nVidia GTX 580 will be on sale next Wednesday at £429

Blimey, once you post a story on up-coming products, all of your sources in the industry want to get in on the act and the rumour mill goes into overdrive! KitGuru sifts through a ton of BS to bring you the most likely possibilities. The second in our series of revelations begins now.

While there is some possibility that nVidia will manage to push some cards into the channel for a launch next Tuesday, we think it's much more likely that you will be able to place a real order for the GTX580 on Wednesday 10th November.

Why is that date so important?

Well, it's all about perception. What us hardcore journalists call ‘controlling the news cycle'.

While we all know that KitGuru readers get their news ahead of the curve online, the magazines fill shelf space. That shelf space will be seen in supermarkets, airports and newsagents across the country.

In the UK, most magazines come out around the 15th of the month. When nVidia launches GTX580 at the start of next week, they could have several magazine covers to themselves. Even though the Radeon HD 6970 might be just a week or so later, the news cycle will have been taken by nVidia.

If all of these dates are correct, then the earlier we will see a Radeon HD 6970 on the cover of a UK magazine will be just before Christmas. Will that be enough time to influence customers at the busiest time of the year?  We're not sure, it is cutting it fine.

In terms of pricing, you can pick up a GTX480 in London stores right now around £350.

Given that the new GTX580 will be at least 20% faster than the GTX480, then can add just 20% to the price and get £420. We think that the fact it is new technology will mean it can command a small premium above that, so we're betting on £429 inc vat in the UK.

KitGuru's US of A cousins will probably pay around $499 with some local sales taxes to be added.

CHANNEL WARNING: Nope, nothing to do with the water that separates the UK from France. More a warning that anyone (reseller, store or distributor) with a lot of GTX480 in stock right now, needs to flush out these cards ahead of the GTX580 launch. Don't get stuck with yesterday's technology when ‘Fermi: The way it was meant to be played' rolls into town next week.

KitGuru says: The GTX460 is going strong, with strong demand across the entire channel – especially for overclocked versions in SLi. nVidia's entry level DX11 products like the GT430 are just plain sad (and that has been universally acknowledged). Against all of that, when you speak with nVidia PR Gurus like Ben Berraondo, you get the distinct feeling that the one prize Jen Hsun Huang wants more than anything else is to be known as the company with the fastest graphics chip in the world. The GTX580 will almost certainly deliver that, in spades, and it will do it for £429 inc vat, and we reckon it will do it in stores next Wednesday.

Would you pay £429 for a GTX580? Let us know if this is good value.

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