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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 priced at US$599, to be available November 9th
According to a Chinese forum posting, NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce GTX 580 will be priced at US$599. Not only that, some will get to bring one home come November 9th.
Confirmed: GeForce GTX 580 cards will hit retail on November 9, but prices may creep into the US$600+ range.
Early last month, we reported about AMD's Radeon HD 6000 Series being in trouble, and that NVIDIA is apparently brimming with confidence and ready to counter-attack. In the past two weeks or so, production at the rumor mill has ramped up; we have seen leaked photos of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 card itself, its heatsink, and even supposed specifications.
In our review of the AMD Radeon HD 6870 and HD 6850 cards, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 1GB and 768MB versions performed decently against both AMD cards. In fact, a factory-overclocked GeForce GTX 460 1GB at the same price, will easily outperform a Radeon HD 6870. The tussle for the performance crown in the mid high-end segment is over, and both graphics card makers are focussing on their high-end (flagship) products now.
The GeForce GTX 580 will take on AMD's high-end Radeon HD 6900 Series (the Cayman chipset). Early leaks estimate the GeForce GTX 580 to be about 15% to 20% faster than the GeForce GTX 480. Performance findings of the Radeon HD 6900 Series are still well kept though (so far).
At present, there has been much speculation that NVIDIA is announcing the GeForce GTX 580 on the 8th of November in a bid to make enthusiasts and gamers 'think twice' about buying Radeon HD 6900 Series cards, which are slated for a late November release. The general consensus is that, the GeForce GTX 580, despite being unveiled on the 8th, will be no more than just a paper launch.
However, in an unexpected twist, we stumbled upon an online posting made no more than just a few hours ago, which suggests the GeForce GTX 580 is expected to cost US$599, and will be available on November 9th. These GeForce GTX 580 cards will come from a number of NVIDIA's partners, but all are reference boards.
We do expect some price adjustments once the Radeon HD 6900 Series becomes available, assuming the GeForce GTX 580 indeed hits retail first...
Update (4 Nov 2010): NVIDIA's partners are already shipping GeForce GTX 580 based cards to distributors around the globe for retail. The launch is confirmed to be November 9, and we will definitely see GeForce GTX 580 cards on store shelves. However, the initial selling price is expected to creep into the US$600+ range.
