• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Should I get a GTX280?

Dob1eman

Dob1eman

Dob1eman

Associate
Joined
24 Apr 2007
Posts
168
Location
Derbyshire
Currently have got a 9800GX2 but thinking about selling it and getting a GTX280, good move or not?

I have a Quad Core 6600 and 4GB Ram and will be playing at 1920x1080 as that is the max res of my screen.

What sort of fps can I expect from crysis with everything on high except shadows and volumetric on medium at 1080 res?

Any info from a current GTX280 owner would be much appriciated?
 
i saw a youtube vid with someone bench marking a 9800gx2,gtx 280,4870 and a 9800gtx,the 9800Gx2 came out on top with around 15fps more than the gtx280.
 
In games that are suited to 2xGPU's likewise for SLI and Crossfire.

It wont be like that in many games and as someone here has pointed out the MAX FPS is not what you should be caring about.
 
Last edited:
Depends on what you're after.

The 9800 GX2 is actually the faster card, with a higher average frame rate. Problem is, SLi (or any multi-GPU solution) is not always completely problem free. Games without proper support will suffer, and then there's the issue of micro stuttering, which is a common problem with SLI/multi-GPU set ups.

If you want less hassle, better power consumption etc, go for the GTX 280. But if you're wanting better performance, I'd hold out. At the very least wait till the ATI 4870 X2 2GB is released. Which should see a decent margin of performance over your GX2 and offer other additions, like the ability to use better AA/AF with far less of a hit.
 
Or hold out till the GTX280 55nm with directx 10.1 come out. They ought to be faster stock clocks as well.
 
MiNxYyY said:
i saw a youtube vid with someone bench marking a 9800gx2,gtx 280,4870 and a 9800gtx,the 9800Gx2 came out on top with around 15fps more than the gtx280.
Click to expand...

No it never, the 9800GX2 and GTX280 were pretty even, only the 9800GX2 stuttered and paused well the GTX280 did not.
 
helmutcheese said:
The GX2 has only use of 512MB anyhow so at 1920's or higher with full AA+AF it will start to lag.
Click to expand...


I can never quite get me head around this theory that its only using 512MB

The card works by utilising Alternate Frame Rendering, which im guessing means one core renders all the odd frames and the next renders all the even.

So if each core is using 512 (1024) with them sharing the workload in rendering the scene it shouldnt make any difference

1 Core renders 1920x1200 @30FPS 1x512Mb
2 Cores render 1920x1200 @50FPS with overheads 2x512Mb

So is it the Bus width causing the problem rather than the size of the memory
 
Each card renders a complete frame with AFR. If the textures in that single frame exceed the frame buffer (512-overheads) then it pages to system ram and stutters.
 
Coolasmoo said:
I can never quite get me head around this theory that its only using 512MB

The card works by utilising Alternate Frame Rendering, which im guessing means one core renders all the odd frames and the next renders all the even.

So if each core is using 512 (1024) with them sharing the workload in rendering the scene it shouldnt make any difference

1 Core renders 1920x1200 @30FPS 1x512Mb
2 Cores render 1920x1200 @50FPS with overheads 2x512Mb

So is it the Bus width causing the problem rather than the size of the memory
Click to expand...


Do all the Calcs you want, the card is never getting full use of 1GB like a 1GB single card is. ;)

The rumours/hopes of some here is that the new ATI X2 due soon card will be the 1st to be able to use all its Memory.
 
Last edited:
If the framebuffer(s) and buffer objects at 1920x is enough to push it over 512Mb (including the texture, geometry, etc. data) then its going to suffer be it SLI or not... but if all your data fits into memory at 1920x then its not gonna matter if it has 512Mb or 1024Mb... as very few games use more than 400megs of GPU memory tho I find it strange that they suffer at higher res - as while 1920x1200 is around twice the memory of say 1280x1024 for fullscreen buffers it still shouldn't use more than 100megs even with fairly high levels of AA.
 
Biffa said:
Got search? Heck its on the front page :)
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17894041
Click to expand...

This is why I visit this forum less and less, I really can't be arsed to help people that can't spend three seconds at least making a cursory attempt to find the info they're looking for before asking others to do all the legwork for them. It's pure laziness and it's getting really annoying. /minirant

Anyway on-topic personally i'd prefer a GTX280 over a 9800GX2 for the extra VRAM, it'll come in handy in newer games with crazy AA applied.
 
Richdog said:
This is why I visit this forum less and less, I really can't be arsed to help people that can't spend three seconds at least making a cursory attempt to find the info they're looking for before asking others to do all the legwork for them. It's pure laziness and it's getting really annoying. /minirant

Anyway on-topic personally i'd prefer a GTX280 over a 9800GX2 for the extra VRAM, it'll come in handy in newer games with crazy AA applied.
Click to expand...

I am sorry if my posting this thread offended you in some way.

I should have searched the forum but last time I used the forum regular the search feature was disabled and I honestly did not notice a thread covering what I was asking.

Regards all the comments so far thanks for all the info it has given me lots to think about. I am pretty sure I am going to get the GTX 280 maybe one of the overclocked versions.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom