Also, contrary to some reports we have been told by both AIBs and various local retailers that they expect stock of these cards to be available at North American retail by April 9th with smaller shipments trickling in ahead of that. This may change as cards become available so stay tuned for more news on that front. While that price is highly competitive against the HD 4890, we will be anxious to see if it holds any foundation in reality considering Canadian pricing will probably be between $360 and $380 according to sources. First of all, even though Nvidia will only announce their “official” price a day before launch, figures of $250 USD have been passed around. If that turns out to be true, its price of around $250 USD could prove to be the undoing of Nvidia’s flagship single chip card.Įnough about marketing-speak, let’s talk reality here for a second or two. Performance-wise it is supposed to sit somewhere between the GTX 260 216 and the GTX 285 even though looking at the specifications on a later page will give you the distinct impression that framerates may be closer to those of the GTX 285. In a nutshell, the GTX 275 is basically half of a GTX 295 whose core, shaders and memory have slightly higher clocks.
Stay tuned since we already have some of these in the review pipeline. According to various manufacturers we spoke to, they will also be releasing reference based cards with some (from EVGA, XFX and BFG) introducing overclocked versions as well. Unfortunately, this can also lead to some corner cutting (read: penny pinching) so Nvidia will hopefully implement a certification system whereby these “custom” cards are checked to see if they meet specifications. This will probably result in quite a few variations when it comes to framebuffer size, clock speeds, power consumption and even thermal characteristics. What we have here is an engineering version of the GTX 275 896 MB but from what we have heard Nvidia will allow their board partners to design their own cards from the ground up.
Meanwhile, Nvidia couldn’t be seen as resting on their backsides so the GTX 275 896MB was quickly hatched. ATI chose to attack this market with what is essentially an overclocked version of their HD 4870 1GB which has been renamed the HD 4890.
With all of the price cutting of late, both the GTX 260 216 and the HD 4870 1GB have fallen below the $200 USD mark which means a substantial gap has suddenly opened up between these cards and the $350 GTX 285. This is mostly due to the fact that the card itself seems to be mostly a quick knee-jerk reaction to an assault by ATI into the relatively under appreciated market between the $225 and $300 (USD) price brackets. The history behind Nvidia’s answer to the ATI HD 4890 has understandably been receiving much less rumour-mongering as past launches. While receiving either is usually a welcome surprise, we will have to put a discussion about Debbie’s impressive exploits on the back burner since this time the box’s cargo was a new video card from Nvidia: the GTX 275. When an unmarked box shows up at my door it is usually one of two things: my neighbour’s new copy of Debbie Does Dallas: The Ultimate Edition or a brand new computer component that hasn’t been released yet.
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