nVidia GT200 Series Review Thread

[HostofFun]

http://publish.it168.com/2008/0616/20080616000201.shtml

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: xlimit
Remember, whatever with the result, we got the early performance the driver is very very early. At least we need a month to see the real performance of this new toy.
I would see the performance in Crysis with all setting high dan AA/AF turned ON if the performance is bad, maybe it's time for me to back with RED team, after 5 years with GREEN team

don't you mean : "at least we need a month to be able to actually BUY this card"

 

[nanaki333]

mmmm.. can't wait to get mine. i gotta make a phone call and see when they're being sent to me

 

[ricleo2]

So, is the GTX280 going to start selling today? Will it be on store shelves or just internet stores?

 

[HostofFun]

http://www.guru3d.com/article/...-gtx-280-review-test/1

Guru3D review: good stuff, more like we were all expecting...

 

[Extelleron]

Originally posted by: ricleo2
So, is the GTX280 going to start selling today? Will it be on store shelves or just internet stores?

Reviews today. Availability tommorrow. GTX 260 is not available (supposedly) until the 26th.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/...e-gtx-280-review-test/

Guru3d talks about it as if they are in awe, but I think their benchmarks show a different tale. The GTX 280 is slower than the 9800 GX2 in the majority of cases and is faster in situations where the 9800 GX2 runs out out of VRAM (certain games @ 2560x1600 / + AA/AF)

And it costs $200 more than the 9800 GX2. :disgust: People will buy it no matter what I suppose, but the pricing is very bad IMO.

At this point I think HD 4870 will compete in performance with GTX 260, no doubt. HD 4870 X2 is just going to steam roll the GTX 280, at a lower price to boot.

 

[HostofFun]

Originally posted by: Extelleron

Originally posted by: ricleo2
So, is the GTX280 going to start selling today? Will it be on store shelves or just internet stores?

Reviews today. Availability tommorrow. GTX 260 is not available (supposedly) until the 26th.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/...e-gtx-280-review-test/

Guru3d talks about it as if they are in awe, but I think their benchmarks show a different tale. The GTX 280 is slower than the 9800 GX2 in the majority of cases and is faster in situations where the 9800 GX2 runs out out of VRAM (certain games @ 2560x1600 / + AA/AF)

And it costs $200 more than the 9800 GX2. :disgust:

I think it performs pretty darn well, and there are DEFINITELY immature drivers here holding it back.

 

[Extelleron]

Originally posted by: HostofFun

Originally posted by: Extelleron

Originally posted by: ricleo2
So, is the GTX280 going to start selling today? Will it be on store shelves or just internet stores?

Reviews today. Availability tommorrow. GTX 260 is not available (supposedly) until the 26th.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/...e-gtx-280-review-test/

Guru3d talks about it as if they are in awe, but I think their benchmarks show a different tale. The GTX 280 is slower than the 9800 GX2 in the majority of cases and is faster in situations where the 9800 GX2 runs out out of VRAM (certain games @ 2560x1600 / + AA/AF)

And it costs $200 more than the 9800 GX2. :disgust:

I think it performs pretty darn well, and there are DEFINITELY immature drivers here holding it back.

It performs well compared to the 9800GTX most of the time, but not well compared to the 9800 GX2. As I said, the majority of situations where the GTX 280 ends up faster than the 9800 GX2 are situations where the 9800 GX2 runs out of VRAM. The most impressive situation in terms of performance is probably Crysis; it performs pretty well in Crysis, but other than that it is disappointing.

As for immature drivers... I don't see that being the case. 177.26 -> 177.34 did little to nothing. Why would drivers be immature? GT200 is exactly the same thing as G80, except bigger. G80 saw serious driver improvements, but it was a new architecture. GT200 is the same thing with more execution units.

Although very few cards do, it simply does not live up to the expectations we had of it. It's not 2x 8800GTX in performance anywhere as far as I can see, it doesn't beat the 9800 GX2 by a large margin, and it's not going to be able to compete against R700. On one hand I like that AMD is going to be able to win this round.... but on the other hand, I'm afraid they are going to get greedy with pricing in the face of no competition. We're already seeing that (a bit) with HD 4870 supposedly being $329 instead of $299. It's likely that HD 4870 X2 may cost $600 instead of $500 as well.

 

[ViRGE]

NDA's up.

 

[Xed]

Anand's up

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3334

 

[BFG10K]

ExtremeTech's power consumption shows it's less than a 8800 Ultra. Clearly the consumption issue has been overblown.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: Extelleron

As for immature drivers... I don't see that being the case. 177.26 -> 177.34 did little to nothing. Why would drivers be immature?

177.26 vs. 177.34

1900x1200 noAA High Quality
177.26 = 38.75
177.34 = 48.55 (+25%)

1900x1200 noAA Very High Quality
177.26 = 29.31
177.34 = 42.80 (+46%)

 

[secretanchitman]

damn...i feel like stepping up to either the GTX 260 or 280...but $650 for all that? no way...the GTX 260 at $400 seems fine to me.

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: Extelleron

Originally posted by: HostofFun

Originally posted by: Extelleron

Originally posted by: ricleo2
So, is the GTX280 going to start selling today? Will it be on store shelves or just internet stores?

Reviews today. Availability tommorrow. GTX 260 is not available (supposedly) until the 26th.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/...e-gtx-280-review-test/

Guru3d talks about it as if they are in awe, but I think their benchmarks show a different tale. The GTX 280 is slower than the 9800 GX2 in the majority of cases and is faster in situations where the 9800 GX2 runs out out of VRAM (certain games @ 2560x1600 / + AA/AF)

And it costs $200 more than the 9800 GX2. :disgust:

I think it performs pretty darn well, and there are DEFINITELY immature drivers here holding it back.

It performs well compared to the 9800GTX most of the time, but not well compared to the 9800 GX2. As I said, the majority of situations where the GTX 280 ends up faster than the 9800 GX2 are situations where the 9800 GX2 runs out of VRAM. The most impressive situation in terms of performance is probably Crysis; it performs pretty well in Crysis, but other than that it is disappointing.

As for immature drivers... I don't see that being the case. 177.26 -> 177.34 did little to nothing. Why would drivers be immature? GT200 is exactly the same thing as G80, except bigger. G80 saw serious driver improvements, but it was a new architecture. GT200 is the same thing with more execution units.

Although very few cards do, it simply does not live up to the expectations we had of it. It's not 2x 8800GTX in performance anywhere as far as I can see, it doesn't beat the 9800 GX2 by a large margin, and it's not going to be able to compete against R700. On one hand I like that AMD is going to be able to win this round.... but on the other hand, I'm afraid they are going to get greedy with pricing in the face of no competition. We're already seeing that (a bit) with HD 4870 supposedly being $329 instead of $299. It's likely that HD 4870 X2 may cost $600 instead of $500 as well.

A couple of comments.

1. I think that the drivers ARE immature because nvidia rushed this card out. This is a paper launch if there ever was one. They just want to make sure that everyone knows that they have the fastest single card, which tells us, if nothing else, that 4870 will be faster than 8800 ultra.

2. amd will probably keep the 4870 under $299 because they can and it will give them enormous market penetration. Retailers might price it in the $350 range at first but as availability grows expect $299 or so. Nvidia is going to be in some serious pain imho over the next few months. Fortunately for them, they made so much money over the past couple of years that they can afford to lose this round, and they will still get a lot of sales from people who don't do their homework and just assume that 9800gtx is "almost as good" as gtx 260.


edit: you know anand and derek had fun with this line: must...not...type...STFU

 

[brandonb]

Sounds like from what I read that Nvidia is doing the same thing as it has done in previous cards (8800 and up)... Just throw more GPU power into their chip, make it bigger, make it take more power, repeat.

Design seems the same, just throw more shader power into it. It doesn't support any new features, no new AA modes, no DX10.1 support, etc. Does this card offer physics? There was no mention of it in the AT review. I know UT3 supports Aegia PhysX which Nvidia bought out and were supposed to put into this card? Does UT3 run faster with PhysX running in hardware on this platform?

While it might be fast, I think I'll wait for 4870 and see what it has to offer.

 

[Extelleron]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation

Originally posted by: Extelleron

As for immature drivers... I don't see that being the case. 177.26 -> 177.34 did little to nothing. Why would drivers be immature?

177.26 vs. 177.34

1900x1200 noAA High Quality
177.26 = 38.75
177.34 = 48.55 (+25%)

1900x1200 noAA Very High Quality
177.26 = 29.31
177.34 = 42.80 (+46%)

Fake.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/f...3063555&postcount=1810

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: brandonb
Sounds like from what I read that Nvidia is doing the same thing as it has done in previous cards (8800 and up)... Just throw more GPU power into their chip, make it bigger, make it take more power, repeat.

Design seems the same, just throw more shader power into it. It doesn't support any new features, no new AA modes, no DX10.1 support, etc. Does this card offer physics? There was no mention of it in the AT review. I know UT3 supports Aegia PhysX which Nvidia bought out and were supposed to put into this card? Does UT3 run faster with PhysX running in hardware on this platform?

While it might be fast, I think I'll wait for 4870 and see what it has to offer.

AFAIK, the PhysX CUDA implementation isn't done yet. It wasn't scheduled to be ready until at least Q3, last I heard.

 

[modoheo]

We'll see what effect updated drivers have over the next few months, but is anyone besides me extremely disappointed that the GTX280 can barely keep up with a 9800GX2? I was expecting a MUCH greater leap forward in terms of real world gaming performance.

 

[cm123]

EVGA Corporation GEFORCE GTX 280 PCIE 1GB GDDR3 2PORT DVI-I HDTV
MFG#: 896-P3-1280-AR

its listed in disty (wholesale) in the $680's

one online company selling it now for $733.80

http://www.shopblt.com/partnum/u086_896p31280arh.html

Seems like way too much money - and I nearly always buy the lastest and greatest - maybe its just me though...

guess all the talk of it coming so cheap since the 4870 is so fast just not looking like that's going to happen - lets hope though the 4870 is fast as GTX 280 though, in hopes help drive pricing just a little.

As fyi... the disty lists shipping date of 06-28-2008 ( I can order it actually right now) and the company above lists 06-26-2008 - shows only 5 units coming into each warehouse which for this disty is sign not much coming 1st shipment on 06-28 (20 units total)

Working on getting more info - will post it if I can (and can release that info) - NDA should lift on Monday from what understand now.

sorry on the edit - got GTX 260 (very little for now) info too...

EVGA Corporation GEFORCE GTX 260 PCIE 896MB GDDR3 2PORT DVI-I HDTV
MFG#: 896-P3-1260-AR

no disty price yet - same online company selling it for $511.53

http://www.shopblt.com/partnum/u086_896p31260arh.html


$656 (from another disty) ASUS GEFORCE GTX280 1G DDR3 2*DVI-I 512BIT HDTV HDCP PCIE2.0
part# ENGTX280/HTDP/1G

$654 - PALIT VCX GTX280 1024MB GDDR3 DUAL-DVI HDCP HDMI & CRT TV-OUT VIDEO CARD
part # XNE/TX280+T305

$411 - PALIT VCX GTX260 896MB GDDR3 DUAL-DVI HDCP HDMI & CRT PCI-E
XNE/TX260+T394

remember all but the online companies pricing is from disty which is wholesale - normally that means our price about 5% higher than that (not always) at places like NE / ZZ and so on...

also, drop part number into google - of course will find few more things about for each card...



Merged into main thread.

Video Mod BFG10K.

----

Today Disty updated couple areas - one stock (in-stock) dates all changed to the 19th and the GTX 280 wholesale price changed to $648 for EVGA card -

The EVGA GTX 260 is not $477 and has stock date of 06-28-2008

Its looking as we'll see many more GTX 280's right off than 260's - pretty interesting to see that Nvidia feels they can or should be able to command such large price -


Edited: 06/13/2008 at 11:10 AM by cm123


So its NDA day release (any moment now) - there is couple more GTX 280 cards in disty (wholesale) - still all over $600.00

Even more is now HD 4879 listed in disty and its $299 part (actually at $308) - list below - so is Nvidia really going to kick the 4870 twice+ over....


Sapphire, Inc SAPPHIRE HD4870 PCIE 512MB
DDR3 2PORT DVI-I/TV OUT 256BIT
MFG#: 100243L

as fyi... the 280's are nearly all looking as 06-30 come into stock date other than just a very small amount - even then the 06-30 batch looks small as it looks right now.

there is no sku yet for 4870x2 - as more info lands I'll post it...

 

[emilyek]

Originally posted by: brandonb
Does this card offer physics? There was no mention of it in the AT review. I know UT3 supports Aegia PhysX which Nvidia bought out and were supposed to put into this card? Does UT3 run faster with PhysX running in hardware on this platform?

The Beyond3d review, although perhaps suspiciously enthusiastic, is ridiculously better than AT's.

 

[sliderule]

These things are loud according to the THG review.

 

[ShadowOfMyself]

Disappointing, as expected (if it was expected, how can it be disappointing? )

On average it seems to be around 50% faster than a 9800GTX, not counting on the ultra high resolutions where it runs out of memory

When will 4870 reviews show up? Im really curious now, even if its just around 10-20% faster than a 9800GTX, for the price it will completely DESTROY the GTX 280

 

[Extelleron]

Originally posted by: ShadowOfMyself
Disappointing, as expected (if it was expected, how can it be disappointing? )

On average it seems to be around 50% faster than a 9800GTX, not counting on the ultra high resolutions where it runs out of memory

When will 4870 reviews show up? Im really curious now, even if its just around 10-20% faster than a 9800GTX, for the price it will completely DESTROY the GTX 280

HD 4870 is (according to AMD slides) 30-50% faster than the 9800GTX. It'll probably be a bit less than that (maybe 20-40%) in real world testing.

 

[ShadowOfMyself]

Originally posted by: Extelleron

Originally posted by: ShadowOfMyself
Disappointing, as expected (if it was expected, how can it be disappointing? )

On average it seems to be around 50% faster than a 9800GTX, not counting on the ultra high resolutions where it runs out of memory

When will 4870 reviews show up? Im really curious now, even if its just around 10-20% faster than a 9800GTX, for the price it will completely DESTROY the GTX 280

HD 4870 is (according to AMD slides) 30-50% faster than the 9800GTX. It'll probably be a bit less than that (maybe 20-40%) in real world testing.

Yeah ID guess so, even then, at HALF the price of the GTX 280, its a steal

And I checked HardOcp just for kicks, and the GTX received an editors choice award :laugh: They really are a joke

 

[error8]

I'm not into this card at all. I was really expecting more from that huge power hungry, room heating GPU monster. Maybe is just me, but when we look back and see the difference in performance between 8800 GTX and any other 7 series card, GTX 280 is just not there. And what is wrong with Nvidia and this lack of directX 10.1?? They should have implemented it, even if it isn't much on an improvement over directX 10. It should have been there.
Oh and one more thing, Crysis it still isn't playable on this card. Maybe it's the game, but come on Nvidia, it should have worked better on Ultra High settings.