nvidia gtx 680 - 600 bucks are worth it?

[mikmak]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...k,3161-14.html

Surelly this is not what nvidia did claim more than one year ago when they told to the public that they were not aimed anymore to make mere (simple) graphics cards.
If I well remember they emphatized how much importance it had a gpgpu nowadays...they (nvidia) infact did make a "great" work in order to let this capability be part of their next gen gpus like the gtx 580.
What we are seeing today is that nvidia is selling their top notch cards at an injustificable price...the gtx 580 is not so good as the 6970 from the amd counterpart when it comes to decoding zip passwords with opencl programs, is not good enough when it comes to make some ray tracing simulations with third party software like luxmark; the gtx 680 is following this tradition and yep you are catching up 600 bucks for this piece of revolutionary hardware.
Please do not say that gpgpu does not matter in modern computer graphics as it does - next api will more and more generalize their pipeline flow to be as more close to general computational programs.
Also at the Epic those guys know and want this despite the fact they are constantly promoting nvidia hardware as the most innovative one...probably they have NO INTEREST in doing so.
At last it comes a simple argumentation...would it be better to catch 600 bucks for a 10% less powerfull graphics card but capable of doing a great job in gpgpu or taking a closely specialized hardware which is just an old piece of history but capable of giving a couple of fps more?
Please reflect on this, put apart your love for nvidia and make things clear.

[Recus]

GTX 680 is gaming card. Big Kepler will have all GPGPU stuff. We should wait till GTC 2012...

Originally Posted by mikmak

is not good enough when it comes to make some ray tracing simulations with third party software like luxmark

Nvidia isn't so weak at ray tracing. http://raytracey.blogspot.com/

Originally Posted by mikmak

decoding zip passwords

Haxz0rs? : D

[mikmak]

You are right, you have to wait for the "full kepler", right now people are throwing away they money for something it will be useless in short time.
This gtx 680 is a good marketing move - I guess how many people will decorate their own houses with this piece of hardware

[BarbaricSoul]

the card released as the GTX680 originally was slated to be the GTX660(hence the GK104 gpu in it). Nvidia decided to cash in when they saw thier "mid-range" card was going to be faster than AMD's newest flagship card, so they revised the card to be the GTX680. GK110, which is schedualed for release in August, is what was planned to be the GTX680.

[Crap Daddy]

I can't see your point. First the price NV set for the 680 is $500, that's the price listed at many retailers (availability is another discussion). Second, its main purpose is gaming. You wanna GPGPU? Depending on the applications you use you can check and choose from whatever cards are on the market.

[mikmak]

Nope that s your point of view, giving 500 bucks (600 or whatever the price now it is) for a piece of hardware which in comparison lacks of a multi porpose computational architecture is the main topic of this thread.
Then if you all like / love nvidia is your own matter...I am here to make some critics at the nvidia agenda

[sneekypeet]

Originally Posted by mikmak

I am here to make some critics at the nvidia agenda

Sounds strangely like trolling

[mikmak]

Sounds like you did not understand

[sneekypeet]

Oh I fully understand, but to discredit those who choose to spend their money as they see fit is an uphill battle with lots of pitfalls.

Do I care that they up-scaled the name on a card that isn't really of that series, no. Why, because like most people here we can read and see that its a marketing move. Trying to turn people to Nv critics just isn't going to happen. Since I have been here for what seems like forever, what I see is someone who is hating when they already know the full story. Obviously you aren't buying the card, nor do you have any way to change their business schedule. So why exactly are we here again?

[phanbuey]

Fist, the nvidia 680 is 500 bucks... no its not worth it, the market is inflated, this was supposed to be a midrange chip that sold for less. Even at launch date some of the cards still had "670" written somewhere on them.

Thanks to the fact that Nvidia and AMD are the only two clowns at the show, when AMD price gouged its customers, Nvidia skipped along happily following them... and we got what we have now :/. Still i'm hoping there are going to be some good price/perf cards coming, theyre just not here yet.

Second, when was the last time you used GPGPU in any meaningful way? If the answer is, "today" or "I fold" then the 570's and older gen nvidia cards are the best price/perf with the 7970 being better than the 680. Otherwise the 680 is better for gaming.

Originally Posted by mikmak

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...k,3161-14.html

Please do not say that gpgpu does not matter in modern computer graphics as it does - next api will more and more generalize their pipeline flow to be as more close to general computational programs.

Is the next API here yet? no. When is it coming out? Who knows... So no, it does not matter. You're paying for performance today, if that API rolls around and the 680's performance drops, then the price will drop too, at that time. As of right now that line of reasoning is made of sunshine and farts.

[Live OR Die]

If people think the GK100 will be released this year they must think nvidia's fine with flushing money down the shitter, Nvidia's GK100 will be released in Q1 in 2013 and will probably be called GTX 780.

[Vinska]

If You want something trully of GPGPU, along with being Nvidia, get Tesla.
With it, You won't be able to do anything but GPGPU stuff. Happy?
Wahaha~!

Ok, now on the serious side: Kepler based Tesla solutions aren't out yet, though. =|

[mikmak]

Originally Posted by sneekypeet

Oh I fully understand, but to discredit those who choose to spend their money as they see fit is an uphill battle with lots of pitfalls.

Do I care that they up-scaled the name on a card that isn't really of that series, no. Why, because like most people here we can read and see that its a marketing move. Trying to turn people to Nv critics just isn't going to happen. Since I have been here for what seems like forever, what I see is someone who is hating when they already know the full story. Obviously you aren't buying the card, nor do you have any way to change their business schedule. So why exactly are we here again?

We are here to discuss and to judge whether or not it is right to throw away all that money.
I never payd a lot of attention to what and which kind of propaganda nvidia used during the 500 series launch because I really appreciated the efforts they put in those cards.
This time however things have changed (in worst) and at nvidia people did play so bad - if you are going to give them 500 bucks for this crap I can not imagine how much the next nvidia series will cost - obviously this will reflect on amd products as well!
And you are wrong sneekypeet - you have a mind and you can decide what is right for you - you can discuss and let other people be part of your topics and all togheter make a step forward to the realization of a common goal - this also means that if we plan here to do not buy some products for certain reasons we can make then other people ponder and decide about it - you can call it genuine comparison and free will.

[Vinska]

mikmak, no matter how many times I read this thread You started, I fail to see what point You are trying to make.
If the point is to determine, whether the card is worth the money in general - then I's day it is quite pointless. As it is highly subjective. And some criteria, that can be vital to one person can be completely irrelevant to another.
If the point is to state what sh***y of a company Nvidia is, because of *insert whatever here*, then that is simply not good. [Blinding] Hatred never did anything good. Ever.
So, uhm, eh, yeah - that.

[Clubber_Lang]

$500.00 is worth more to some than others. Some college kids save for 3 months for that kind of money.....other make that in a few hours at work. If you have it.....and you enjoy having a kickass gaming GPU......then why in the hell wouldn't you get it?

You say "It doesn't justify spending that kind of money on a video card".......if you can afford it....who cares?

[arnoo1]

What do you expect? Gtx680 is a midrange card, gk100/110will be a full card, around 2300cuda cores and al the gpgpu stuff and lots of power consumption xd

[eidairaman1]

this topic here is pointless

FYI 680 is not worth even 450

[the54thvoid]

Was the extreme edition Gulftown 6 core worth $1000? Was it hell. But it is what you pay for the highest performing part of it's field. Prestige items, cost beyond performance. I have a £2000 PC sitting next to me. I could easily have spent half that and still got an excellent gaming PC. But I wanted a pretty, technical, well thought out water cooled system. I paid for what I wanted (and built it).

I don't require compute but if i did I'd keep my 580 (up for sale in TPU ).

Your post should be directed at AMD for breaking their previous and well respected pricing strategy and then keeping their price so high when the 680 was released.

Nvidia haven't made any claims about GK104's compute powers, they've sold it as a power efficient, feature packed graphics card, for games.

You saying this:

put apart your love for nvidia and make things clear

seemingly indicates your bias.

I now run a Powercolor LCS 7970, having come from a MSI GTX 580 Lightning. I begrudged paying what I paid for the 7970 but for me, it was necessary to finish my loop to suit my ideas.

I'm kind of losing my way in this post but essentially what I'm saying is the GTX 680 has no pretentions about being a compute card, it is priced as the fastest (generally) single graphics card on the market. Simple as that.

[mikmak]

I really appreciate some old nvidia products...I still have some g80 chips around.
As many of you have made it clear if you have those bucks and want to give them for a gaming video card so why do not do it?
The point I have tried to communicate is another one however and it is not a personal battle I am trying to merely fight against the nvidia big boss...what I am trying to let you think about is that this card will be shortly useless due to its lack of a multi purpose computational architecture (or computational elements / nodes / units).
If you want to feed these big companies (and I am also referring to AMD also here) you are welcome to do it - I then call it stupidity.
Within some months we will assist to the powervr gpgpu launch which probably will make both the nvidia and amd companies think seriously on how much people should pay for their awesome products...we are in front of a transition / let say epic move from an old style rasterization approach towards a ray traced rendering approach and you guys will use those gtx 680 as an ashtray probably.
I then want not to mention how much respect for money someone of you have demonstrated here in these notes.

[Dimi]

Quit talking bollocks, PowerVR isn't making a gaming graphics card but a ray tracing card. It will be used as an addon card to offload ray tracing calculations from the dedicated graphics card from nVidia or AMD.

Besides, this whole price point is AMD's fault. They came out with their 7900 series priced at 549 euro over here. When nVidia launched their card, it was priced at 449 euro over here. nVidia launched a 100 euro lower costing graphics card that was faster than AMD's flagship... You do the math.

[mikmak]

Originally Posted by Dimi

Quit talking bollocks, PowerVR isn't making a gaming graphics card but a ray tracing card. It will be used as an addon card to offload ray tracing calculations from the dedicated graphics card from nVidia or AMD.

Besides, this whole price point is AMD's fault. They came out with their 7900 series priced at 549 euro over here. When nVidia launched their card, it was priced at 449 euro over here. nVidia launched a 100 euro lower costing graphics card that was faster than AMD's flagship... You do the math.

Gaming and gpgpu are becoming to be same thing...you only need to have some patience (and it seems you do not)...meanwhile you are free to throw away your money.
Coming back to the amd nvidia dilemma...here to me both cards are priced the same.

[Grings]

Originally Posted by the54thvoid

Your post should be directed at AMD for breaking their previous and well respected pricing strategy and then keeping their price so high when the 680 was released.

This.

Either way i'm a little pissed at both companies, i had hoped to see the 680 replace the 570 in pricing, and be competing with the 7950 (which should likewise have been priced similarly to the 6950) in the £200-250 price bracket.

[xBruce88x]

when that "epic move" happens there will probably be a new generation of GPUs out by then anyway. most games don't even come close to using the full power of last generation, let alone the 680. this probably wont change much until the next gen of consoles come out, and that could be a year, maybe 2 from now. several users have already answerd your question... no, its not worth 600, or 500 for that matter. what's it worth? probably 400ish, since it wasn't supposed to be the high end/flagship in the first place. The main point of a card like this is for high end gaming. if you want cuda and that other stuff it can do it well to, sure not the fastest but its capable. if you want the fastest for that then get a 7970 or w/e, or just get a Tesla card.

question answered... no its not worth $600 but its what ppl will pay to have the lastest and greatest for GAMING.

Originally Posted by mikmak

Gaming and gpgpu are becoming to be same thing...you only need to have some patience (and it seems you do not)...meanwhile you are free to throw away your money.
Coming back to the amd nvidia dilemma...here to me both cards are priced the same.

see Grings' avatar... NO its not... gpgpu is mostly to assist in tasks that would otherwise occupy the cpu. things like decoding, encoding, encryption, folding, etc. etc. none of which are gaming... and yes some tasks like photoshop, auto cad, and etc.

[purecain]

unfortunatly, while ever you have customers prepared to pay... the prices will remain inflated...

i'll live with my 6970 for a couple of years now... the days of buying the latest card are over for me...
i still cant catch my breath at these prices from both companies... i mean we are in a global recession... so they put the prices up... WTF... i wanted a 670/680... but im not paying stupid amounts of cash for one... everyone should hold off... collectively the communtiy has a voice and should use it...

[Irony]

If people will happily pay, the prices will happily rise.