Friday, October 19th 2018
NVIDIA Rushes in GTX 1060 with GDDR5X to Counter AMD Radeon RX 590 Threat
AMD is giving final touches to its Radeon RX 590 graphics card, which is rumored to be based on an efficient new rendition of the "Polaris" silicon, which could disturb NVIDIA's product lineup between the GTX 1060 series and the GTX 1070, as its new RTX 2060 series is nowhere in sight. In a bid to thwart this threat, NVIDIA is preparing a variant of the GeForce GTX 1060 with faster GDDR5X memory.
The current GTX 1060 6 GB is endowed with 8 Gbps GDDR5 memory, which at its 192-bit bus width works out to a memory bandwidth of 192 GB/s. NVIDIA had attempted to improve its competitive position once, by creating a shortlived sub-variant of this SKU with 9 Gbps GDDR5 memory (211 GB/s). Switching to 10 Gbps GDDR5X memory would give the chip 240 GB/s memory bandwidth, and 11 Gbps (unlikely because expensive), would yield 264 GB/s. With the GP106 silicon maxed out, it's also possible the new GTX 1060 could be based on a heavily cut down GP104, possibly even with 192-bit memory, which explains GDDR5X memory.
Source:
NVIDIA
The current GTX 1060 6 GB is endowed with 8 Gbps GDDR5 memory, which at its 192-bit bus width works out to a memory bandwidth of 192 GB/s. NVIDIA had attempted to improve its competitive position once, by creating a shortlived sub-variant of this SKU with 9 Gbps GDDR5 memory (211 GB/s). Switching to 10 Gbps GDDR5X memory would give the chip 240 GB/s memory bandwidth, and 11 Gbps (unlikely because expensive), would yield 264 GB/s. With the GP106 silicon maxed out, it's also possible the new GTX 1060 could be based on a heavily cut down GP104, possibly even with 192-bit memory, which explains GDDR5X memory.
98 Comments on NVIDIA Rushes in GTX 1060 with GDDR5X to Counter AMD Radeon RX 590 Threat
That seemed to mark a major turning point in Apple and Nvidias relationship.
Is it possible to do a BIOS mod tuning of this GPU and re-enable some of the disabled cores?
Meh
As long as Nvidia is allowed to monopolize the mid+, high, and higher ranges, it will be able to do things like this to the midrange.
Consumers have decided to allow monopolies and duopolies to dominate the tech world, from search, to consoles, to mobile... You name it and it's either a duopoly or a monopoly.
Anti-consumer practices are what you get when you don't have proper competition. Fact is that duopolies don't qualify. So, even if AMD were to suddenly start competing in the mid+, high, and higher range markets, we would still be in a situation where both companies are guilty of various anti-consumer practices like deceptive product naming. The only thing stopping companies from releasing cards that are clearly named (e.g. 1060, 1061, 1062 or 1060 A, 1060 B, 1060 C or 1060, 1065, 1070, 1075) is consumer pressure. Without choice consumers have very little leverage with which to exert that pressure.
For all the vaunted choice and competition capitalism is supposed to provide, there is very little of it in so many tech sectors. Smaller companies seem relegated to being absorbed instead of being able to actually compete and establish themselves.
They all outsold AMD's faster and cheaper cards.
It was particularly baffling in the case of 960.
At this point, someone should report both companies to various trade commissions for misleading marketing practices, given how fast and loose they're playing with model numbers recently.
As for the 960, agree with lex, yeah that was a puzzle.... card never made sense... with the 970 just over $320, it basically wiped all but the top tier cards from serious consideration. While the 970 sold 2.5 more units than all AMD 2xx and 3xx series cards combined, it did also make the 950 - 960 unattractive choices when just for few more bucks. I was so shocked by the 970s pricing, I thought for sure they were going to get targeted for predatory pricing. Seemed ovious that they were seeking to cut AMDs through pricing it so close to their core mid to lower range market. In the end they probably made out as they sold so danged many of them that the R&D and soft costs gottan w=eaten up.
It's funny how this still has any traction, other than working from (or confirming) the rumor that Nvidia has a "boat load" of GP104 to dump. Even castrating the GP104 that still means AIB's have to make new lower cost PCB to mount that die and permit GDDR5X (190 pins), all while Nvidia still selling current GP106 at like $280-300.
I suppose... but let's see how these get priced and work as I'm not sure gelding (shut-off) half of some huge die doesn't still inflict some hit on efficiency, while how much above the GTX 1060 6Gb, we'll wait for reviews.
there is a 10gb gtx 1080ti?
is that another card for the Chinese market only?