Geforce GTX 280 Advice Please?

kapows · 10 Jul 2010 at 20:54

Someone local to me has just put out the word he's willing to sell his GTX 280 card for £165.

Its a year old and he says full working order.

He just said to me I can have it for £120.

Nvidia branded.

Think its worth it? Year old? Not clocked or anything. No mods.

I might be able to knock off a few more pounds.

Help please?

(Oh im geting this card to cover me for a few months then ill get a fermi and use this as physx)

TheRealDeal · 10 Jul 2010 at 21:06

I think £120 is a decent buy they go for a good bit more than that second hand if i am not mistaken.

Rroff · 10 Jul 2010 at 21:07

They still command a little extra price for CUDA/folding type stuff - but for gaming I wouldn't spend more than £120 on one.

rounddodger · 10 Jul 2010 at 23:28

Got £165 for mine on the bay last month.

Good card for £120.

alex24 · 10 Jul 2010 at 23:38

Easily worth £120, great card, and I think the nvidia drivers are superior at this point.

JediFragger · 11 Jul 2010 at 00:07

alexhull24 said:
and I think the nvidia drivers are superior at this point.

I think it's just a case of **** and ****ier atm

Orcvader · 11 Jul 2010 at 00:09

kapows said:
(Oh im geting this card to cover me for a few months then ill get a fermi and use this as physx)

A 280 as a PhysX card is a bit... overkill :eek:

Why not sell it once you get a fermi card and buy a 8800 for PhysX?

alex24 · 11 Jul 2010 at 00:09

@ JediFragger

While you're not wrong, I stand by my opinion. I have a GTX280 and a 5770, been using both recently.

JediFragger · 11 Jul 2010 at 00:47

I didn't say you were Alex

I just think both are resting on their laurels driver-wise

alex24 · 11 Jul 2010 at 00:59

Didn't say what? I think we both agree!

Yes, there have been many driver bugs and issues with ATI, more high profile ones recently (mainly BC2 to be fair), but there are niggles that even go back years sometimes that they haven't fixed. nVidia really upped performance for the 8800 series for a long time, probably still are, but we haven't seen anywhere near that improvement for the GTX2xx cards yet. There seem to be less driver related bugs, but there are still niggles, especially with multi-monitor setups.

Both have pros and cons, just I prefer using the nVidia drivers as they're much more clearly laid out and the game profile support makes the ATI drivers look pants in that respect. Oh, and they're both too bloated now. I miss having a simple control panel with checkboxes, radio buttons and sliders. ATI Tray tools is a nice add-on to bring some of that back, but it's only recently in BETA and by no means an ATI effort at all.

shadow_boxer · 11 Jul 2010 at 02:11

120 quid is a pretty good price I think for the 280. I agree drivers at this time are very buggy and not user friendly. if as you say you are going to upgrade to fermi ask yourself if you really need to upgrade at this particular moment. if yes get the 280, but its definately overkill as a physX card.

alex24 · 11 Jul 2010 at 02:13

I missed that. Yes, I think PhysX cards are a total waste of time, money and power.

I also reckon almost anyone could get by quite happily on a sole GTX280 for a while yet, there's certainly no games out now that I feel like I want to upgrade to play at higher AA etc. In terms of price/performance, you'd be doing very well with a GTX280 for £120.

Mr. May · 11 Jul 2010 at 02:45

good buy defo get it as 260's are still going for about 100 quid
but then again you could possibly get 2x 4870's for that price if look about which is better (bang for buck) but no physx
but thats if you can do crossfire at the end off the day its all down to prefrance and experiance
some people have nothing but problems with NV/ATI drivers and some with multi gpu config's i say live and let learn

REAPERUK · 11 Jul 2010 at 02:57

sold my 280 At CEX for £97 , i would not pay more than 120 though, it is still a dam fine card with all the Gfx additions attached and uses less power than a 5850 ..
make sure if you do buy it it has retail box with accessorys , so you have a good after sale later ..

kapows · 11 Jul 2010 at 16:53

Thanks guys especially the top two people who replied incredibly fast appreciate it.

Youre right fellas, physx is overkill with a gtx 280! lol!

Oh i mentioned the GTX card cos i wanna stick with Nvidia.

Thanks again and ill make sure it has retail box and accessories good call i might have forgotten about that if it wasnt mentioned.

ste2005 · 11 Jul 2010 at 19:41

that would be a good deal, if I rememeber they can get a little toasty and a little warm under load, but as long as you have decent cooling it shouldnt be any issue.

RavenXXX2 · 11 Jul 2010 at 19:53

REAPERUK said:
it is still a dam fine card with all the Gfx additions attached and uses less power than a 5850 ..

Err, the 285 uses more power than a 5850 so I very much doubt a 280 will draw less watts than a 5850.

alex24 · 11 Jul 2010 at 20:03

Yep, the GTX280 is very power hungry, certainly more so than a 5850.

REAPERUK · 11 Jul 2010 at 21:36

RavenXXX2 said:
Err, the 285 uses more power than a 5850 so I very much doubt a 280 will draw less watts than a 5850.

The Overclocked BFG 280 OCX 180w Idle, 358w Load.
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2008/07/28/bfgtech_geforce_gtx_280_ocx/6

5850 Sd card, 192w idle, 357w Load..
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/09/30/amds_ati_radeon_hd_5850_video_card_review/7

For a Mid range card that is quite allot of juice..

alexhull24 said:
Yep, the GTX280 is very power hungry, certainly more so than a 5850.

A Massive 1W more on load, But the 5850 Idle is allot more than the 280 OCX version.

RavenXXX2 · 11 Jul 2010 at 22:16

LoL, you can't compare the two from tests years apart with different systems, for a start they use furmark to test the 5850 and crysis to test the 280 lol, one system is an i7 they other a p35 setup, the i7 will use way more power. The usage I showed is just from the card not from the system, the 5850 is one of the most efficient power to performance cards ever, and the idle status you are quoting is for the whole system...

Real idle draw below.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_465_Twin_Frozr_II/27.html