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280 GTX OC not showing that much improvement

Silverwolf

Silverwolf

Silverwolf

Associate
Joined
13 Aug 2005
Posts
73
Location
Okehampton,Devon
Computer consists of:
E6750 not OClocked
8GB Corsair ram not OClocked
EVGA 680i MB
Vista 64
XFI Platinum
8800 GTX now a BFG 280 GTX OC
OCZ 900 Watt PSU Modular
BenQ 24" 1920X1200

After installing the new 280 I was not that impressed with the performance gain that was achieved.

I play mostly Age of Conan at the moment. I installed the PSU and VC last night and proceeded to load up AOC. Turned all the eyecandy up and was met with a vast slow down in FPS. Now, in my simple mind buying a 280 would or should have allowed me to turn this way up. I set the eyecandy controls back to where they were previously, maybe a tad higher and now it runs well, I expected much more of a gain than I acheived with this beast of a card.

I am wondering if it is being bottlenecked somewhere by my current system.

In fact I have a spare 880gtx and was wondering would I have acheived the same by SLIing them instead of forking out £300 for the BFG 280 which, btw is bloody noisey in 3D mode, any aftermarket cooler for this card yet ?

Your comments will be gratefully received

Thanks:D
 
Your CPU holding you back. I got the same problem with my upgrade to a 4870.

So I either need to return my card or upgrade CPU to see benefits....
 
You need to OC that CPU! I have a Q6600...usually clocked at arround 3.5Ghz. If I run it at its default speed (2.4Ghz)...some games are horrible compared to it at 3.5. So you are probably limiting your FPS with your CPU.
 
Definitely agrees, cpu holding you back big style.

Either overclock it or buy a 8400/8500 and you should start and see the gain from your investment in the new card. From memory I think the GTX280 is held back until you hit 4Ghz with your cpu.
 
CPU's are just not as far ahead as graphics cards with standards clocks. E6600 by todays graphics cards standards is pretty slow especially in a CPU intensive game like Aoc( i prosume the slowdown comes in areas with lots of people etc? )
 
You should be able to get at least 3.4ghz out of that CPU, and then you'll be really really happy with your new card ;) Absolutely no reason to get a new one, the C2D chips have so much overclocking headroom and are extremely quick.
 
tdream said:
Please bench before and after you overclock as I believe it won't make any noticeable difference.
Click to expand...

Valid question but cpu does have a bearing now with current high end graphics cards.

Okay, not the same and a much bigger boost but going from a 3ghz 4200+ x2 to a 3.4Ghz q6600 gave me a 12fps (30%) boost in Crysis with the GTS as per my sig so I was been held back big style by my cpu.
 
Greebo said:
Silly question but are the slots on a 680i board pci-e 1.1 or pci-e 2?
Click to expand...


1.1 but I doubt it makes that much difference,bit like USB1.0 and USB2.0

What I have read is the 280 is built for DX10 and not DX9 and shows better improvements in DX10 games. AOC is atm DX9.0 so maybe thats the reason ?
 
Here's a bit of guidance I think?

http://au.gamespot.com/features/6192732/p-6.html

You can see going from a E6420@ 2.13Ghz to a QX9650 @ 3Ghz gives you a 27% boost in framerate at 1600 x 1200.

Overall I think when you update one part of your system to the fastest, you need to make sure you keep the rest of your system cutting edge to get the best out of your new graphics card.

It's all a case of balance IMO.
 
Silverwolf said:
1.1 but I doubt it makes that much difference,bit like USB1.0 and USB2.0

What I have read is the 280 is built for DX10 and not DX9 and shows better improvements in DX10 games. AOC is atm DX9.0 so maybe thats the reason ?
Click to expand...

Well not so sure. I am waiting a somebody to do a review showing how mcuh games are affected between 1.1 pci-e and 2.0 pci-e with the high end graphics cards like the GTX280 and 4870x2 in very demanding games.

You have to remember that the beast needs a hell of a lot of information supplied to it and the slot may be a bottleneck or the cpu may be one.

I'm reserving my decision until I see some facts. People saying that pci-e 1.1 bandwidth should be enough is not good enough. It is really hard to find any slot bandwidth requirement for graphics cards. The last I ever found published showed a x1900xt used about half the bandwidth of a 16x pci-e 1 slot.

With the GTX280 and 4870x2 been so much more powerful than a x1900xt I can see them requiring more than the bandwidth of the pci-e 1 slot.

I;m not surprised manufacturers don;t publish the requirements though. Okay they all work on pci-e 1.1 and 2 slots but imagine if it said on the GTX280 box:

NOTE: In a pci-e 1.1 slot this card will have a 25% drop in performance to the reviews you have read.

Would you buy one then?
 
Greebo said:
Valid question but cpu does have a bearing now with current high end graphics cards.

Okay, not the same and a much bigger boost but going from a 3ghz 4200+ x2 to a 3.4Ghz q6600 gave me a 12fps (30%) boost in Crysis with the GTS as per my sig so I was been held back big style by my cpu.
Click to expand...

Different architectures and tests show Intel pwn AMD in the gaming stakes.

I would bench the difference between 3.6 and 2.4 ghz myself but AOC recently got uninstalled. Would you like to test? Give the theory some hard statiscal analysis :)
 
tdream said:
Different architectures and tests show Intel pwn AMD in the gaming stakes.

I would bench the difference between 3.6 and 2.4 ghz myself but AOC recently got uninstalled. Would you like to test? Give the theory some hard statiscal analysis :)
Click to expand...

All i know is that the difference between 2.2ghz and 3.2ghz on my brother's CPU was very very evident.
 
tdream said:
Different architectures and tests show Intel pwn AMD in the gaming stakes.

I would bench the difference between 3.6 and 2.4 ghz myself but AOC recently got uninstalled. Would you like to test? Give the theory some hard statiscal analysis :)
Click to expand...

I would if I had AOC ;)

The article I linked to showed a massive difference between cpus though so I would expect a 10% gain if he overclocked his cpu.

Maybe a 20%+ gain going to a E8400/8500 overclocked.
 
Greebo said:
Valid question but cpu does have a bearing now with current high end graphics cards.

Okay, not the same and a much bigger boost but going from a 3ghz 4200+ x2 to a 3.4Ghz q6600 gave me a 12fps (30%) boost in Crysis with the GTS as per my sig so I was been held back big style by my cpu.
Click to expand...

Very true.

But still, it's game-specific and moveover it's game-scene specific.

If a particular game has lots of CPU-limited areas (like places with lots of interacting AIs, lots of physics etc) then upping GPU power will not improve performance in these areas. You will need to improve your CPU speed to see a difference. Unfortunately, these CPU limited areas are often places where the framerate drops down to very low values.

Anyway, it's a crime to have the CPU you do and not clock it. You could expect a 40%-ish improvement in clock speed. Also, try more CPU limited games like Crysis or Bioshock and you will definitely see the difference between your 8800GTX and the 280.
 
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