I'd like to think it'll play out like this (but I'm not confident)
- nvidia announces $599 price point
- they announce $699 founders edition which is basically their reference card.
- they price it high partly to cream some money from early adopters, but partly to avoid competing directly with partners.
- partners sell FE cards initially to get some money in quickly (and to avoid nvidia monopolising sales early on), but only until they can get custom coolers out
- partners switch over ASAP to lower priced custom cooler cards which the enthusiasts will want.
- this leaves the nvidia reference/FE card sat out there at $699 which will slowly become irrelevant as the price normalises around $599-649
- nvidia preps to do it all over again with the ti..
Or partners come out with 1080 cards that have unshitty cooling and power solutions unlike the FE and therefore perform much better. They then sell these better performing cards for more than $700 because they're better. This seems far more likely.
When has custom ever meant cheaper? Also why bother doing extra work to make less money?
edit: furthermore, why make less money just to make Nvidia look better?
Exactly, until we see 1080s going for $599 the price of the card is officially $699