State of the Graphics May 2016: Nvidia's Pascal vs. AMD's Polaris

It's drawing nearer.  Nvidia's launch for May 27th of the 1080 GTX Founders edition with 16nm FinFET and GDDR5X RAM. Tale of the tape for AMD: Mid-2016 for a 950GTX equivalent board with much less power draw with the Polaris 11.  AMD is still going with the smaller co-processor and multiple processor configuration will win the day.  Neither have HBM2 integrated stack memory yet.  GDDR5X is a trickle from Micron so this is a manufacturing win for Nvidia.  Everyone is waiting for AMD's successor to FuryX, Vega or Polaris 10, which is after Polaris 11 (confused yet?) and larger, and highlighted in a proof of concept cube known as the Project Quantum (espoused to push VR).  Will it introduce HBM2? The world still has to wait.
We also have to wait for real benchies.  Do we take Hsuang's word that the 1070GTX is as fast as the 980GTX for 379$US.  AMD has design wins with Sony PS4 and XBoxOne, and the potential of VR coming to home PCs, as well as the PS4 "Neo" (4.5).  Will the benchies show 1440p (QHD - 2560x1440) or 2160p (4K UHD - 3840x2160) at 60 fps? Or do we have to contend to VR specs with dual 1080p (1920x2160) and special feature support (like Nvidia's touted multi-display projection to speed up a scene over multiple display windows)? With the embargo lifted, this is still not the card for 4K at 60 fps.  And with Nvidia gouging a premium price for milking the early market at $699USD, caveat emptor.

There is a new rage for HDR effects.  What should consumers hold out for? Taking 2013's Tomb Raider 4K benchmark, the Titan and 980Ti are neck and neck at 45 fps, with the 980 at 30 fps.  If 4K at 60 fps is achieved, then VR specs are surpassed and they were met already with the 980Ti. Then there are displayport and HDMI versions to worry about.  AMD botched up with the FuryX limited support for HDMI 1.3, while Nvidia went to HDMI 2.0. If the 1080GTX is 25% faster than the 980Ti, then 4K will hit 60 fps for an engine built in 2013.  The 4K UHD Unity engine demos will probably only reach 35 fps, far short of nirvana.  With 1070, it is expected to match a 980Ti, which means two more years for enthusiast 4K gaming. But if we consider those who go SLI, how well will that work and will that nearly double the power for those with money to burn (or frugally smart when buying used)?

950 - entry
960 - mainstream
970 - enthusiast
980 - hardcore
980Ti - premium
980 Titan - flagship