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GT200 GTX280/260 "official specs"

From skirting through various reviews the 280 does not seem very good value for money, the consensus seems to be buy the 260 if you are going to buy one of the new Nvidia cards at all.

Even funnier will be the people who buy these cards to Fold with !!!!

Saying that if you have any common sense don't buy one at all and wait for ATI.
 
Greebo said:
I never saw that. ANybody selling a GX2 to buy two 4850's is just as mad as anybody buying a GTX280 today.
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Erm, nope, because the GX2 is noisy, big and heavy, and also happens to exhaust very hot air right on to my w/c loop as it enters/exists the case. Plus I want to spend this month's pay on something, saving is for losers. Should be able to get at least £250 for the GX2 on that famous auction site.
 
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Dark_Angel said:
I really want to see benches of these new cards - I find it hard to believe that there are still no credible early previews of them (ati caards included in that).
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Hi,

We're working on the bench marks now...

Should be able to post to them within the next hour or 2 (on the 280 so far - still waiting for 260 stock)
 
Greebo said:
Yes, I do think it makes more sense bang for buck over the 280 but that's it really.
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Meh

In my mind, there is a good market for the 280 "The new fastest card on the block". If you want maximum performance and you don't care the cost, then you will get a 280. Or 2. Or 3.

If you're going for a 260, then you obviously care about money and as such the value of the card. From what we've seen, the ATI cards are looking like they could be much better value. The 4870 could well compete with the 260.

So, for me, the 280 will have a clear audience. The 260 on the other hand looks like it could be a dead-loss buy. If I was considering a 260, I'd definitely wait a couple days to see how the ATI cards compare. It's quite nice, actually, that the 260s aren't available to buy just yet.
 
One interesting review site always is HardOCP who seem to take a different approach to others.

When the GX2 came out and everyone was praising it using canned benches, they used real world benches and ran into issues at high res with aa as a result of the lack of bandwidth / lack of memory presumably. They found the same this time round (on the G92 that is), being able to play Conan, Ass's Creed and COD4 on a GX280 at 2560x1600 with 4xAA no bother. But not playable at all at this res. on the 9800GTX.

And when looking at SLI they found some games played poorly on 9800GTX's in SLI, but quite well on the single GX260 even.

It definitely seems the single card solution offers the least headaches and best gameplay experience. Also, doesn't sli suffer from micro-hitching ? I only ever saw it myself on the World in Conflict benchmark on my mates Quad Sli GX2 setup where any level of AA at all would cause this constantly during the benchmark.

If the GX280 was around GX260 prices I'd consider one, but I think 2 GT's in SLI will do me.

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTUxOCwxMSwsaGVudGh1c2lhc3Q=
 
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Duff-Man said:
Meh

In my mind, there is a good market for the 280 "The new fastest card on the block". If you want maximum performance and you don't care the cost, then you will get a 280. Or 2. Or 3.

If you're going for a 260, then you obviously care about money and as such the value of the card. From what we've seen, the ATI cards are looking like they could be much better value. The 4870 could well compete with the 260.

So, for me, the 280 will have a clear audience. The 260 on the other hand looks like it could be a dead-loss buy. If I was considering a 260, I'd definitely wait a couple days to see how the ATI cards compare.
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Oh no chance of me buying a 260, was just passing comment on it. I;m waiting for the 4870 cards and price gouging to finish before I upgrade (if at all).

Well anybody who's not waiting for the ATI cards, the GTX260 looks appealing against the 9800GTX cards (if you shop around).
 
Flanno said:
One interesting review site always is HardOCP who seem to take a different approach to others.

When the GX2 came out and everyone was praising it using canned benches, they used real world benches and ran into issues at high res with aa as a result of the lack of bandwidth / lack of memory presumably. They found the same this time round (on the G92 that is), being able to play Conan, Ass's Creed and COD4 on a GX280 at 2560x1600 with 4xAA no bother. But not playable at all at this res. on the 9800GTX.

And when looking at SLI they found some games played poorly on 9800GTX's in SLI, but quite well on the single GX260 even.

It definitely seems the single card solution offers the least headaches and best gameplay experience. Also, doesn't sli suffer from micro-hitching ? I only ever saw it myself on the World in Conflict benchmark on my mates Quad Sli GX2 setup where any level of AA at all would cause this constantly during the benchmark.

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTUxOCwxMSwsaGVudGh1c2lhc3Q=
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That's the same review I just read and they do put forward some interesting points which is what makes me think this card may end up replacing the 8800 GT when the price drops for the nVidia fanboys :)
 
Flanno said:
So I ordered the BFG GX280 OC for my mate :rolleyes: He is giving me his 2 8800GT's in return for me doing this upgrade for him...as in uninstall video driver, run ccleaner or something equivalent, remove gt's, install gx280, plug in cables including 6pin to 8pin pci-e and install new drivers :)

I have an SLI mobo already (EVGA 750), and from what I read on Anadtech 2xGT's in SLI is coming out on par or slightly ahead of this overpriced GX280 :D
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except that 1 card is always better than 2, especially if it's SLI......Crossfire works slightly better.

benchmarks don't represent the majority of problems with dual gpu's.

crazy price for the 280 but it's nothing new, you can find it for 400 quid as others have stated ....the 8800gtx cost as much or more on release.
 
Problems with SLi...I've not had any trouble whatsoever with my GX2...in fact I had a lot more issues with 2xHD3870s which mean I sold them after a month and a half.
 
Tute said:
Fixed.

I'm astounded. I can't believe nVidia are trying this. Who in their right mind would get this over a GX2? I'm sorry, but the SLi "issues" are worth putting up with for a saving of £150.
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SLI has lots of problems, including micro-stuttering, no support for multi-monitor, and bad performance with high resolutions / AA due to limited memory on the GX2. For two-card solutions you need a nVidia motherboard, and they are troublesome and expensive.

Whether that is worth £150 or not depends on your budget I guess.
 
darkoroje said:
SLI has lots of problems, including micro-stuttering, no support for multi-monitor, and bad performance with high resolutions / AA due to limited memory on the GX2. For two-card solutions you need a nVidia motherboard, and they are troublesome and expensive.

Whether that is worth £150 or not depends on your budget I guess.
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some people like to live in denial or just play a handful of games in which SLI/Crossfire actually works as intended.

having to use an nvidia board again puts me off dual card SLI full stop.
 
darkoroje said:
SLI has lots of problems, including micro-stuttering, no support for multi-monitor, and bad performance with high resolutions / AA due to limited memory on the GX2. For two-card solutions you need a nVidia motherboard, and they are troublesome and expensive.

Whether that is worth £150 or not depends on your budget I guess.
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for two gt280 u need nvidia board two doo....
 
Regarding the nForce motherboards, while the 680i and 780i have a bad reputation for running hot and not being so good for overclocking, if you read reviews on the 790i you'll find that many people praise it however it's still a high end motherboard and comes at a price. On the other hand it makes SLI within reach ;)

I'm going to be keeping a close eye on the GTX 260, getting one now and upgrading to SLI later when it no longer copes would make gaming on a 1900x1200 screen quite interesting :)
 
psychas said:
for two gt280 u need nvidia board two doo....
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Yes, but the point is one GT280 is as fast as an SLI solution, without any of the problems, and without needing an nVidia motherboard. And it has more memory, so if you do run high resolutions or high AA, it will work better than SLI.

Yes, it is expensive, probably too expensive, but at the high end it was never about price/performance value. This is an impressive card from a technical standpoint, the fastest ever produced. It is similar to Intel processors, the fastest ones carry a huge price premium even though they are only 10-20% faster.
 
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