Well played Nvidia, nice one-up's-man-ship. Good card, good value, but is it just more splitting hairs between the 7850/7870. Wasn’t the GTX660 theoretically there to do? Instead of having the GTX660 be more price competitive, they use up geldings and drop the price some 20%... IDK? Is it rewarding for those who have been fence sitting like 6 month absolutely, are the guys who dropped $230 three month ago upset... suppose not.
What diid it just make most all those nicer AIB GTX660 that now $210-215, is the 25% more money worth the 11% performance increase?... hum. On its' own (in the vacuum of today) this new boost has merit, although considering the surrounding pressure from all the cards wedged in $160-220 can it absolutely outshine everything?
As I said a while back the Pitcairn production is probably making available more XT at this point, while will what we’ve heard that 1Gb 7850 are on the way out come to pass? All that points to 7850 2Gb still in the mix but limited holding in price $160-170, while I see AMD pushing hard with 7870 pricing at $200.
I'm not sure how this will help any of us, it's nice... but again is just another choice in a crowded field? Honestly, this is less of a response to the 7790, as taking the place of the 7850 1Gb as the value leader, so until Nvidia has 1Gb in that $150 price this isn't impacting 7790's or much else. Where the struggle will be once their 1Gb version hits and why I said the 7790 needed more performance, as originally alluded to being 10% behind the 7850; which it fell short on that mark and Nvidia now looks poised to grab that BfB at $150 price point.
Edit: Is there a date for when we'll see channel availability for these Boost variants?