exactly what i think is gonna happen. Nvidia will for sure bring a dual card but i doubt its gonna be anywhere near the 450watts from AMD. After thinking much on it last night i believe they are gonna be extremely close. The wacky thing is AMD actually has a chance to beat nvidia with this turbo dual bios beast. I just dont see nvidia pushing the power envelope to this degree after all the fermi backlash.
I actually heard about the turbo switch and was fully expecting the HD 6970 to have it implemented. look at my post from December 14 before anything was "known" about cayman:
"My guess would be a little different. I am gonna say that AMD ran into some power issues trying to get the last drop of performance they could all while being limited to 40nm. From reading many sources and supposed leaks, my hypothesis is the 6970<580 by a bit more than you expect and closer to the 570. I believe it will beat the 570 for the most part but depending on the games the 570 will out perform it. I think the results will vary and a clever person with an agenda could even show the 570>6970, with cherry picked games. Even still i do predict the 6970>570 in actuality.
The switch is proof (to me at this point) that power has become a major concern for cayman. I think maybe nvidia was on to something when they said "making chips that big is f***** hard!". This switch obviously lets the card perform closer to where AMD wanted it but also at a cost in power consumption that must have been very unattractive. It may even allow the 6970 to run over the rated pcie and power connector specification. Regardless it is an indication of a severe dilemma." <break>
This is where i heard conflicting information and wasnt sure exactly how they went together,
continues....
" The switch is probably gonna unlock the card for the user to have full control to OC to the absolute max rather than just a preset that uses a ton of power. This way they can market it and sell it more attractively.
Its obvious to me that amd had some serious power issues. I dont think the switch was an idea from the very beginning. Also if it turns out to be like i said than amd was smart in the way they handled things in the end. Nvidia solution was just take the loss in performance by cutting down the chip to save power. A switch on the GPU brings a new aspect to us...."
source:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=22170 I was a little baffled when it came out with a dual bios, switch, and it didnt turbo past the PCIe limits. Since then i have been unsure of the things i have heard. But now i see they scrapped the turbo over the PCIe for the 6970 and just used it for the 6990. I long forgot about what i was told the original reason for the switch. Anyway, just stilled shocked by how much this 6990 passes the limit and instead of being shameful....AMD flaunts it. They where it beautiful.
First surprise and more to come.
It could be worse?
