays Titan and more expensive than the Ti series.

That's why I used 6 years ago.

Lets look at it this way, the way that makes total sense.

Here is 10 years of X80 products $500 to $650.
gtx 280 $650
gtx580 $500
gtx680 $500
gtx780 $650
gtx980 $550
gtx1080 $599

Dual gpu cards vs todays Ti/Titan prices. $650 to $999

10 year old gtx 295 $500, The gtx280 dropped from its $650 msrp to $350 with competition from the 4870 which made the msrp of the gtx295 lower.
8 year old gtx 590 $699 , huge, late, hot and power hungry. Price comparable to todays Ti cards
6 year old gtx 690 $999! price comparable to todays Ti / Titan cards.

End of dual gpu era.
5 year old Gtx780ti $699 , $50 more than the gtx780, 6 months later.
3 year old gtx980ti $650 , $100 more than the gtx980, 10 months later.
1 year old gtx1080ti $699 , $100 more than the gtx1080,10 months later

Dual gpu cards = gtx Ti series
The new large Ti/ Titan dies replaces the dual gpu cards.
The X80 series cards are about the same size ,and about the same price as 10 years ago.

The proof is in the stats , not people's opinions.

You just stated the die sizes for various x80 cards over the years, which are clearly different, ranging from 567 to 294, then you would go on to claim in the end they are about the same as 10 years ago. So, 294 is about the same as 550/567 now?
Additionally, lets say i agree with your notion Ti cards replaced dual chip cards - how is that actually a good thing anyway? Before, you got full 550 mm chip as x80 card and 2x 550 mm chips as x90 (dual chip). Nowadays, you get 320 mm chip as x80 card and 500-600 mm (not even full/uncut, as that is titan for 1200+) as x80Ti. Even if it was like you say, that Ti cards just replaced dual cards at the same price, which they did not, you would still get way more in terms of value for your money before. Dont know about you, but i would take 2x1080 on single PCB over 1080ti at the same price every time.

 

[happy medium]

You just stated the die sizes for various x80 cards over the years, which are clearly different, ranging from 567 to 294, then you would go on to claim in the end they are about the same as 10 years ago. So, 294 is about the same as 550/567 now?
Additionally, lets say i agree with your notion Ti cards replaced dual chip cards - how is that actually a good thing anyway? Before, you got full 550 mm chip as x80 card and 2x 550 mm chips as x90 (dual chip). Nowadays, you get 320 mm chip as x80 card and 500-600 mm (not even full/uncut, as that is titan for 1200+) as x80Ti. Even if it was like you say, that Ti cards just replaced dual cards at the same price, which they did not, you would still get way more in terms of value for your money before. Dont know about you, but i would take 2x1080 on single PCB over 1080ti at the same price every time.

Again , you missed what I posted.
The gtx280 was a large chip because it had a 512 bit bus and the 780 because we were stuck on 28nm for years.

The gtx680 was 294mm and there was no ti/ Titan chips. Was the gtx680 mid range? No.

From the Anandtech review.......
Quote,
"With the GeForce 600 series on the other hand, 28nm is relatively well behaved and NVIDIA has launched fully-enabled products at almost every tier, leaving them without an obvious route of progression for the Kepler refresh."

Gtx680 IS A FULLY ENABLED 28nm ,GK104 chip!

So how do you refresh/ improve a fully enabled 28nm chip without shrinking it?

Quote from Anandtech review...

"So where does NVIDIA go from here? As it turns out NVIDIA’s solution for their annual refresh is essentially the same: add more functional units. NVIDIA of course doesn’t have more functional units to turn on within their existing GPUs, so instead they’re doing the next best thing, acquiring more functional units by climbing up the GPU ladder itself. And with this in mind, this brings us to today’s launch, the GeForce GTX 780."

So they make a GK110 based gpu from the prosumer line of chips.

Quote from Anandtech review...

"The GeForce GTX 780 is the follow-up to last year’s GeForce GTX 680, and is a prime example of refreshing a product line by bringing in a larger, more powerful GPU that was previously relegated to a higher tier product. Whereas GTX 680 was based on a fully-enabled GK104 GPU, GTX 780 is based on a cut-down GK110 GPU, NVIDIA’s monster GPU first launched into the prosumer space with GTX Titan earlier this year. Going this route doesn’t offer much in the way of surprises since GK110 is a known quantity, but as we’ll see it allows NVIDIA to improve performance while slowly bringing down GPU prices."

BRINGING DOWN PRICES!

So with no new 20nm process and stuck on 28nm, Nvidia elected to use their prosumer GK110 chip and cut it down to make there new high end Geforce gaming chip.

Notice the Anandtech article says " they climbed up the ladder" to make a new high end chip.
They added a new performance tier, simple as that.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/6973/nvidia-geforce-gtx-780-review

 

[moonbogg]

Nvidia didn't replace dual GPU cards with single huge dies. They had single huge dies going all the way back until you hit Geforce 256 with Geforce 3 being an exception. Nvidia did dual GPU cards using the huge dies. They didn't use the mid range dies for that. Using the mid range dies was an exception when they made the terrible GTX 690 with only 2gb of effective Vram. All other dual GPUs (there weren't many anyway) were using the big dies in slight cut down form to reduce heat.

The reason they stopped making dual GPU cards is because they realized they could make more money selling two regular cards. People expected the dual GPU cards to sell for about $700 if the single version was about $500. Nobody would have accepted a double price for a dual GPU card since it was still one card, not two. You don't have two blowers and you can only install it in one slot, so a 2x price would have been laughed at. $700 made more sense for that extra uber performance.

Well, Nvidia wasn't happy with uber prices. They wanted DOUBLE prices, so they gave us two mid range dies on a single card instead of the high end dies and they went ahead and charged DOUBLE the cost of the single GPU version. Everyone realized this was a terrible deal because you could get more performance from two regular cards and spend the same damn money, so why buy the $1,000 dual GPU card? They stopped making them.

I'm not here to Nvidia bash, but I've been in this hobby while 3Dfx was the only real game in town and I romped about with my sick Voodoo 3 which was the first GPU I bought to upgrade my graphics in a PC. I went to a Geforce 256 then Geforce 3 Ti200 and I've watched every release from Nvidia since. I know their typical behavior and the Nvidia we have today is not the same one from yesterday.

They sell lower tier products at enthusiast price points now and people buy them because we have lost our compass (ATI) and now have no reference to compare the Nvidia products to in the market except to refer to other Nvidia products from last gen.

Since last gen is always slower, the price is justified and so are the price increases. Even the titanic doubling of prices since Geforce 600 series is justified because the cannons of the great GPU battles that captivated us in the 90's and early 2000's have fallen silent. In true war there can only be one victor, and we are now seeing (and feeling with our wallets) what that looks like.

 

[nurturedhate]

Nvidia didn't replace dual GPU cards with single huge dies. They had single huge dies going all the way back until you hit Geforce 256 with Geforce 3 being an exception. Nvidia did dual GPU cards using the huge dies. They didn't use the mid range dies for that. Using the mid range dies was an exception when they made the terrible GTX 690 with only 2gb of effective Vram. All other dual GPUs (there weren't many anyway) were using the big dies in slight cut down form to reduce heat.

The reason they stopped making dual GPU cards is because they realized they could make more money selling two regular cards. People expected the dual GPU cards to sell for about $700 if the single version was about $500. Nobody would have accepted a double price for a dual GPU card since it was still one card, not two. You don't have two blowers and you can only install it in one slot, so a 2x price would have been laughed at. $700 made more sense for that extra uber performance.

Well, Nvidia wasn't happy with uber prices. They wanted DOUBLE prices, so they gave us two mid range dies on a single card instead of the high end dies and they went ahead and charged DOUBLE the cost of the single GPU version. Everyone realized this was a terrible deal because you could get more performance from two regular cards and spend the same damn money, so why buy the $1,000 dual GPU card? They stopped making them.

I'm not here to Nvidia bash, but I've been in this hobby while 3Dfx was the only real game in town and I romped about with my sick Voodoo 3 which was the first GPU I bought to upgrade my graphics in a PC. I went to a Geforce 256 then Geforce 3 Ti200 and I've watched every release from Nvidia since. I know their typical behavior and the Nvidia we have today is not the same one from yesterday.

They sell lower tier products at enthusiast price points now and people buy them because we have lost our compass (ATI) and now have no reference to compare the Nvidia products to in the market except to refer to other Nvidia products from last gen.

Since last gen is always slower, the price is justified and so are the price increases. Even the titanic doubling of prices since Geforce 600 series is justified because the cannons of the great GPU battles that captivated us in the 90's and early 2000's have fallen silent. In true war there can only be one victor, and we are now seeing (and feeling with our wallets) what that looks like.

Double? Nvidia didn't stop at just DOUBLE. That was mere child's play compared to the Titan Z.

 

[moonbogg]

Double? Nvidia didn't stop at just DOUBLE. That was mere child's play compared to the Titan Z.

Wow you're totally right. How could I forget? That was the most infamous of them all. It also certainly wasn't a small die dual GPU card. They used two big boys on that one and that card sucked! What a joke it was. But hey, those good old days aren't gone forever. We have single GPU cards that cost $3,000 now. We should celebrate somehow.