We have seen and reviewed NVIDIA’s high-end Kepler graphics cards, but the company’s mid-range line has been even harder to find than the GTX 680 was a couple months ago. That may be about to change though, as recent rumors suggest that the company is preparing at least three mid-range graphics cards for public release.
The current GT 640. Expect the refresh to look very similar.
The cheapest rumored card is a refresh of the existing GeForce GT 640. The refresh is slated for an August 2012 release and it takes the existing GK107 GPU with 384 CUDA cores and pairs it with GDDR5 memory instead of the currently used GDDR3. Videocardz predicts that the move to GDDR5 will bump the price up to a bit over $100.
The next card up will reportedly cost around $150 and will be released in August. The GeForce GT 650 Ti will allegedly be based around the GK106 GPU with 960 CUDA cores enabled. It will likely be paired with up to 2GB of GDDR5 memory and a 192-bit memory interface. This card will likely be the high-end HTPC and/or very entry level gaming card on the NVIDIA side.
However, for those serious about wanting to get into gaming, they should probably spend a bit more on the GPU and get at least the GTX 660. This rumored card is using a GK106 GPU with 1152 CUDA cores enabled and an alleged 1.5GB of GDDR5 memory with a 192-bit interface. As far as pricing, it will be positioned between the GT 650 Ti and the GeForce GTX 670 – somewhere in the $200-300 range.
Interestingly, if rumors turn out to be true, there may be yet another new graphics card that would fill the performance (and price) void between the GTX 660 and GTX 670: the GeForce GTX 660 Ti. Allegedly, the GTX 660 Ti would be very close to the GTX 670 as far as specifications are concerned. Both cards are based on the GK104 Kepler GPU (which we recently reviewed) and would have 1344 CUDA cores enabled. Where the two differ in the predicted specifications is memory. While the GeForce GTX 670 has either 2GB or 4GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit interface, the GTX 660 Ti will have 1.5GB or 3GB of GDDR5 memory with a 192-bit interface. This card is also predicted to be released in August with the above mentioned NVIDIA GPUs. You can expect this card to be priced in the $300 to $400 dollar range, with an emphasis on the former for reference designs with 1.5GB of memory.
All these rumored cards should really help NVIDIA to flesh out its Kepler lineup and take on AMD on all fronts. These cards (assuming the rumors hold true, of course) should also be much easier to find and get a hold of since they are probably using binned chips that could not be sold as a GTX 670 or GTX 680 which were difficult to find in stock at launch.
What do you think about these rumors, do they sound plausible? Have you been holding off on Kepler until cheaper cards are released? Let us know in the comments below. You can find more information on the rumored graphics cards here.
not plausible
not plausible
i meant, the prices are not
i meant, the prices are not plausible, kind of…
650 TI with 960 cores ?
650 TI with 960 cores ? OMG
This i complete nonsense. 650 will be based on GK 107 with 384 cores and DDR5 memory.
Both 660 and 660 TI will be based on GK 106 with 4 SMX (768 cores) and 192 bit memory.
Later they may release something like GF 660 TI – 1152, based on GK 104 with 6 SMX. Similar what they did with GF 560 – 448.
Been waiting for the kepler
Been waiting for the kepler midrange cards to surface before going ahead with a new gfx upgrade. Very interested in the 650 and 660 models..
I find it unlikely that the
I find it unlikely that the 660 will really not be a GK104, as that means that they couldn’t use binned chips for it (because it would actually be a different chip.) I also find it unlikely that the 660 Ti will have as many cores enabled as the 670. While that would be nice, I really doubt NVidia would do that. I’m guessing at least one of either the 660 or the 660 Ti will be a GK 104 with 1152 cores enabled, as the rumors have been saying for months now.
sounds spot on
sounds spot on
Hmm, maybe a price cartel for
Hmm, maybe a price cartel for a high class cards (and in to high level of middle class also) between Nvidia and AMD has?.!.?
1.5GB for a $250-300
1.5GB for a $250-300 videocard in the year 2012 is a waste of $. Plenty of games are already exceeding that such as Shogun 2, Max Payne 3 and no one spend $300 on a GPU to have it being obsoleted in 6 months (this happened with 8800GT 256mb vs. 512mb, 8800GTS 320mb vs. 640mb and HD4850/4870 512mb vs. 1GB).
If you’ve ever experienced running out of VRAM, you’ll know the videocard is useless at that point (3-5 fps). It was fine during GTX470/480/GTX570/580 generation since that was 1-2 years ago (almost 3 years ago for 1GB HD5870). Especially now that HD7950 3GB has dipped to $320-330, GTX660Ti will make no sense since an overclocked 7950 = 7970 = GTX670. NV isn’t going to have 660Ti being faster than 670.
-BestJinjo (Commenter from the linked story)
The GTX 660 is true, ACER
The GTX 660 is true, ACER anounced their new gaming desktop with GTX 660 graphics 1.5GB of Vram.