For many would-be early adopters, trying to find a GTX 680 has been like trying to find a four-leaf clover; it can be done, but it takes some digging. Curious minds have wondered what the hold-up is. Manufacturing woes? Overbearing demand? We now have an idea. In a slide shown at an annual investors meeting, Nvidia claims that in the six weeks following the GTX 680's launch, it shipped and sold 60 percent more units than the GTX 580 did during its debut.
You can't hardly buy a processor any more without also purchasing a graphics chip. That's because many of today's CPUs sport integrated graphics, a relatively new development as both AMD and Intel push their respective CPU+GPU solutions onto the masses. But despite each company's efforts, along with a constant flow of discrete GPU solutions from AMD and Nvidia, graphics shipments are down overall.
Ruh-roh! Being an early adopter of technology often means putting up with headaches while a product's kinks get worked out, and it seems that's holding true for at least some early GTX 670 buyers. EVGA apparently forgot to quality test a small batch of GTX 670 Superclock cards and is recalling them as a result.
Nvidia today rolled out the welcome mat for the newest addition to its Kepler family, the GeForce GTX 670. The new 670 is "engineered from the same DNA as the recently announced GTX 680," but is a more affordable part with prices starting at $399 for cards built around Nvidia's reference design. And according to Nvidia, the 670 is a full 45 percent faster in gaming performance than the closest competitive product (i.e., AMD's Radeon HD 7950).
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) may have underestimated the challenges involved with churning out 28nm parts, or perhaps the company is simply inundated with orders. In the end, it doesn't really matter what the problem is, as far as clients go, and when Nvidia reportedly threatened to place orders with TSMC's competitors, suddenly the GPU maker was bumped to the front of the line.
Whatever Nvidia plans on announcing at the GeForce LAN/NVIDIA Gaming Festival in Shanghai tomorrow, it's going to be hard-pressed to live up to the hype leading up to its unveiling. The PC gaming community has been a-flutter since the first ominous "IT'S COMING" message hit Nvidia's Facebook page over a week ago. Nvidia's just sent a kick-ass custom crowbar and some cryptic confirmations to the Maximum PC offices in anticipation of tomorrow's big news.
Last week, Nvidia teased us with a vague picture of a black cooler shroud with the words "It's coming" emblazoned underneath the Nvidia logo. We still may not know what "it" is, but now we know when it's coming: this Saturday, April 28th at 7:30 P.M. Pacific time. In a new article up on the Nvidia website, the company says it "will be making a special announcement at GeForce LAN / NVIDIA Gaming Festival (NGF) 2012 in Shanghai, China."
Judging from the comments left on various articles, a lot of you have yet to bite into the juicy GTX 680 apple. Some of you flat-out can't find one available; others have been waiting for 4GB models to start rolling out. Good news for the latter camp: today, both Palit and Gainward announced the launch of new GTX 680s with 4GB of DRAM onboard. (You still probably won't be able to find them that easily, though!)
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