Power Consumption

While idle power is roughly the same as the GTX 260, load power does increase a little bit. Keep in mind that we did underclock an EVGA Superclocked Edition of this card for these tests. If EVGA set voltages higher on this part than they would on stock clocked hardware, we might be seeing an increase in power consumption due to this.

What we can say is that we think this is a good picture of worst case power consumption increase from a GTX 260 to a GTX 260 core 216. This is not a bad thing, as the GTX 260 core 216 does draw less power than the Radeon 4870 under load and at idle.

Idle Power

Load Power

Assassin's Creed & The Witcher Final Words
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  • Mr Roboto - Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - link

    No, no, that's not confusing enough. The GTX260 Core 216 fits perfectly with the 8600GT\GTS, 8800GTS 640\512\320, 9600GT\GSO and the 9800GTX+. Can't wait to hear the naming scheme for the 55nm GTX280's.
  • Boushh - Wednesday, September 17, 2008 - link

    How about the GTX260 55nm Core 216 :)
  • yyrkoon - Thursday, September 18, 2008 - link

    How about . . . " a failed GTX 280 " core ; )
  • SiliconDoc - Sunday, October 5, 2008 - link

    Gosh, sorry I have to vent here. lol -
    I know you were being a wise guy - so take it with a grain of salt.

    ou don't really believe that excuse, do you ? I mean the corpo planners have you eating their goat cheese like a baby.
    " Oh lookie here, the exact parts we need failed , failed again, wow, just a shaders region and one mem spew bank, man we get lucky a lot ! Ok, just cut that line on the corecap, and stamp it a 260 !"
    .
    ( I mean really...).
    Yes, of course they can grade bin somethnig like an E8400 / E3110 for voltage hence decency, but I've never believed they just whack out a 280 to make it a 260, or the other endless derivations of the basic deal...
    They control multipliers IN MANUFACTURE, fine. If they stamp on a different name, fine.
    But having this " lucky failed chip " taken to every extreme - I simply don't believe it.
    280.260 "same core" - yeah, fine, they PLAN on the 260 core reductions, then produce them as such.
    Same as with all their other crap...
    We've found MANY times before - their locked chips - when unlocked did just as well as the higher versions, sometimes even better.
    Anyway.

  • crimson117 - Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - link

    or GTX 280 GSO
  • silversound - Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - link

    Anandtech just keep getting better, tomshardware just plain sucks & bias now.

    Any reviews on the new 4850X2?
  • Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - link

    We're still waiting on review samples of the 4850X2 as well as the new 1GB RV770 cards. As soon as we get some in for review we'll get on them :)

    -A
  • mmntech - Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - link

    When has Tom's ever not been biased? They used to be vary pro-Intel, pro-ATI if I remember correctly.

    I'm impressed with nVidia's numbers since I had figured they had abandoned the mid-range market again when the release of the GTX series, which were double the price of what ATI was offering. Good frame rates, fair price, and lower power consumption than the HD 4870. Not a bad buy. I wish I had kept with nVidia rather than getting an HD3850 earlier this year. While it's a good card, it has driver trouble with older games like KotOR (low frame rates, missing effects) and ATI's Linux compatibility sucks.
  • Gannon - Wednesday, September 17, 2008 - link

    Toms was ok back in the day, and sometimes for CPU/VGA charts, but for most everything else they were just not very good. They are a dumbed down version of anandtech for the masses.
  • JarredWalton - Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - link

    I only wish I could run SLI on an X38 chipset (without the silly nForce 100/200 bridge). Until that happens, I'll use ATI hardware for this generation. Hopefully with the Nehalem stuff, I can pick up an X58 board with support for both GPU platforms. Though I have to say, my dual 3870 cards are starting to look awfully sad. :(

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