[VRNews]

We've managed to get our grubby hands on NVIDIA's latest graphics card, the GeForce GTX 280. Not only did we take it apart, we are going to provide you with some preliminary results.


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[Ish718]

GTX 280 is basically a 9800GX2 molded into one package with minor tweaks

[Araris]

Wow, those are actually some nice World in Conflict results, I also think that Crysis issue relates to driver issues with the game if the GTX 280 experienced some weird stuttering during the game. I think the main reason people would buy a GTX 280 would be that SLI 280's would smack SLI 9800Gx2s up the wazoo. Since SLI scaling is much much better than Quad SLI. I know I'm only getting SLI 280s because I have a SLI motherboard and I would prefer SLI 280s over SLI 9800Gx2s. Heck if I had a X48 motherboard I'd be XFing 4870s but since my PSU and mobo are both capable of handling 2 280s I don't see why not.

Also, seeing that the GTX 280 gets 70fps in 1920x1200 with medium settings I was wondering how that was in regards to an 8800GTX, since most people have asked how it compares to an 8800GTX


So I ran my own Crysis benchmark using Medium Settings in 1920x1200 and got the following;

System: Q6600 @ 3.0Ghz, 8800GTX (575/900/1400), 4GB DDR2 800 RAM, Vista Home-Premium 64bit, EVGA 680i.

So 42fps with one 8800GTX to 70fps with one GTX 280 isn't that bad, which is about a 60%-70% increase, not to mention that those GTX 280 drivers seemed unoptimized for Crysis.
Also, yes, I know this appears to be an NVIDIA fanboy post so you don't need to waste everyones valuable time by posting a "smells like a fanboy" post.

[keymaster07]

the results are not THAT great, i thought there would be 50% increase in performance? or are they comparing to 8-series?

[Nuker_]

^^ Well yeah your post seem a little biased to say the least, if you would notice that a 60 to 70 per cent increment upon 8800gtx is abysmal, for a generation jump, to say the least. Your arguments are weak at most, considering the very high MSRP of the GTX 280.

[sukanaher]

Originally Posted by keymaster07

the results are not THAT great, i thought there would be 50% increase in performance? or are they comparing to 8-series?

dont forget its being compared to dualgpu

[Araris]

Originally Posted by Nuker_

^^ Well yeah your post seem a little biased to say the least, if you would notice that a 60 to 70 per cent increment upon 8800gtx is abysmal, for a generation jump, to say the least. Your arguments are weak at most, considering the very high MSRP of the GTX 280.

The very high MSRP is $100-200 less than that of the initial launch cost of the 8800GTX and $400 less than the 8800Ultra at launch, considering it's $200 less than a normal generation leap I think people place to much hope on how well it's suppose to perform and that 60%-70% is fine and dandy.

[junkmonk]

what is the updated price for the 280, is it $499 now, or is it still $649?

either way, this isn't impressive, so its looking up for AMD.

oh and thank you very much VR-zone for taking your time to create some of the first credible benchmarks of the GTX 280

[Nuker_]

Originally Posted by Araris

The very high MSRP is $100-200 less than that of the initial launch cost of the 8800GTX and $400 less than the 8800Ultra at launch, considering it's $200 less than a normal generation leap I think people place to much hope on how well it's suppose to perform and that 60%-70% is fine and dandy.

The GTX 280 should be considered a failure because the transistor count is 2.1 times that of G80, but still the perfromance is only <60% higher than 8800ultra. This implies an unbalanced/bottlenecked architecture, such as the case of R6x0 which had poor texture perfromance or the geforce FX 5800 which only had a 128 bit memory bus.

[Tchock]

Originally Posted by junkmonk

what is the updated price for the 280, is it $499 now, or is it still $649?

either way, this isn't impressive, so its looking up for AMD.

oh and thank you very much VR-zone for taking your time to create some of the first credible benchmarks of the GTX 280

$650. $500 is only in fanboys' dreams. GTX 260 is $400 tho.


The performance WILL increase, these drivers are obviously DUDS. I'll let in on a tip- frankly, it is possible that in 3DMark 2006 with FINAL PROPER DRIVERS the 4870 is in between the 260 and 280.

Only in 3DMark06.

[Araris]

Originally Posted by Tchock

$650. $500 is only in fanboys' dreams. GTX 260 is $400 tho.


The performance WILL increase, these drivers are obviously DUDS. I'll let in on a tip- frankly, it is possible that in 3DMark 2006 with FINAL PROPER DRIVERS the 4870 is in between the 260 and 280.

Only in 3DMark06.

Why do people keep thinking it's $650? Fry's (retail chain in the USA) had shelf stickers for the GTX 280 already out on shelves (that were vacant of course since it hasn't launched) and they all said $599, so taking into consideration retail store markup it's more along the lines of $549 not this $650 which is an ATi fanboys dream. Also, how can you say that the 4870 will be between the 260 and 280 with final drivers....the 260 still doesn't have final drivers so unless you mean a 4870 with final drivers compared to a 260 with beta drivers then that tip is completely useless.

[Tchock]

Originally Posted by Araris

Why do people keep thinking it's $650? Fry's (retail chain in the USA) had shelf stickers for the GTX 280 already out on shelves (that were vacant of course since it hasn't launched) and they all said $599, so taking into consideration retail store markup it's more along the lines of $549 not this $650 which is an ATi fanboys dream. Also, how can you say that the 4870 will be between the 260 and 280 with final drivers....the 260 still doesn't have final drivers so unless you mean a 4870 with final drivers compared to a 260 with beta drivers then that tip is completely useless.

Even if its $600 a tri-4850-fire would kill it in 90% of the cases. (2 cards can already do that)

Dream on, 650, 600 or 550, the perf/price is abysmal. Besides, nVidia made this specifically for the rabid fanboys (or normally idiots) to buy, unlike the 260.

Secondly, I'm ignoring the current scores. I go by shader power, and even when you factor in the extra operation done in the GT200, the 260 still trails the 4870 in shaderpower.

The 260 is only 25% faster in texturing power too, not ~80% like the 8800GT vs 3870.

[Nuker_]

Too bad there are many blind nvidiots.

[Araris]

Originally Posted by Nuker_

Too bad there are many blind nvidiots.

Hey now, I'm an nvidiot but I'm not blind, I know I'm flushing money down the toilet when I buy a GTX 280.

[Nuker_]

I have wondered if I should go with the green side this time as I have multiple issues with my HD2900xt, seeing as the low end nvidia card I have doesn't have any issues running games like cnc generals that the 2900 has. I haven't tried vista yet though, but I will soon, so I may be in for a surprise.