NVIDIA's 1.4 Billion Transistor GPU: GT200 Arrives as the GeForce GTX 280 & 260
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Derek Wilson on June 16, 2008 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Crysis
Crysis is finally getting to be a little more playable here, but what shouldn't be too surprising is that the GeForce GTX 280 actually loses to the GeForce 9800 GX2 here. Remember that the GX2 has more processing power thanks to its dual GPUs and although it has less usable memory bandwidth, the overall performance here is more processing bound and thus the GX2 pulls ahead. Keep in mind that the GX2 is at least $150 cheaper than the GTX 280 and you'll quickly realize that as impressive of an architecture as the GT200 is, the price point just doesn't seem to be right.
The GeForce GTX 260 does very well in Crysis, slightly outperforming the Radeon HD 3870 X2. At $400, this is a much closer race and one that's a lot harder to call, so let's move on.
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gigahertz20 - Monday, June 16, 2008 - link
I think these ridiculous prices and lackluster performance is just a way for them to sell more SLI motherboards, who would buy a $650 GTX 280 when you can buy two 8800GT's with a SLI mobo and get better performance? Especially now that the 8800GT's are approaching around $150.crimson117 - Monday, June 16, 2008 - link
It's only worth riding the bleeding edge when you can afford to stay there with every release. Otherwise, 12 months down the line, you have no budget left for an upgrade, while everyone else is buying new $200 cards that beat your old $600 card.So yeah you can buy an 8800GT or two right now, and you and me should probably do just that! But Richie Rich will be buying 2x GTX 280's, and by the time we could afford even one of those, he'll already have ordered a pair of whatever $600 cards are coming out next.
7Enigma - Tuesday, June 17, 2008 - link
Nope, the majority of these cards go to Alienware/Falcon/etc. top of the line, overpriced pre-built systems. These are for the people that blow $5k on a system every couple years, don't upgrade, might not even seriously game, they just want the best TODAY.They are the ones that blindly check the bottom box in every configuration for the "fastest" computer money can buy.
gigahertz20 - Monday, June 16, 2008 - link
Very few people are richie rich and stay at the bleeding edge. People that are very wealthy tend not to be computer geeks and purchase their computers from Dell and what not. I'd say at least 96% of gamers out there are value oriented, these $650 cards will not sell much at all. If anything, you'll see people claim to have bought one or two of these in forums and other places, but their just lying.perzy - Monday, June 16, 2008 - link
Well I for one is waiting for Larabee. Maybee (probably) it isen' all that its cranked up to be, but I want to see.And what about some real powersaving Nvidia?
can - Monday, June 16, 2008 - link
I wonder if you can just flash the BIOS of the 260 to get it to operate as if it were a 280...7Enigma - Tuesday, June 17, 2008 - link
You haven't been able to do this for a long time....they learned their lessons the hard way. :)Nighteye2 - Monday, June 16, 2008 - link
Is it just me, or does this focus on compute power mean Nvidia is starting to get serious about using the GPU for physics, as well as graphics? It's also in-line with the Ageia acquisition.will889 - Monday, June 16, 2008 - link
At the point where NV has actually managed to position SLI mobos and GPU's where you actually need that much power to get decent FPS (above 30 average) from games gaming on the PC will be entirely dead to all those but the most esoteric. It would be different if there were any games worth playing or as many games as the console brethren have. I thought GPU's/cases/power supplies were supposed to become more efficient? EG smaller but faster sort of how the TV industry made TV's bigger yet smaller in footprint with way more features - not towering cases with 1200KW PSU's and 2X GTX 280 GPU's? All this in the face o drastically raised gas prices?Wanna impress me? How about a single GPU with the PCB size of a 7600GT/GS that's 15-25% faster than a 9800GTX that can fit into a SFF case? needing a small power supply AND able to run passively @ moderate temps. THAT would be impressive. No, Seargent Tom and his TONKA_TRUCK crew just have to show how beefy his toys can be and yank your wallet chains for said. Hell, everyone needs a Boeing 747 in their case right? cause' that's progress for those 1-2 gaming titles per years that give you 3-4 hours of enjoyable PC gaming.....
/off box
ChronoReverse - Tuesday, June 17, 2008 - link
The 4850 might actually hit that target...