nVidia GT200 Series Review Thread

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: SunnyD
ArsTechnica's review sums it up:

It's hard to justify buying a $649 GTX 280 when it's outperformed by a Palit 9800 GX2 that happens to cost $141 less, and I know which card I'd personally pick.

The GX2 wins a good portion of the tests over the GTX280. The 280 is no slouch, but at that price point... most definitely NOT worth it.

I have two 9800GX2s, and two GTX280s, I can tell you which I prefer. My eight year old has the GX2s.

1. The GTX280s offer better power handling.
2. The GTX280s offer the bandwidth and framebuffer I need for 25X16 gaming. Not "want"- need for the settings I want to run.
3. SLi (and CF) scaling is variable so you always want the highest single GPU you can get for the basis of your GPU set.
4. GTX280s dump all heat outside case.
5. GTX280 is the most future proof card I own.
6. Mostly, they just kick ass. In a big way.

I see a lot of naysayers here grumbling about the price, the level of performance difference in this and a 9800GX2.

You're trivializing what is the largest advance for gamers that has happened in computer gaming history.

By definition, the GTX280 is superior to 9800GX2 because it is a single chip, and has more upgrade potential.

The price is inline with past releases, and being the top end single GPU component.

6800GT SLi = 7800GTX $600 launch price
7900GTX SLi = 8800GTX $600 launch price
9800GTX SLi = GTX280 $650 launch price

Nothing unusual has happened here, NVIDIA consistently offers last gen SLi performance for ~$600 with next gen.

All the talk of multi card for less is irrelevant because the products aren't comparable: special motherboards (sometimes), driver profiles, microstutter, mouse lag, highly variable scaling, and sometimes even multicard render errors come into play with those solutions to one extent or another.

We should be glad NVIDIA isn't a CPU manufacturer, if they were, these cards would cost over $1000..

These cards will sell big for the reasons I've outlined above, or history teaches us nothing.

 

[CP5670]

This is an interesting release. I was planning to get the GTX 280 right away, but I may hold off buying it for a bit simply because I can't see it staying at its current price for long. The 9800GX2 had dropped by $100 within just two or three weeks of its release and I would not be surprised to something similar again.

I would actually buy the 280 over the GX2 even at their existing prices. Apart from avoiding the usual SLI issues with microstuttering and vsync, the 280 may be faster than it looks in most of the reviews. One of the Xbit articles a while ago showed that the GX2's average framerates were frequently misleading and its minimums were much lower than you would expect in several games, considering what the averages were. At the same time, I might as well wait a bit for the price to fall, which seems very likely at this point.

Crysis performance also remains unimpressive on all of these cards, especially since the actual game is known to perform much worse than the recorded demo that most sites use to benchmark. I guess it's going to be a long time before anything runs that game genuinely well on maxed settings.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: ajaidevsingh
nRollo, Dude NDA's off where's ur review, ur experiance, etc.. Do enlight us non rich ppl!!

What would you like to know?

ATs Keysplayr did the webpage, will be putting it up today. (he's probably at work now)

 

[Genx87]

Ill reiterate this is pretty much what I expected out this release. Ill be in the running for its 2nd gen part in ~12-15 months with Nehlaham(sp) intel processor and 8GB of ram. Until then Ill stick with my E8400 and 8800GTS640.

 

[ajaidevsingh]

I do totally love the "GTX280s dump all heat outside case" point my GX2 sucked at that!!

'Nothing unusual has happened here, NVIDIA consistently offers last gen SLi performance for ~$600 with next gen.' Wells thats the wrong thing Gx2's are cheaper and perform as good... We all know Nvidia payoff game makers for kickass Sli!! 7XXXGX2 were at least in the same price point to the 88XX!!

GX2 will go on good till CRYSIS 3 come around!!

 

[Jeff7181]

I'd say this definitely confirms we are moving into the era of massively parallel computing.

 

[Lord Athlon]

Originally posted by: Ocguy31
No offense, but if you have to worry about a couple dollars in power bills, a top of the line card probably isnt for you anyway.

This card would be much more attractive @ $599, which is where Im sure it will end up soon. EVGA has it listed for $649, and e-tailers generally have the cards for around $50 less after launch.

I disagree on the first part

You pay for the card once while you pay your for electricity monthly so it's not really comparable , especially your bill goes up by 50 $ or more.

 

[ArchAngel777]

I have to be honest... I am very dissapointed with two aspects

1) Price
2) Performance

It isn't like I expect every new card to have a magically 100% performance increase every year - nay. But this has been nearly two years and we have an average increase of 50% or so... I am not impressed.

If the price does become reasonable, I may purchase. But this is just more reason that I will either keep what I have, or go the route of the 4870.

 

[schneiderguy]

I don't see why everyone is complaining about this card. So what if it doesn't beat the GX2 in some games? I would rather have a single GPU than a "SLI on a stick" card. I think the sites are focusing too much on raw framerates. Odds are that due to the GX2 using AFR it will not feel as "smooth" as the gtx280 when they are getting the same framerate. Too bad "smoothness" isn't quantifiable

edit: I do agree that the price should come down a bit, though. I doubt nvidia wants to price these things lower, gt200 can't be cheap to make.

 

[ajaidevsingh]

Originally posted by: Lord Athlon

Originally posted by: Ocguy31
No offense, but if you have to worry about a couple dollars in power bills, a top of the line card probably isnt for you anyway.

This card would be much more attractive @ $599, which is where Im sure it will end up soon. EVGA has it listed for $649, and e-tailers generally have the cards for around $50 less after launch.

I disagree

You pay for the card once while you pay your for electricity monthly so it's not really comparable , especially your bill goes up by 50 $ or more.

LOL, it will be like giveing yearly installments on the fact that you bought a GTX 280???

In 3 years it will be like $150 surplus!!

 

[ajaidevsingh]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
I'd say this definitely confirms we are moving into the era of massively parallel computing.

And that is a OCed GT200 core the RV770 Pro can do that much in default speed. So it will perform better at MPC APP's

 

[Extelleron]

Originally posted by: Lord Athlon

Originally posted by: Ocguy31
No offense, but if you have to worry about a couple dollars in power bills, a top of the line card probably isnt for you anyway.

This card would be much more attractive @ $599, which is where Im sure it will end up soon. EVGA has it listed for $649, and e-tailers generally have the cards for around $50 less after launch.

I disagree

You pay for the card once while you pay your for electricity monthly so it's not really comparable , especially your bill goes up by 50 $ or more.

Computer's do not use so much power that it is something I worry about when it comes to the electric bill. If you buy a new card that consumes 100W more under full load, it is going to cost you a couple of dollars a month if you have your PC under load all the time. For people who game a few hours a day, it will make no difference.

If I buy a card that takes 100W more and game 3 hours a day, I will pay

3hrs * 30 days/mo = 90 hrs
90 * .1kw = 9 kWh

9 kWh * .09/kwh = $0.81 extra per month

I could really care less about power consumption. It's not a factor at all, as long as my HX 520 can power the card, and it wouldn't have any trouble running the GTX 280.

The GTX 280 has very low idle power consumption and given that your PC will likely be idling most of the time, it is just as important as consumption under full load.

 

[ricleo2]

Man oh Man. Several years ago I bought some stock in Nvidia at about $12.00 each. It eventually split twice and I sold it all at around $70.00 each. After that I became an Nvidia fan boy. Slowly over time I have become unenamered with the CEO. His arrogance knows no bounds. I am wondering if he has anybody on his staff that will tell him no or is not afraid to disagree with him. That might explain this sorry new card and other sorry products Nvidia has been putting out. And yes, I am pissed.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: ArchAngel777
I have to be honest... I am very dissapointed with two aspects

1) Price
2) Performance

It isn't like I expect every new card to have a magically 100% performance increase every year - nay. But this has been nearly two years and we have an average increase of 50% or so... I am not impressed.

If the price does become reasonable, I may purchase. But this is just more reason that I will either keep what I have, or go the route of the 4870.

It's been 1 year and 7 months- not nearly two years.

Who has increased single GPU performance at the top end by a greater amount than this card in those 19 months?

 

[OCGuy]

Whos said this will make your bill go up by $50? Are people just making stuff up now? I figured the crap would be over once the NDA was up, but I was wrong.

 

[Lord Athlon]

Originally posted by: schneiderguy
I don't see why everyone is complaining about this card. So what if it doesn't beat the GX2 in some games? I would rather have a single GPU than a "SLI on a stick" card. I think the sites are focusing too much on raw framerates. Odds are that due to the GX2 using AFR it will not feel as "smooth" as the gtx280 when they are getting the same framerate. Too bad "smoothness" isn't quantifiable

edit: I do agree that the price should come down a bit, though. I doubt nvidia wants to price these things lower, gt200 can't be cheap to make.

People are complaining (and rightfully so) because the GTX 280 is not a wise investment at 649 $ considering the performence , especially with the 4870 (who is rumored to be sold at half of the cost) around the corner.

Sure , some people will try to tell you otherwise but it's the truth. But hey , if you have 700 $ to spend on a card that is equal or only marginally faster than the last gen card then be my guess . I for one sure as hell am not going to get caught in the nVidia wheel this time.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: ajaidevsingh

Originally posted by: Lord Athlon

Originally posted by: Ocguy31
No offense, but if you have to worry about a couple dollars in power bills, a top of the line card probably isnt for you anyway.

This card would be much more attractive @ $599, which is where Im sure it will end up soon. EVGA has it listed for $649, and e-tailers generally have the cards for around $50 less after launch.

I disagree

You pay for the card once while you pay your for electricity monthly so it's not really comparable , especially your bill goes up by 50 $ or more.

LOL, it will be like giveing yearly installments on the fact that you bought a GTX 280???

In 3 years it will be like $150 surplus!!

Only if you obtain that electricity like I do at my cabin- on a gas generator.

The difference in power costs nowhere near $50 a month, the gentleman who posted that should supply the logic behind his estimate.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Rollo does bring up a good point. A 7900GTX SLi did infact outperform an 8800GTX at the time of its release. It was probably cheaper as well.

Numbers are impressive (GTX280 similiar to 9800GX2, GTX260 abit faster than the HD3870X2), but prices aint (only for the GTX280). With the launch of HD4800 series soon, you can guarantee prices falling.

Here are more reviews:
Hardware Canucks

Hardwarezone

Numbers seem to be all over the place. (Just look at the FS review!)

 

[Lord Athlon]

Originally posted by: Ocguy31
Whos said this will make your bill go up by $50? Are people just making stuff up now? I figured the crap would be over once the NDA was up, but I was wrong.

lol , i was just trying to make a point and that was just an exemple.

I don't actually think that the GTX 280 will make your monthly bill go up by 50 $

 

[emilyek]

Well, ATI has a chance to make things interesting again. This may be their last chance before Intel steps in.

 

[Extelleron]

Originally posted by: ricleo2
Man oh Man. Several years ago I bought some stock in Nvidia at about $12.00 each. It eventually split twice and I sold it all at around $70.00 each. After that I became an Nvidia fan boy. Slowly over time I have become unenamered with the CEO. His arrogance knows no bounds. I am wondering if he has anybody on his staff that will tell him no or is not afraid to disagree with him. That might explain this sorry new card and other sorry products Nvidia has been putting out. And yes, I am pissed.

I typed up a long reply to this but it got lost (some kind of error).

But the bottom line is that you are simply wrong; nVidia has had very impressive products over the last two years... G80 owned the high end, G92 brought G80 performance to acceptable prices, and G94 made midrange DX10 exciting for once.

GT200 is not a bad chip at all, it just missed clock targets. This is clear in that GTX 280 does not reach 1 TFLOP - nVidia surely would have clocked the GTX 280's shading units at the 1.39GHz needed to reach that figure if the chips were yielding well at that speed. If GT200 was hitting the same clocks as G92 does, it would beat the 9800 GX2 and be much more impressive. Hopefully GT200b on 55nm will allow for higher clocks.

nVidia just needs to realize that it messed up and lower prices. GTX 260 might be OK at $399, depending on HD 4870 performance, but GTX 280 needs to come down to $499.

 

[schneiderguy]

Originally posted by: Lord Athlon

Originally posted by: schneiderguy
I don't see why everyone is complaining about this card. So what if it doesn't beat the GX2 in some games? I would rather have a single GPU than a "SLI on a stick" card. I think the sites are focusing too much on raw framerates. Odds are that due to the GX2 using AFR it will not feel as "smooth" as the gtx280 when they are getting the same framerate. Too bad "smoothness" isn't quantifiable

edit: I do agree that the price should come down a bit, though. I doubt nvidia wants to price these things lower, gt200 can't be cheap to make.

People are complaining (and rightfully so) because the GTX 280 is not a wise investment at 649 $ considering the performence , especially with the 4870 (who is rumored to be sold at half of the cost) around the corner.

Sure , some people will try to tell you otherwise but it's the truth. But hey , if you have 700 $ to spend on a card that is equal or only marginally faster than the last gen card then be my guess . I for one sure as hell am not going to get caught in the nVidia wheel this time.

But we're not comparing the GTX280 vs. the HD4870 (yet) . I was addressing the comments regarding GTX280 vs. 9800gx2

 

[ricleo2]

Originally posted by: Extelleron

Originally posted by: ricleo2
Man oh Man. Several years ago I bought some stock in Nvidia at about $12.00 each. It eventually split twice and I sold it all at around $70.00 each. After that I became an Nvidia fan boy. Slowly over time I have become unenamered with the CEO. His arrogance knows no bounds. I am wondering if he has anybody on his staff that will tell him no or is not afraid to disagree with him. That might explain this sorry new card and other sorry products Nvidia has been putting out. And yes, I am pissed.

I typed up a long reply to this but it got lost (some kind of error).

But the bottom line is that you are simply wrong; nVidia has had very impressive products over the last two years... G80 owned the high end, G92 brought G80 performance to acceptable prices, and G94 made midrange DX10 exciting for once.

GT200 is not a bad chip at all, it just missed clock targets. This is clear in that GTX 280 does not reach 1 TFLOP - nVidia surely would have clocked the GTX 280's shading units at the 1.39GHz needed to reach that figure if the chips were yielding well at that speed. If GT200 was hitting the same clocks as G92 does, it would beat the 9800 GX2 and be much more impressive. Hopefully GT200b on 55nm will allow for higher clocks.

nVidia just needs to realize that it messed up and lower prices. GTX 260 might be OK at $399, depending on HD 4870 performance, but GTX 280 needs to come down to $499.

As a former stockholder I would be angry at the price of the GTX280. More sales would happen if it was not so high. And why is it so high? Arrogance!

 

[Cookie Monster]

Apparently the 9800GX2 is now a discontinued product according to several reviews ive been reading. Can anyone confirm this? key? rollo?

 

[sourthings]

lol at this card. I was going to run out and get one, was really looking forward to it. Going to wait for the 4870x2, this new 280 is feces. Should of just gotten a gx2. What a joke.