Nvidia pulled off an enviable trick with its high-end
GeForce GTX 600-series cards. This trick encapsulated two parts: a change in architecture from Fermi (GTX 580) to Kepler (GTX 680) along with an accompanying shrinking of the transistors that make up the GPU, down from 40nm to 32nm. And what do you know, Nvidia managed to increase performance by 30-odd per cent, drop power by around 50W, and herald a new GeForce performance champion at the same $499 price point. But the real benefit to Nvidia lay in substantially reducing production costs, because, by historical standards, GTX 680 uses a mid-range-sized die.