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best card out for £160?

I don;t know where these rumours that the 65nm cool better comes from apart from they have a bigger heatsink attached.

You only need to look at my results. At 720 ( ahefty overclock) and the fan left on auto it never goes above 40% of 60C

Now that is very cool in my books. Do the 65nm really cool much better than that? I see lots of people posting 65nm results with the fan on 70 -100%. I never need even consider that.

Even 780/1572 only needs 55% fan to keep it cool.
 
Greebo said:
I don;t know where these rumours that the 65nm cool better comes from apart from they have a bigger heatsink attached.

You only need to look at my results. At 720 ( ahefty overclock) and the fan left on auto it never goes above 40% of 60C

Now that is very cool in my books. Do the 65nm really cool much better than that? I see lots of people posting 65nm results with the fan on 70 -100%. I never need even consider that.

Even 780/1572 only needs 55% fan to keep it cool.
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Isn't the nm figure one that gets smaller as those scientist-types get better at their thing? All other things being equal surely its better or at least the same... (once again I'll admit clulessness). If some knowledgable fella (or laydee) could shed some light on this one it'd be appreciated.
 
Kua said:
Isn't the nm figure one that gets smaller as those scientist-types get better at their thing? All other things being equal surely its better or at least the same... (once again I'll admit clulessness). If some knowledgable fella (or laydee) could shed some light on this one it'd be appreciated.
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Yeah the die is smaller = less heat. But they reduced the size of the heatsink on the stock cooler which maybe potentially negates this advantage. I think that's why the rumours started that the 65nm are cooler due to the larger heatsink.

I think the heatsink they used on the 55nm are more than adequate.
 
Greebo said:
Yeah the die is smaller = less heat. But they reduced the size of the heatsink on the stock cooler which maybe potentially negates this advantage. I think that's why the rumours started that the 65nm are cooler due to the larger heatsink.

I think the heatsink they used on the 55nm are more than adequate.
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Not sure what a die is. But sounds as though it isn't worth making too much of a fuss about whether the card is 55nm or 65nm. That Gainward card is looking pretty win.
 
brosduck said:
If you play Source engine games often (Counter-Strike:Source for me), go for Nvidia.

I regret getting my 4850 due to graphical bugs in my most played game :(

(It applies to all ATI cards not just the 4850)
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Just counter strike ? Because TF2, L4D, Half Life 2 + Episodes, Portal, Dark messiah, etc are all fine on my 4850.
In fact ATI cards generally perform better on source than NVidia. Not that it matters because any mid range system can play all those games maxed out at high res.
 
KelticDaz said:
Which was the quieter card, 260 or the 4870?
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The stock cooler on the 260's seemed quieter than the stock 4870 but they were pretty close. The non-stock Gainward 260 cooler is a little noisier but I reduce the fans to 35% (with Rivatuna) and then they are almost silent.
 
Kua said:
I'm actually really tempted by this now. I suppose the only downside is its not 55nm. But honestly I don't know what practical difference that makes. Something to do with the infinitesimalness (new word for you there, I think) of the wavelength of signals buzzing around the card. Something like that. But then I heard the 65nm OCs better. So *shrug*. Is it really something that's worthy of consideration?

And that custom cooler. I can't find any information about it. Does it have two fans compared to one on the stock cooler? Or am I being really thick and there's one on the underside of the stock? Presumably one sucks air in and another blows it out (once again I could be revealing my stupidity).

Strikes me as a really good buy....
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It is 55nm according to GPU-Z. The cooler's fans both blow down on the heatsink.
 
The cooler on the Gainward is equal to the stock cooler but makes slightly more noise at idle (40%). It seems Gainward use this cooler to reduce costs (it has less weight/copper) rather than to increase performance. The two fans make up for less copper.

Also, it seems most of these Gainward's ship with old bios that does not automatically reduce the clocks and voltage when in 2D mode. You can spot this with RivaTuna. I have the official working bios if anyone wants it. The new bios is for Gainward GTX260 216 Golden Sample cards with part numbers beginning 4260 and ending 0025 only (ie 4260xxxxx0025). The new bios saves about 25W of power at idle and should make the card live longer. Perhaps this is why some 55nm 260's used more power than 65nm models when first released.
 
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Agree with "greebo" here. I also had a 4870 (512mb) and now have a 260 (216) and the 260 seems to be smoother in games which could be down to the extra ram and also deffo gives higher minimum framerates in games.:)
 
555BUK said:
The cooler on the Gainward is equal to the stock cooler but makes slightly more noise at idle (40%). It seems Gainward use this cooler to reduce costs (it has less weight/copper) rather than to increase performance. The two fans make up for less copper.

Also, it seems most of these Gainward's ship with old bios that does not automatically reduce the clocks and voltage when in 2D mode. You can spot this with RivaTuna. I have the official working bios if anyone wants it. The new bios is for Gainward GTX260 216 Golden Sample cards with part numbers beginning 4260 and ending 0025 only (ie 4260xxxxx0025). The new bios saves about 25W of power at idle and should make the card live longer. Perhaps this is why some 55nm 260's used more power than 65nm models when first released.
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Ah well I grabbed myself an EVGA in the end. Which appear to be easily OCed and have a fantastic warranty and trade-up programme. And it was a B-grade so it was something of a result.
 
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I thought all 260-216's were 55nm, and the only 65nm 260's were the older 192's. Ah well. So, would the Gainward 65nm with custom cooler be better than the Zotac 55nm with stock cooler? Anyone got any O/C or temp readings?
 
MrAlex said:
2x XFX 4830 will destroy them both.
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...if you want to deal with CrossFire (which, admittedly, has improved a lot since a year ago) and the fact that each card only has 512mb of RAM.

D D Danneh said:
I thought all 260-216's were 55nm, and the only 65nm 260's were the older 192's. Ah well. So, would the Gainward 65nm with custom cooler be better than the Zotac 55nm with stock cooler? Anyone got any O/C or temp readings?
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Yeah, I thought that too. Disappointed when I found mine wasn't. Have a look at this thread for some 260 overclocking. Both me and 555BUK have the Gainward GS card.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17993762&highlight=gainward
 
Disapointed the Gainward is 65nm.

I'm tempted to just buy the cheapest 260 i can find, even if it's 192, and just OC it hard.

I think at 1680x1050 - it will be plenty powerful enough.
 
Yeah, tbh I'm quite impressed with how far the 260s clock. I guess it might have something to do with the fact they're 280 dies that didn't make the grade. Mine's stable at 725mhz - 150mhz higher than stock -in Furmark, with room for more.
 
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