Worse than a leaky tap
It's getting to the point where you could make a job out of covering the leaks associated with NVIDIA's still-unconfirmed GeForce GTX 580. Only yesterday we saw pictures of what claimed to be the reference card, and now we have a little more detail about the cooler itself, along with a few other details.
The first is to be found in the developer release of the upcoming 32-bit 261.00 drivers - remember we're currently at 260.99. As well as the unannounced midrange GTS 455 and low-end GeForce 405 cards, reference is made to the GTX 580. Not only is this the second "official" confirmation of the card, but it means we could be getting very close to a release date.
Next up are the aforementioned pictures. There obviously isn't a lot of information that we can take from these shots, other than definitive confirmation that it won't be a dual-GPU card. Though clearly distinct, the general design is reminiscent of the GTX 480's cooler - complete with five large heatpipes - implying that this will once again be a hot runner.
Lastly we have some of the first indications on pricing and release dates. Fudzilla is suggesting that the cards are already in production and will arrive before AMD's flagship Cayman GPUs, suggesting mid-November availability.
Launching just ahead of the HD 6970 could be a huge boost to NVIDIA, especially if it can deliver on performance. The only sticking point may be the price, which the same source suggests will be around $499 (£390). This is significantly more than the cheapest GTX 480s and HD 5870s, and around the same price as two HD 6870s - though it's still a good deal cheaper than the dual-GPU HD 5970. Of course, this is likely to change, depending on the price and performance of the HD 6970.
