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nVidia launches GTX280/260

RookRook Registered User regular
nVidia have lifted the NDA on the GT200, which is pretty much the first second generation hardware since the launch of the 8000 series a year and a half ago.

gtxvspenryn.jpg
Yes, it's big and complicated. It's also built on a 65nm process which means it's going to be expensive.

1.4 billion transistors (690M G80)
240 stream processors (124 G80)
512-bit memory interface (384 G80)
1GB GDDR (768MB G80)

GTX280 $650
GTX260 $400

And rather disappointingly this card might not be the Crysis Killer you're looking for.

Benchmarks/Reviews
Anandtech
HardOCP
Extreme Tech
Hexus
Firing Squad
Tom's Hardware
The Inquirer

Rook on
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Posts

  • BroloBrolo Broseidon Lord of the BroceanRegistered User regular
    edited June 2008
    This should have been priced lower. As it is, there's no point in getting this card if you own a 9800GX2 (because you're crazy), or if you have an 8800 or 9600 GT on an nvidia board. I guess if you want the fastest possible single GPU card it makes sense, but the GX2 still seems like a better buy at ~$500.

    Brolo on
  • RookRook Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Yeah, they seem to have shot themselves in the foot a bit. Although I still think the GX2s are going to be more of a hassle than they'll ever be worth.

    The more interesting part is just how few games (Crysis) are actually pushing the new cards. Outside of some badly optimised games due to the switch to newer tech (Lost Planet, DiRT, R6:Vegas) most games will run fine at 1920x1200 on an 8800GT.

    Rook on
  • powersurgepowersurge Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Yeah as a 8800 owner I can't see upgrading when its not a "Crysis killer". I'm also unsure if I could see buying one over a 8800GT right now when you can get one for about $175. I've got a friend thats probably going to be building a new desktop soon thats asked me to help him decide on parts and since he doesn't play shooters (WoW mostly possibly AoC and Oblivion) its hard to say its worth the $200 increase over the 8800gt.

    powersurge on
  • MisanthropicMisanthropic Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    ATI definitely has a chance to steal nVidia's thunder here - in the performance department as well as the price/performance department.

    Misanthropic on
  • CmdPromptCmdPrompt Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    ATI definitely has a chance to steal nVidia's thunder here - in the performance department as well as the price/performance department.

    According to Anandtech, ATI is no longer competing in the top-end Single-GPU category, which is what the GTX280 is. Price/performance perhaps, but the release of a high-end card doesn't stop nVidia from releasing a middle-end card down the line.

    CmdPrompt on
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  • SakeidoSakeido Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    I'm a little disappointed with this one. Not only is it not as fast as it should be, but there is no GTS-style part offering next gen performance at a "in between" price point.

    Sakeido on
  • ClipseClipse Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Sakeido wrote: »
    I'm a little disappointed with this one. Not only is it not as fast as it should be, but there is no GTS-style part offering next gen performance at a "in between" price point.

    Spec-wise, the GTX260 appears to be the "GTS" of this generation. And price-wise, it's a better deal than the 8800GTS was, as the 8800GTS 640MB was $500 on release day.

    Does anyone know if this GPU is going to be the one that finally adds double precision support to CUDA? Since the articles are from gaming sites I'm guessing they don't cover CUDA-related info.

    Clipse on
  • DaemonionDaemonion Mountain Man USARegistered User regular
    edited June 2008
    A little disappointed with this release.

    I'll most likely either be getting a 38xx series or an 8800 gt/gts if the price goes down again.

    Daemonion on
  • Macro9Macro9 Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    You can get the 4850 right now for $200. Performs about the same as a 9800GTX.

    Macro9 on
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  • CmdPromptCmdPrompt Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Clipse wrote: »
    Sakeido wrote: »
    I'm a little disappointed with this one. Not only is it not as fast as it should be, but there is no GTS-style part offering next gen performance at a "in between" price point.

    Spec-wise, the GTX260 appears to be the "GTS" of this generation. And price-wise, it's a better deal than the 8800GTS was, as the 8800GTS 640MB was $500 on release day.

    Does anyone know if this GPU is going to be the one that finally adds double precision support to CUDA? Since the articles are from gaming sites I'm guessing they don't cover CUDA-related info.

    Yep, up to 64-bit floating point precision.

    Check out the Anandtech article, it discusses CUDA-related stuff.

    CmdPrompt on
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  • ZxerolZxerol for the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't do so i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered User regular
    edited June 2008
    $650?!

    Zxerol on
  • CmdPromptCmdPrompt Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Do people forget how much new cards launch for each time one comes out or something? o_O

    CmdPrompt on
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  • Macro9Macro9 Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    They are spoiled with the cheap prices of the 8800 GT. More games will come down the pipeline that will take advantage of the 280s SP and bus. Drivers will have matured by then. Most importantly the prices will go down. Not really worried about picking one up until games like Alan Wake and Fallout 3 are out. I might pick up a 4850 to tinker with though.

    Macro9 on
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  • bongibongi regular
    edited June 2008
    i think anandtech put the craziness of this thing best when they pointed out that there are more transistors in a single 280 GT than there are people in china

    bongi on
  • DaedalusDaedalus Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    It's extravagant bullshit, like a Ferarri, and I don't know why nVidia bothers. Much better to take the ATi route and focus your efforts on releasing something reasonable. No shit, if you throw enough transistors at it and then cool whatever comes out, you have the fastest card on the market. In the real world, though, people also care about cost.

    Daedalus on
  • SakeidoSakeido Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Clipse wrote: »
    Sakeido wrote: »
    I'm a little disappointed with this one. Not only is it not as fast as it should be, but there is no GTS-style part offering next gen performance at a "in between" price point.

    Spec-wise, the GTX260 appears to be the "GTS" of this generation. And price-wise, it's a better deal than the 8800GTS was, as the 8800GTS 640MB was $500 on release day.

    Does anyone know if this GPU is going to be the one that finally adds double precision support to CUDA? Since the articles are from gaming sites I'm guessing they don't cover CUDA-related info.

    I should have specified the 320mb. I picked mine up on release and it was "just right" - expensive, but not incredibly so, and it worked pretty well with my LCD's native resolution. Most reviews indicated a minimal frame rate increase between the 320 and 640 at the 1680x1050 res I game at. I was just hoping something comparable would be out with the launch of these next gen parts.

    Sakeido on
  • Monkey Ball WarriorMonkey Ball Warrior A collection of mediocre hats Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Well, maybe the equivalent of the 9600gt on this arch might be awesome.

    maybe.

    I was hoping the 9600gt would get to around $100-120 soon. Mid July would be ideal. This... thing isn't going to do that. It may as well be released on a different planet. Maybe the Radeon 4850 will drive prices down.

    Monkey Ball Warrior on
    "I resent the entire notion of a body as an ante and then raise you a generalized dissatisfaction with physicality itself" -- Tycho
  • That_GuyThat_Guy I don't wanna be that guy Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    I just got a 9800GTX a couple of months ago from BFG. It looks like I am eligible for their "trade-up" program so I might see how much I might be able to knock off the price of the "big papa"

    That_Guy on
  • bloodrbloodr Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    The innards of this card is impressive, but it's clear to me that it's a huge waste of money at the moment. It doesn't give Crysis the spanking that it needs and there aren't any games out that would take advantage of the extra SPs for physics.

    Besides I have yet to see anything besides Crysis choke my 8800GTS 512MB and I finished that game.

    bloodr on
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  • DaemonionDaemonion Mountain Man USARegistered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Macro9 wrote: »
    You can get the 4850 right now for $200. Performs about the same as a 9800GTX.

    What.

    Daemonion on
  • SpoitSpoit *twitch twitch* Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    bloodr wrote: »
    The innards of this card is impressive, but it's clear to me that it's a huge waste of money at the moment. It doesn't give Crysis the spanking that it needs and there aren't any games out that would take advantage of the extra SPs for physics.

    Besides I have yet to see anything besides Crysis choke my 8800GTS 512MB and I finished that game.

    This, more than the sheer numbers, is why consoles are killing PC gaming. All the developers focus their A-teams on the more profitable (or at least higher revenue) console titles which, if we're lucky, is ported to the PC. But since it's tied to the now-outdated console tech, most games are not programed to use the raw power that is now available, making all these shiny new parts go to waste. Which is why the 8800GT is such a great deal, even now, "2 generations" later.

    Spoit on
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  • RookRook Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Spoit wrote: »
    bloodr wrote: »
    The innards of this card is impressive, but it's clear to me that it's a huge waste of money at the moment. It doesn't give Crysis the spanking that it needs and there aren't any games out that would take advantage of the extra SPs for physics.

    Besides I have yet to see anything besides Crysis choke my 8800GTS 512MB and I finished that game.

    This, more than the sheer numbers, is why consoles are killing PC gaming. All the developers focus their A-teams on the more profitable (or at least higher revenue) console titles which, if we're lucky, is ported to the PC. But since it's tied to the now-outdated console tech, most games are not programed to use the raw power that is now available, making all these shiny new parts go to waste. Which is why the 8800GT is such a great deal, even now, "2 generations" later.

    I don't see why this is a bad thing. I'd rather get 2-3 years out of my graphics card (as I have always done) then jump on the mythic upgrade cycle just to play a game.

    Games released now, are looking much better than games released 1-2 years ago. And they run better too (c.f. Lost Planet -> DMC 4, or DiRT -> GRID). Even Crysis Warhead will apparently run a lot better than Crysis.

    People can still go out and buy the top end hardware, and crank the resolution and AA/AF up to max and get a better experience with higher framerates, or those of us can settle on an 8800GT, know that we can play pretty much every game the way we want to and save a bundle of cash.

    Rook on
  • DaemonionDaemonion Mountain Man USARegistered User regular
    edited June 2008
    I've traditionally gotten 3 - 4 years on my GPUs, and I used to buy the "top-top of the line."

    But now? I'll probably be able to squeeze just as much game play on middle/hi-end cards that are incredibly less expensive.

    $200 for a great GPU that will last me? Yes, please.

    Daemonion on
  • Macro9Macro9 Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    That's why I enjoy over clocking my GPU, RAM and CPU. You can buy middling hardware and perform as well if not better than much more expensive shit.

    Also the 4850 was up for preorder at FXVideo and buy.com for $200. They've since taken the deal down. A google search shows of places in the US and UK that are selling them. In the $200 price range. Reviews I have seen paint it in a good light. Well worth the money I'd say.

    The GDDR3 4870 will hit soon in the $300 range. Curious as to how it performs. They will have a GDDR5 model sooner or later.

    Macro9 on
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  • RohanRohan Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Yeah, everyone has been saying for a while now that ATi's new cards look very nice while nVidia's... well, they're competent, but expensive.

    Rohan on
    ...and I thought of how all those people died, and what a good death that is. That nobody can blame you for it, because everyone else died along with you, and it is the fault of none, save those who did the killing.

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  • Monkey Ball WarriorMonkey Ball Warrior A collection of mediocre hats Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited June 2008
    I don't know, you could build a wicked distributing computing crunching supercomputer with 3 of these in SLI.

    I mean, if I had the money (and that's an enormous amount of money), I would do it.

    But I'm crazy.

    Monkey Ball Warrior on
    "I resent the entire notion of a body as an ante and then raise you a generalized dissatisfaction with physicality itself" -- Tycho
  • redstormpopcornredstormpopcorn Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    I don't know, you could build a wicked distributing computing crunching supercomputer with 3 of these in SLI.

    I mean, if I had the money (and that's an enormous amount of money), I would do it.

    But I'm crazy.
    Eh, it's been done. :V

    redstormpopcorn on
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  • Monkey Ball WarriorMonkey Ball Warrior A collection of mediocre hats Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited June 2008
    I don't know, you could build a wicked distributing computing crunching supercomputer with 3 of these in SLI.

    I mean, if I had the money (and that's an enormous amount of money), I would do it.

    But I'm crazy.
    Eh, it's been done. :V

    That's exactly what I was thinking of when I posted that.

    Now that I look back at that, they were using 4 9800GX2's. There are no dual-GPU cards with this core yet, so it's still better to use the 9800GX2's right now.

    So, yeh, this card is completely pointless.

    Monkey Ball Warrior on
    "I resent the entire notion of a body as an ante and then raise you a generalized dissatisfaction with physicality itself" -- Tycho
  • wunderbarwunderbar What Have I Done? Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    From what I've been hearing, the only way ATI plans to compete with the 280 is the 4870 X2, basically tossing two 4870's on one PCB, like they are doing with the 3870 X2, the normal 4870 will be a $300 card and will perform equivalently to an nVidia $300 card. Now, considering that ATI has been putting out some pretty good drivers recently, and if the 4870 comes out with the excellent price/performance ratio they are promising, I might be jumping back to ATI as the upgrade to my 7800GT.

    wunderbar on
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  • RookRook Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Apparently 3 GTX280s in SLI is pretty rubbish, and at the extreme end most games are pretty CPU limited anyways.
    http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1466/nvidia_geforce_280_gtx_in_tri_sli_tested/index.html

    Rook on
  • wunderbarwunderbar What Have I Done? Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    But with 3 in SLI you can use it as a furnace if you live in an apartment, so you'll save money in the long run with heating costs!

    wunderbar on
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  • BroloBrolo Broseidon Lord of the BroceanRegistered User regular
    edited June 2008
    wunderbar wrote: »
    But with 3 in SLI you can use it as a furnace if you live in an apartment, so you'll save money in the long run with heating costs!

    You could just take the pile of twenty dollar bills and light them on fire for much the same effect.

    Brolo on
  • wunderbarwunderbar What Have I Done? Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Rolo wrote: »
    wunderbar wrote: »
    But with 3 in SLI you can use it as a furnace if you live in an apartment, so you'll save money in the long run with heating costs!

    You could just take the pile of twenty dollar bills and light them on fire for much the same effect.

    but the GTX's will last longer ;)

    wunderbar on
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  • The Man with No NameThe Man with No Name __BANNED USERS regular
    edited June 2008
    fuck, I just bought a watercooled 9800 GTX weeks ago. Is it worth trading up or is my damn card gonna be a piece of shit compared to a GTX 280

    The Man with No Name on
    :whistle:
  • CmdPromptCmdPrompt Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    fuck, I just bought a watercooled 9800 GTX weeks ago. Is it worth trading up or is my damn card gonna be a piece of shit compared to a GTX 280

    ..did you actually read any of the reviews posted?

    CmdPrompt on
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  • Monkey Ball WarriorMonkey Ball Warrior A collection of mediocre hats Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Does anybody use the nVidia drivers in Vista64? How is that?

    Monkey Ball Warrior on
    "I resent the entire notion of a body as an ante and then raise you a generalized dissatisfaction with physicality itself" -- Tycho
  • That_GuyThat_Guy I don't wanna be that guy Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Does anybody use the nVidia drivers in Vista64? How is that?

    I have had no issues. Work like a charm

    That_Guy on
  • TharghorTharghor Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    That_Guy wrote: »
    Does anybody use the nVidia drivers in Vista64? How is that?

    I have had no issues. Work like a charm

    No issues.

    Tharghor on
  • HadjiQuestHadjiQuest Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    I feel like I went to sleep one day and missed two generations of GPUs.

    Why has there been considerably less hype for new GPUs post-8X00 line? I knew a little bit about ATi/AMD's HD3X00 cards, but I had never even heard of the NVidia 9 series until just a couple days ago.

    HadjiQuest on
  • RookRook Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    HadjiQuest wrote: »
    I feel like I went to sleep one day and missed two generations of GPUs.

    Why has there been considerably less hype for new GPUs post-8X00 line? I knew a little bit about ATi/AMD's HD3X00 cards, but I had never even heard of the NVidia 9 series until just a couple days ago.

    There's a couple of reasons. Firstly the 9X series from nVidia was barely an update at all, just a dieshrink with new branding. The second reason is that games just aren't needing more to do more. An 8800GTS from 1.5years ago is still running all the new games UT3/CoD4/GRID/DMC4 etc at 60fps 1920x1200. The only game that people are bitching about at the moment is Crysis, and even then I'd like to see what Crytek do with Warhead.

    Rook on
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