nVidia GT200 Series Review Thread

[ajaidevsingh]

My friend has just pre-ordered a GTX260 it will arrive in about 1-2 weeks..

Will post results in which GTX 260 will fight with 4850 and 2x4850!!!

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster
I was surfing the web when i came across these set of benchmarks that illustrate the minimum FPS on many titles.

Link

Im quite surprised at the minimum framerates which is quite rare to find in most reviews. Its almost 50~200% higher than the 8800GTX!

That's pretty much what I've noticed over the weekend running through some of my more recent games. Its really a night and day difference in relation to an 8800GTX in terms of how smooth gameplay is and I'm sure those running CF/SLI get that most of the time as well. GTX 280 might not get as high as some of the faster CF/SLI solutions out there, but it doesn't seem to hit the lows either (again, testament to the frame buffer/bus width limitations of the 1/2 cards). At the heart of it, this is what causes micro-stutter to begin with, irregular intervals between frames, which is exactly what's occurring when you get these huge swings in min/max FPS.

 

[Denithor]

I honestly don't think anyone is grumbling about the performance of the GTX 280, mostly they're just unhappy about how much the card costs (I know that's the only reason I don't have one now).

If nV was selling these cards for $400 apiece you wouldn't hear nearly as many complaints.

 

[jonks]

Originally posted by: Denithor
I honestly don't think anyone is grumbling about the performance of the GTX 280, mostly they're just unhappy about how much the card costs (I know that's the only reason I don't have one now).

If nV was selling these cards for $400 apiece you wouldn't hear nearly as many complaints.

You mean people won't be shelling out $800 for a slightly oc'd version?

http://www.evga.com/products/p...+GTX+200+Series+Family

ok, that's with water cooling, but still.

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: Denithor
I honestly don't think anyone is grumbling about the performance of the GTX 280, mostly they're just unhappy about how much the card costs (I know that's the only reason I don't have one now).

If nV was selling these cards for $400 apiece you wouldn't hear nearly as many complaints.

you wouldn't hear ANY complaints if it was $400. The problem is that, unlike 8800gtx release 18 mos ago, the gtx 280 has a LOT of strong competition at much lower prices. 8800gtx had, um, well, er, it had 8800gts 640. gtx 260 has numerous cf/sli solutions, 9800gx2, 4850, 9800gtx(+), 8800gts 512, 8800gt just to name a few. now, is somebody going to look at both the 8800gt and gtx 280? PROBABLY not, but what if he is like most people and games in the 14x9 to 16x10 range? What if he doesn't play crysis very much? could just about anybody today live with a 4850 at 19x12 or less? even assuming that the price goes back to $199 and stays there indefinitely, that card has to put a ton of price pressure on gtx 280.

nvidia's problem is that they NEED gtx 280 to be a $550 card, and it's really a $400 card. It is definitely the best single card solution on the planet, and nothing short of 4870x2 is going to change that. Even then there will be many who prefer to steer clear of cf, so it will still be fine. At $400.

 

[nZone]

I highly doubt it was from your gaming that you saved 45 bucks. As somebody already pointed out in this thread. It would cost under a buck to run one of these on a monthly basis. If you had other things to do. You most likely were out of the house, not watching tv, lights off ect.

I take it you're joking that it'll cost under a buck per month running 8800GTX? I assume you never see electric bill statement, do you? Obviously, my 36" CRT TV (380 watts) is on an avg 10 hours per day. The lights in my son and daughter's room (age 2 and 4) are on throughout the night every night because they are afraid of the dark. My PC consists of:

I don't know the actual power that my pc consumes, but believe to be somewhere in the ballpark of 350-500watts (including 22" monitor (75 watts), Speakers w/subwoofer).

Anyway, my typical power usage during the month is about 1000-1300kwh when gaming.
Let's take 1000 kwh usage per month for calculating purpose. This is the typical bill would look like:

Rate Charges:
Customer Charge = $6.21/month
Distribution Charge = 2.660¢/kWh
Transmission Charge = 1.037¢/kWh
Transition Charge = 0.233¢/kWh
Demand Side Management Charge = 0.250¢/kWh
Renewables Charge = 0.050¢/kWh

Generation Charge -
Basic Service = 11.790¢/kWh

Delivery Services:
Customer Charge = $ 6.21
Distribution Charge = 0.02660 x 1000 $26.60
Transmission Charge = 0.01037 x 1000 $10.37
Transition Charge = 0.00233 x 1000 $ 2.33
Demand Side Management Charge = 0.00250 x 1000 $ 2.50
Renewables Charge = 0.00050 x 1000 $ 0.50

Total Delivery Services = $48.51

Generation Charge:
Basic Service 0.11790 x 1000 $117.90


Total Monthly Bill $166.41

 

[Drayvn]

Wasn't it Nvidia that said they were gonna decrease the cost of GPUs to the masses, when they were talking about the 8800GT/8800GTS (The 512mb versions) and the 9800's?

What the hell happened?

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: Drayvn
Wasn't it Nvidia that said they were gonna decrease the cost of GPUs to the masses, when they were talking about the 8800GT/8800GTS (The 512mb versions) and the 9800's?

What the hell happened?

Are you serious? Where have you been the last 7-8 months?

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: Drayvn
Wasn't it Nvidia that said they were gonna decrease the cost of GPUs to the masses, when they were talking about the 8800GT/8800GTS (The 512mb versions) and the 9800's?

What the hell happened?

Well...they did reduce the cost of GPUs for the midrange. 8800GT/GTS/9600GT/etc are still considered midrange, unless I've missed something.

It's just when you want to go high end (GTX) that the prices get hefty.

And really, these prices are what we saw with the 8800GTX and 8800 Ultra, there just wasn't any competition from the midrange to make the prices look excessive that time around.

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: Denithor

Originally posted by: Drayvn
Wasn't it Nvidia that said they were gonna decrease the cost of GPUs to the masses, when they were talking about the 8800GT/8800GTS (The 512mb versions) and the 9800's?

What the hell happened?

Well...they did reduce the cost of GPUs for the midrange. 8800GT/GTS/9600GT/etc are still considered midrange, unless I've missed something.

It's just when you want to go high end (GTX) that the prices get hefty.

And really, these prices are what we saw with the 8800GTX and 8800 Ultra, there just wasn't any competition from the midrange to make the prices look excessive that time around.

dravyn, that's just plain crazy talk! you can get an 8800gt 512 for ~ $130 AR right now. THAT is fantastic price/performance, truly bringing playable fps to almost anybody for a reasonable price. 8800gts for ~ $160 AR is pretty impressive too as long as 4850 stays around $200. a week ago I would have said 9800gtx for ~ $200 was awesome as well, though obviously those will need to come down a bit more to be price competitive.

I think that nvidia will eol 8800gts 512 finally, bring 9800gtx down to that ~ $160 price point, and bring 9800gtx+++ftwwtf down to $199. I don't know if they'll do it, but they should also keep 8800gt around a while longer as it's far and away the best thing in its class.

 

[taltamir]

it makes no sense to keep the 8800GT or GTS 512 around. They are MORE Expensive to make then the 9800GTX+
The 9800GTX is a newer revision 8800GTS 512 with new video decoding features and the ability to hybrid power. The 8800GT is an 8800GTS 512 with one defective shader cluster turned off.

The reason they are so cheap right now is because they are lower performing overstocks of an early revision (and they are numbered 8 and not 9 ). They will run out and nvidia will not make more, since it is actually cheaper to make the 9800GTX+ @ 55nm (and costs the exact same to make the 9800GTX without plus).

Although with the 55nm fabs churning out chips, maybe it WOULD be cheap to use the 65nm fabs for those... which means they could keep those models. I honestly don't know.

 

[HOOfan 1]

Isn't nVidia supposed to launch a 9800GT? I would think the 9600GT would go down to ~$100...9800GT would replace 8800GT at ~$150, 9800GTX replaces 8800GTS at ~$200 9800GTX+ steps up a tier and then we have the GTX 260 and GTX 280 up at the high end.

 

[taltamir]

yea.. i bet the 9800GT is gonna be 9800GTX with one defective shader cluster disabled... or maybe the 9800GTX+ with one defective disabled, with the defective 65nm ones just going in the trash. (if there aren't enough of them to bother cutting and reselling at a lower price point....)

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: taltamir
it makes no sense to keep the 8800GT or GTS 512 around. They are MORE Expensive to make then the 9800GTX+
The 9800GTX is a newer revision 8800GTS 512 with new video decoding features and the ability to hybrid power. The 8800GT is an 8800GTS 512 with one defective shader cluster turned off.

The reason they are so cheap right now is because they are lower performing overstocks of an early revision (and they are numbered 8 and not 9 ). They will run out and nvidia will not make more, since it is actually cheaper to make the 9800GTX+ @ 55nm (and costs the exact same to make the 9800GTX without plus).

Although with the 55nm fabs churning out chips, maybe it WOULD be cheap to use the 65nm fabs for those... which means they could keep those models. I honestly don't know.

the problem is one that I've seen idc talk about in the cpu section many times. You build up expertise and increase yields over time on a given process. Nvidia was rumored to have problems at 65nm in the beginning. let's say that they had a 40% yield at that time. Well, by now they should be much better, say, 65 % yield. The 55nm process will start all over again with crappy yields, but maybe not quite so bad. Let's say they're at 50% yield on that. With the smaller die size but lower yield they will probably be making about the same, but the cooler and pcb are more expensive on 9800gtx+, so they still pay more to make it most likely. Now, over time as yields improve they'll be able to make more profit or sell it for less money and keep margins the same.

The rumored 9800gt could make sense on 55nm as a single slot card, but where can it fit in the pricing scheme? Much over $149 msrp and it will start getting too close to 9800gtx and 4850, and they obviously can't make it faster than 9800gtx. Can they? oh, wait, yes they can because this is the same company that made the 8800gts 512 significantly faster than the 8800gts 640.

 

[lopri]

I'd be more interested in GTX 280 if the freaking 780i let me use the bottom PEG slot for a single video card. I had to give up overclocking my 8800 GTs due to the heat from 780i's NB. That and if the price of GTX 280 was more like $500. It's not that $500 vs $650 will make a world of difference, but it just doesn't feel comfortable to pay that kind of money when everything else got so cheap.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Heres the nVIDIA lineup of 08

GTX280 $649
GTX260 $399
9800GTX+ $229
9800GTX $199
9800GT $149~159
9600GT $99~119
9500GT..
blah
blah to low to care.

This would mean that nVIDIA has successfully transitioned in the mid range market to 55nm G92 derivatives. EOL reached for 8800GT and 8800GTS. Looks way more clear than the mumbo jumbo they created not so long ago.

 

[bryanW1995]

they should just put a "+" after each card to designate that it is now 55nm; we could have 8800gt+, 9600gt+, eventually even gtx 280 ultra +.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster
Heres the nVIDIA lineup of 08

GTX280 $649
GTX260 $399
9800GTX+ $229
9800GTX $199
9800GT $149~159
9600GT $99~119
9500GT..
blah
blah to low to care.

This would mean that nVIDIA has successfully transitioned in the mid range market to 55nm G92 derivatives. EOL reached for 8800GT and 8800GTS. Looks way more clear than the mumbo jumbo they created not so long ago.

I think you can really cut the 9800GTX from the lineup as well. The ones going for $199 now are most likely just remaining 65nm stock. The 65nm GTX will be replaced by the 55nm 9800GT.

 

[Cookie Monster]

But im sure the 9800GTs will be same spec as 8800GTs is it not? Are they enabling all the clusters and pairing the cards with fast GDDR3s?

 

[Janooo]

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster
Heres the nVIDIA lineup of 08

GTX280 $649
GTX260 $399
9800GTX+ $229
9800GTX $199
9800GT $149~159
9600GT $99~119
9500GT..
blah
blah to low to care.

This would mean that nVIDIA has successfully transitioned in the mid range market to 55nm G92 derivatives. EOL reached for 8800GT and 8800GTS. Looks way more clear than the mumbo jumbo they created not so long ago.

4870 seems to pull ahead of 260. I don't believe it's going to stay at $399.
Tough times for NV.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster
But im sure the 9800GTs will be same spec as 8800GTs is it not? Are they enabling all the clusters and pairing the cards with fast GDDR3s?

I think you're right, but I imagine that the 55nm 9800GT will perform close to the 9800GTX. Maybe I said that wrong, what I meant was that I think the 65nm cards will disappear. I also think this is a strong indicator of a 55nm shrink of the GT200 gpu sooner than later.

 

[zod96]

Yeah I was going to get the 260, but after seeing the results of the 4870 maybe that's the card to get, plus its $100 cheaper...I mean the 4870 beats the 260 in everything, with ot without AA and AF too. Its just plain faster and cheaper...

 

[Xdreamer]

I concur with the price point. I feel that the 280 and especially the 260 are poorly priced as now (not that you could buy a 260 now if you wanted to). The prospect (imagined or real) of 2xHD4850 $400 defeating GTX280 $649 is a tempting one even for those who have Sli enabled MB. You can get a nice crossfire MB for $150 and break even overall. (noise/Heat/single slot cooling/power requirments for better or worse ignored)

 

[Xdreamer]

Sorry for second post.
It seems that the HD4xxx is a series that is particularly aimed at Sli market share since the typically prohibitive cost (for us poor people who are pained by dropping $650 on anything) of switching is neutralized.

 

[OCGuy]

It seems to me like NV is going to be reactive on this one. They are paying attention, proven by the "release" of the 9800GTX+ out of nowhere when the 4850 was launched. I would be surprised if they didnt cut the prices of the 260 and 280 very soon.....unless the supply is so low that they have to keep the price that high to keep them in stock. 280 can already be had for $599 AMIR, I wouldnt be shocked to see that drop to ~ $525 in the next 4-8 weeks, especially if they arent moving them like they would hope.