Comparing GTX 780 to 980 is not comparing Big Kepler to Big Maxwell, it's comparing Big Kepler to a smaller-die chip. It's "GTX 480 to GTX 560 Ti", not, "GTX 480 to GTX 580."
What you are saying is perfectly valid, we are talking about a next gen mid-range vs. previous gen flagship. But you forgot the pricing aspect:
560Ti launched at
$249. Similarly, 460 1GB beat 280/285 for
$230.
It's obviously unfair to expect NV to price a new mid-range architecture at $230-250 since manufacturing costs for new fabs and thus wafers have increased. However, let's say we accept your analogy once again -- 480 and 580 cost $499 and 780Ti went up to $699 or a 40% price increase.
Let's now take 980 as a 460/560Ti style replacement since you yourself admitted it to be mid-range, apply 40% price increase to $250 and we should get $350. Let's say $50 premium for performance/watt aspect that everyone is crazy about lately - $399 is really a fair price for 980, not $500-550. The 2nd reason $499 is way too much is because when NV raised 680 mid-range to $499, at least it beat 580 by
30-35%.
Also, using your 260X analogy vs. 7850/7870 doesn't apply since 260X is not a next generation product, just a refresh of GCN 1.0 but Maxwell vs. Kepler is a brand new architecture replacement akin to VLIW-4/5 to GCN or Fermi to Kepler.
----------------------------------
I am inclined to believe that the Boost clock of 980 is 1178mhz since in SLI they also tested it at that speed. This also coincides with a month earlier leak of the 870 (aka 970)
which had a GPU-Z shot with 1178mhz Boost clocks. Based on the 3DMark scores, the 1150/1750 mhz 780Ti is slightly slower than an 1178mhz/1753 980. If 980 overclocks to 1.3Ghz like 750Ti, it should be about
16-18% faster than a 1.25Ghz 780Ti. Seems like if NV had access to 20nm, 980 would have achieved 680 style leap over the 780Ti.
It's quite good on a technical level, its extremely unheard of to have a situation where the same node mid-range performs similar to a top product, its normally in the realms of a node shrink.
This is no means stagnation like what we have on the CPU from Intel due to lack of AMD competition.
Agreed. If a 28nm 980 beats 780Ti at 170-180W, then a 20nm/16nm GM210 will be a major leap over 780Ti! NV could then release a shrunken GM204 in by end of 2015 at $249-299 as GTX1060 or w/e they'll call it. The prospect of a $249-299 20/16nm GTX780Ti style performance at 120-130W by end of 2015 is pretty sweet.
Exaggerating? There are not any r290 cards going for $350. There is one for $370, 3 more under $400, and 10 $400+. The ASP is right around $400, not $350.
After $40 Newegg gift card and rebates, there are a few R9 290s
below $350.
HIS IceQ R9 290 -
$334
Diamond R9 290 -
$344
R9 290X is enjoying similar promotions.
Diamond R9 290X is
$443
These 'promotions' may be a signal that AMD is ready to adjust MSRPs on 290/290X to $299-329 and $399-429, respectively. $399/$499 970/980 will be superior from a tech perspective but $80-100 is often a lot of $ to move from 1 tier to the next for power efficiency and "coolness" factor alone. I mean would you pay $499 for 980 when R9 290 is $299-329? What will be more interesting is AMD's response after R9 290/X since they will be in NV's 670/680 position of having known performance and pricing targets. Price wars are definitely in the making in the next 6-9 months
Facebook
Twitter