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
Overclocked: EVGA GeForce GTX 280 FTW
EVGA was kind enough to send us a card so that we could test SLI and take a look at overclocked performance of the GTX 280. Their card uses the stock HSF, but has fairly high clock speeds:
| Stock GTX 280 | EVGA GeForce GTX 280 FTW | % Increase | |
| GPU Clock | 602MHz | 670MHz | 11.3% |
| Shader Clock | 1296MHz | 1458MHz | 12.5% |
| Memory Clock | 1107MHz | 1215MHz | 9.8% |
We ran a few quick tests to look at overclocking performance and we saw about an 8% to 12% increase in a few games at high resolutions over the stock clocked card. Here is a quick look at a couple of these tests.
Crysis is one of many benchmarks where the GTX 280 falls behind the GeForce 9800 GX2, unfortunately even an overclocked GTX 280 will not dethrone the almighty GX2.
Oblivion on the other hand showcases a memory bandwidth limitation of the GX2 at ultra high resolutions, here we see an 11% performance advantage from the overclocked EVGA card. Given that the EVGA card has an average clock speed increase of 11.2%, this sort of a performance gain isn't bad at all. Even at 1920 x 1200 we see a 9% performance improvement from the overclocked card.
It seems as if the GTX 280 and GTX 260 can stand to benefit from overclocking very well.
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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...