NVIDIA leak of the week - the GeForce GTX 570

NVIDIA's next graphics card is due next week, according to details leaked to a Swedish overclocking site.

 NVIDIA hasn't had a great time of marketing lately. Try as it might details keep leaking out early about new products. The recent launch of the GeForce GTX 580, for example, was marked by specs, photos and performance numbers leaking out of China and now details about the unannounced GeForce GTX 570 have popped up on a Swedish overclocking site.

According to the site, which published a product brochure from Palit, the GeForce GTX 570 is 225W TDP part that looks roughly equal to a GeForce GTX 480. It has the same 480 CUDA cores inside, is built on a 40nm process and has slightly higher clockspeeds to the 480. Where it does fall behind is in memory, the GTX 570 appears to have a 320-bit memory bus running 1280MB of 3.8GHz GDDR5.

This 320-bit memory bus is curious – the only other Fermi GPU to have such a configuration is the 768MB version of the GeForce GTX 460. In that GPU a 320-bit memory controller is a way to save a few bucks, and is a major contributor to the noticeable performance difference between the 1GB and 768MB versions of the GTX 460.

Even more curious, considering we at Atomic have only heard whispers of the GTX 570, is that according to Sweclockers the card is due to launch next Tuesday. This happens to be the day that Blizzard releases the Cataclysm expansion to World of Warcraft (Sweclockers suggests it isn't a coincidence).

But while it may be careful timing, it isn't a smart move if the tactic is to catch those upgrading for Cataclysm. After all, Blizzard patched in the new graphics engine features last week during the Shattering, and those who feel the need for new 3D Silicon will want to have it up and running well before they step into Vashjir or Hyjal next week.

Whatever happens it now looks like NVIDIA has taken advantage of delays to AMD's high end graphics lineup. It will have delivered two new high end cards by the time the postponed RADEON HD 6970 and 6950 cards launch. By doing so it has managed to fix the heat and power issues that plagued the GTX 480 and 470 cards, and if only NVIDIA could reduce its pricing a touch we could have a very competitive 2011 on our hands.