NVIDIA Releases GTX 680 w/ Single GPU NV Surround

NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX680 (codenamed "Kepler") was launched today. A number of reviews are up, including one here at HardOCP. The GTX680 looks like it blows past the Radeon HD 7970 at 1080p widescreen, and holds even with the AMD offering at 2560x1600 and multi-monitor.

The new NVIDIA offering also offers much improved efficiency over the GTX580, and betters the AMD Radeon HD 7970 in power consumption. Additionally, it is $50 cheaper than the AMD flagship, so I would expect price drops from AMD soon.

The best new feature on the NVIDIA card is that it can now run NV Surround from a single GPU. The previous requirement of a dual-GPU configuration was a serious roadblock to users embracing the NVIDIA multi-monitor technology. The reference card ships with 1xDP, 1xHDMI and 2xDVI connections. I'm assuming that a single-link DP>DVI adapter would allow you to run with three DVI screens.

We don't have a card here to test, but I did get a call from NVIDIA today and will be talking with them about Kepler tomorrow. So, here's hoping we'll have something to share soon.