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April 22nd, 2012

NVIDIA Sends Crowbars For Zombie Apocalypse (GTX 690 Release Soon?)

So this is what HardwareHeaven recieved straight from NVIDIA. You may find this as a quite confusing gift. I hope they sent few to AMD too.

So I asked around and all I could get was the information that it was sent by NVIDIA. That’s it. They are not allowed to reveal any more information, so yes — something is coming!. It may be indicating upcoming GTX 690 release or other unspecified product. I think that crowbar will be helpful in unboxing ‘the most powerful graphics card in the universe’.

NVIDIA Sends Crowbars For Zombie Apocalypse (GTX 690 Release Soon?) nvidia geforce gtx 690

Author: WhyCry  

  • Omega0255

    Gosh, you’d think that all this hype, they’d be releasing something revolutionary and not just another dual gpu card. Perhaps they pulled a fast one and its the GK110? We can only wish :/

  • BestJinjo

    It’s obviously a publicity stunt against their competitor, and to send a signal to the market who is Boss. Remember Verditrol pills by AMD? NV is just sending them a message that if they are going to pull childish stunts like that, they better have a product that’s actually superior. GTX680 beat HD7970 and GTX690 should have no problems beating HD7990 since GTX680 is a far more efficient chip than 7970 is, meaning that NV won’t have to gimp clocks as much as they had to do when they launched the GTX590. If NV manages to put 2 full fledged 1006 mhz GTX680 chips on 1 board, HD7990 will have no chance at all since there is now way NV can put 1050mhz HD7970 chips on a board (and it takes ~1050mhz 7970 just to match a stock 680). 

    No matter how you slice it, Kepler is impressive tech and NV is using aggressive marketing this round (not that it’s any less childish than AMD’s Verditrol). AMD’s brand new GCN architecture on 365mm^2, 2048 SPs, 384-bit (264 GB/sec) chip just got beaten by a 294mm^2, 1536 SPs, 256-bit (192 GB/sec) chip. Worst of all, the 680 consumes less power. That means NV will have no trouble at all countering HD8970 series. If I were AMD, I would be seriously worried. GK110 alone could easily counter their HD8970. That’s a big deal since HD8970 isn’t slated until Q1 2013 per AMD’s official slides while GK110 may actually come in Q4 2012.

    But ya, if NV launched GTX685 GK110, it would be the greatest dominance by 1 GPU vendor in GPU hardware I’ve ever seen since 9700 Pro made 5800 Ultra dustbuster look like a toy in DX9. 

  • BestJinjo

    P.S. I heard the crowbar will be available for sale in larger quantities than GTX690 will be :)

  • Mandelmanden

    Why is it that you come off as a fanboy? :|

  • http://videocardz.com VideoCardz

     Probably one crowbar for each GPU ;)

  • Asif Alli

    Great post!!! You covered all the facts…wish more people could post like you!! Well done! :-)

  • The_empire007

    Unfortuantely AMD is still boss since it has a full range of video cards and stock to back it up, Nvidia releasing one video card with no compute power and no stock is a joke.  A kepler GK110 is a myth at this point, a single 6-7 billion 550mm2 chip is just not possible at this time.  My GTX 680 is more than enough right now, will eventaully pick up another just so I can run 120hz setup.

  • Francmic000

    You should write articles!

  • BestJinjo

    I am sorry if I had come off that way. I didn’t intend to do so. In no way am I implying that AMD cannot match or exceed AMD in the future HD8000, HD9000 series, etc. However, in the short-term, especially in regard to dual-GPU 690 vs. HD7990, it seems difficult to imagine how HD7990 could be competitive. The rumored specifications for the 7990 include a pair of HD7970′s clocked at 850mhz. Given that GTX680 consumes less power than a single 7970, it would be easier for NV to achieve clock speeds on parity with a stand-alone 680 as it would for AMD to create a dual-GPU. Further, at stock speeds, the 680 is already about 10% faster (sometimes more, sometime less). If 7990′s GPUs ship with even less than 925mhz clocks, then the performance delta will only grow in favour of the 690. The only possible caveat to this is AMD’s ability to deliver better scaling in Cross Fire over GTX690. It is possible since 7970 CF does appear to scale a little better than 680s in SLI. 

    However, you have to admit that having a 1536 SP chip with only 192 GB/sec bandwidth beating a 2048 SP chip with 264GB/sec bandwidth highlights that currently Kepler architecture is more advanced than GCN is for gaming. I don’t think that statement is ‘fanboish’. Further, in theoretical benchmarks Kepler has a significant lead in FP16 texture performance (what modern games use) and in tessellation. Those 2 factors help to give it a performance edge in SKYRIM, STWOR, Batman AC, BF3, Crysis 2. Right now the 7970 catches up at 2560×1600 because the 680′s 192GB/sec memory bandwidth comes into play. However, NV will surely address this if they decide to expand the bus to 384- or 512-bit with their flagship GK110 (should it stop being a mystery unicorn). 

  • Leignheart

    honestly i think most of you guys are just lame. dont you guys ever think maybe they do this with the crowbar just to have fun and poke fun about zombies and what not? not everything has an agenda behind it. and also who cares who has the most powerful card, if ati was gone this world would be doomed and at the mercy of nvidia. ive sampled both and only buy the best cards they offer, which are usually dual gpu’s. anyone who says dual gpu cards suck dont use much brain power. all the top end cards are great, whether you run 2 dual gpu cars or 4 of the fastest single gpu chips, all the setups are great and some people kinda need to grow up and just have fun with it.