Not going to call out specific members here but for the last 8 months, nearly every single person here who is calling doom and gloom for AMD not once pointed out the following:
1) $350-400 after-market 290 made $450-500 3GB 780 irrelevant and even more so the $550 6GB version. Yet, I saw a total of 0 threads regarding the horrible value of 780 and how NV was doomed.
2) $700-800 after-market R9 290s such as Sapphire Tri-X solved temperature and noise levels of 290, while crushing a similarly priced 780Ti by 50-70% at 4K and multi-monitor. Essentially 970 SLI brings slightly faster performance for a bit less $$, but amazingly enough when AMD did this for nearly 1 year, somehow it went unnoticed.
3) When AMD brought the flexibility of running multiple displays in Eyefinity with different resolutions and unmatched 4K performance, it was also unnoticed but now with 3x DP 1.2 on 970/980, all you hear is how revolutionary NV's features are for 4K as if people have $ for triple 4K monitors.
4) This is arguably the most unusual position to me by NV fans - they rarely see the awesome value in AMD's products:
- Unlocked and stock/overclocked 6950s crushed 580 stock/overclocked especially at 1600p for a similar price
- 7950s overclocked crushed 680 overclocked for a similar price
- 290s absolutely crushed a 780Ti stock or OC vs. OC for a similar price
Vs.
970 SLI makes 290s obsolete but I cannot buy 2 NV cards for the price of AMD's flagship and beat it by 50-70% like 6950s, 7950s, 290s did to NV's flagship.
So while NV's 970s are awesome, this is nowhere near as impressive what AMD did with its 2nd best cards to NV's best I outlined above. From a performance point of view, 970 SLI isn't that much better than nearly 1 year old 290s.
Furthermore, while 970 is a star, 980 is grossly underwhelming. It is easily the worst generational improvement from NV ever for an x80 product. I get that it's not GM200 but at $549 and barely 7-10% faster than 780Ti, it won't be hard for AMD to match or beat that.
In the short term, all AMD needs to do is release a 15-20% faster card than 290X for $449 with LC and it's lights out for 980. These calls of a 350W card are hilarious. Watercooled chip will use 40-50W less power and a more mature 28nm with tweaks will allow AMD to release a card 15-20% faster than 290X at 280W. Add a popular game bundle and they are back long enough for 20nm to mature.
Also, I read comments that 285 needs to come down to $149 and 290 to $249. That's really funny considering the inferior 760 has a $219 MSRP. I see that NV's marketing is working wonders as people are falling on their knees over it and exaggerating how efficient the 980 is when it's really using 180W not 160W. On the other hand, the same people are inflating 290's power usage and extrapolating some outrageous 350W for its successor.
You know how many ppl will take a card with similar performance to a 980 but for $100 less even if it uses 80-100W more power? A lot, because not everyone pays $100s on their electricity bill. Similarly if AMD releases a 550mm2 390X that's priced at $499 with LC and it beats 980 by even 10%, even with 80-100W higher usage, a lot of gamers will want the fastest single GPU. Perf/watt rules 980 right now because it also happens to be the fastest single GPU. But if AMD beats in in performance by 10% or more and slightly undercuts it, people will focus in the value and performance of AMD's card.
I will likely be getting 970s for fun unless AMD has something better in the next 1 month but 970s are nowhere near as impressive vs. 290s compared to what 290s did to a 780Ti for nearly 1 year. But unfortunately NV fans never acknowledge the awesome value of AMD CF or the incredible price/performance value AMD cards had since 4870 days. Yes, for $329 970 is a great card but it isn't anything spectacular for anyone who has been getting 80-90% of NV's flagship performance for nearly half the price with AMD for the last 5 years.
Also, I find it very odd that the doom and gloom comments don't take into account that 290 is a 1 year old product while 980 just came out. No one would call the end of NV when 7970 destroyed the 580 before giving NV a chance to respond.
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