Physics hardware makes Kepler/GK104 fast

[SieB]

Very interesting article on Kepler and the GK104 which is rumored as the first Kepler card from Nvidia to be released.The article is to long to quote but make sure you read it all because it's not as clear cut as you might think and there are some pretty dogey reason as to why the card is supposedly so fast.

SOURCE

But as with everything it's still rumors until proven so take with a pinch of salt. 

 

[stevenwright6379]

good read

some of the comments are funny

can tell they never read the whole article

seems like they are expecting the GK104 to be a high end card that will drive the 79** prices down

 

[SieB]

Hopefully it will bring prices down because the 7970 and 7950 are more than they should be really.

This is the worrying part though

Sources tell SemiAccurate that the ‘big secret’ lurking in the Kepler chips are optimisations for physics calculations. Some are calling this PhysX block a dedicated chunk of hardware, but more sources have been saying that it is simply shaders, optimisations, and likely a dedicated few new ops. In short, marketing may say it is, but under the heat spreader, it is simply shaders and optimisations.

The problem for Nvidia is that once you venture outside of that narrow list of tailored programs, performance is likely to fall off a cliff, with peaky performance the likes of which haven't been seen in a long time. On some games, GK104 will handily trounce a 7970, on others, it will probably lose to a Pitcairn. Does this mean it won't actually do what is promised? No, it will. Is this a problem? Depends on how far review sites dare to step outside of the 'recommenced' list of games to benchmark in the reviewers guide.

This new Physx hardware or "optimized shaders" as the article calls them gives the GK104 an advantage over the 7970 in certain games and programs. The thing is with that though those few games it does take advantage of will not be many so where it may look like the GK104 is a better card it's not really and it is just optimized to run better on a few select games or ones coded for it.

It also says it will lose to Pitagram, which is the 7850 and the 7870, so by Nvidia taking advantage of the optimized shaders they are making the cards look a lot better than they really are. 

 

[stevenwright6379]

this does explain the why the card has been seen to beat the 7970 but is priced considerably lower, something NV aren't known to do

 

[Lollipop]

is it the GK107 that is going to be used in high end cards? Because if this chip can beat the 7970, the 680/780 are going to be realle AWESOME!

 

[stevenwright6379]

is it the GK107 that is going to be used in high end cards? Because if this chip can beat the 7970, the 680/780 are going to be realle AWESOME!

but the problem is if what that article says is true then it will only beat the 7970 in a handful of programs the rest it will struggle to beat a 7850 or 7870

 

[SieB]

The GK100 is the high end but it's not so strait forward as for the GK104 beating the 7970. In most games it will perform much lower but in a few select games that are optimized it will perform better, that might make it sound good but for most games it will have midrange performance.

 

[dipzy]

The best thing i guess we can do is to wait for real benchmarks to come out, until then who knows what the new cards from the green team will be like

 

[Lollipop]

But the thing is if this is true getting an NV card over an AMD card would be better because those few games will still run better.

 

[SieB]

Not really because for most games it will have midrange performance about what a 6950/560 Ti is, much bellow a 7970 and it will only be faster in a few games.

The 7970 will still be the much better card because it's performance is consistent in all games but the GK104 will only be better in a couple of games and have much lower performance in most.

 

[SparkleDJackson]

Is the gk104 not supposed to be the replacement for the 560ti. Why replace a model with somethin that does the exact same thing

 

[sleepylilazn]

So it depends on what games you are playing.

Again this is all speculation. I just want to reinforce that idea.

 

[nepas]

Clicked on link,saw that the author was Charlie,quickly shut tab..........

 

[unknownuser200]

keplar is going to get bigger and bigger.. and more powerful per day.. untill its released its just a bunch of hype... my prediction ? it will be about 10-15% faster then the 7970 and will cost that much more. But thats my guess.. like the rumors will have to wait and see!

 

[Lollipop]

Not really because for most games it will have midrange performance about what a 6950/560 Ti is, much bellow a 7970 and it will only be faster in a few games.

The 7970 will still be the much better card because it's performance is consistent in all games but the GK104 will only be better in a couple of games and have much lower performance in most.

This 'new' 560ti is (hopefully) going to be alot cheaper and it still has very good performance in some games.

 

[trazomfr]

I am so excited to see the "real" results in Tom review that I do not care a bit about performance. I just want to buy one... or two ... fast!!

 

[michaelah500]

I'm not listening to any of the rumours, I will believe something when it's revealed by nVidia themselves. Not supposed "leaks".

 

[MaXiMiZe]

Well they better release kepler quick because there aint no point of these articles if they release the cards in the 2nd half of the year. AMD will probably counter kepler with something later on. The quicker Nvidia release the kepler cards the better for us in terms of prices and options.

 

[yassarikhan786]

Well they better release kepler quick because there aint no point of these articles if they release the cards in the 2nd half of the year. AMD will probably counter kepler with something later on. The quicker Nvidia release the kepler cards the better for us in terms of prices and options.

Definitely agree with you there bro.

 

[S_I_N]

:yawn:

gotta love rumors no way would Nvidia release a card slated as anothers replacement and have the same or lower performance we just need to be patient and wait for the real story. I also love the way alot of folks are touting that the 7950 beats the 580 well duh!! its a newer card on newer arc. It should beat it. About time we as consumers get new stuff that beats the old stuff without question. We should expect this and not be surprised by it.