BFG GTX 260 OC or BFG GTX 280? [Archive]

AthlonXP1800

07-03-08, 05:26 PM

Now I got refund of £236 for Sapphire Radeon 4870 and noticed the prices of GTX 260 and 280 are fall at Overclockers UK with both prices are too good to get either cards but I dont know what to get.

Should I go for BFG GTX 260 OC at £217 this week special offer or BFG GTX 280 OC for £352? :headexplode:

Revs

07-03-08, 05:30 PM

260 for sure. So happy with mine. I can't justify the price for the 280 unless you have the cash to spare. Slight gains for alot more money. Also lower temps and less chance of having to RMA it.

Blacklash

07-03-08, 05:48 PM

I definitely vote GTX 260, especially if you game 1920x or lower. Hexus shows a GTX 260 @ 640 vs a GTX 280 @ 615 here-

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=14144

[H]ard got the 260 they reviewed to do 675 on the core and Firingsquad got one to 712. @ 2560x the 280 starts to be a better investment with AA active.

Revs

07-03-08, 05:52 PM

They'll OC just as high as a 280. I got 740/1480/1280.

Blacklash

07-03-08, 05:53 PM

They'll OC just as high as a 280. I got 740/1480/1280.

You drew a nice card there. I'll be happy doing 660-700 here. Unfortunately, I won't know what my max is until next week, the holiday is going to delay my delivery.

AthlonXP1800

07-03-08, 05:57 PM

Hmmm okay I will order BFG GTX 260 OC now and have it deliver on Saturday, total £235.36. Nearly the same price I paid for Sapphire Radeon 4870 delivered on last Saturday, wow I cant believed how cheap it is and I still got plenty of money to spare waiting for 55nm GT200 and Nehalem. :D

Revs

07-03-08, 05:57 PM

You drew a nice card there. I'll be happy doing 660-700 here. Unfortunately, I won't know what my max is until next week, the holiday is going to delay my delivery.

Two nice ones :D

AFAIK, most cards will do 700/1400/1200 no probs. 55% fan, temps 40-70*C

Maverickman

07-03-08, 06:14 PM

The GTX 280 is on average about 20% faster at stock speeds. You can get closer to a stock GTX 280 by overclocking that 260. However, I have heard of 280s doing better than 700MHz core. The 280 does take more power though, so you have to use a 650W or greater for a 280. The 280 is for those who want the best and money is not an issue.

Ninja Prime

07-03-08, 06:43 PM

Your PS would choke on a 280, better get the 260 unless you're upgrading the PS too.

Ambrose

07-03-08, 07:37 PM

Your PS would choke on a 280, better get the 260 unless you're upgrading the PS too.

Minimum System Power Requirement is 550w as is stated here (http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_gtx_280.html).

Which means I could run one with my 620w Corsair :afro:

AthlonXP1800

07-05-08, 09:06 PM

Your PS would choke on a 280, better get the 260 unless you're upgrading the PS too.

I noticed something very interesting about the minimum spec on BFG GTX 260 packing, here is a small print about 525W PSU minimum requirement. The small print say that 525W is based on PC configuration with Core 2 Quad Extreme QX9650 CPU so I really dont worry too much about that as I use dual core Athlon 64 X2 4400+ CPU which used 101W at idle and 250W at full load with GTX 260. Same thing goes with 4870, you really dont need 620W PSU for that with my CPU.

Anyway BFG GTX 260 is a fantastic card, very silent, very cooling than both 4870 and 8800GTX. :D

Maverickman

07-05-08, 11:40 PM

AthlonXP1800

07-06-08, 12:22 AM

Your Athlon X2 4400+ is really going to hold that GTX 260 back. You really need a Core2 3.0GHz or better to see the potential of a GTX 260 or Radeon HD 4870. That's why reviewers test the cards with high-end CPUs. It's almost a waste of money to get a GTX 260 with your CPU.

Yeah if I go to get Intel motherboard with Q9450 and 8GB DDR2 now and sold my Athlon 64 X2 hardware on ebay for around £50 then it will be a complete waste of money when Nehalem is just 3 months away, it just do not make sense to get one now. Better wait for Nehalem, it will be worth the upgrade and value for money. :D

It great to have GTX 260 installed now when my system drew 101W idle compared to 148W idle with 8800GTX, meaning almost 50W power saving translated into £3.50 off on electricity bill every month or £42 for a year off. :cool:

DRen72

07-06-08, 01:46 AM

...The small print say that 525W is based on PC configuration with Core 2 Quad Extreme QX9650 CPU so I really dont worry too much about that as I use dual core Athlon 64 X2 4400+ CPU which used 101W at idle and 250W at full load with GTX 260. Same thing goes with 4870, you really dont need 620W PSU for that with my CPU.
A QX9650 draws LESS power than an X2 4400+ CPU.

Lfctony

07-06-08, 04:07 AM

How come you returned your 4870?

mojoman0

07-06-08, 04:34 AM

Yeah if I go to get Intel motherboard with Q9450 and 8GB DDR2 now and sold my Athlon 64 X2 hardware on ebay for around £50 then it will be a complete waste of money when Nehalem is just 3 months away, it just do not make sense to get one now. Better wait for Nehalem, it will be worth the upgrade and value for money. :D

It great to have GTX 260 installed now when my system drew 101W idle compared to 148W idle with 8800GTX, meaning almost 50W power saving translated into £3.50 off on electricity bill every month or £42 for a year off. :cool:

Athlon get the GTX 260 and benchmark for me PLEASE. I've been thinking about getting one as well and I want to see how it really performs on my cpu. I want to know how much cpu limiting would occur. If its only like 5 fps then who cares.

Mr_LoL

07-06-08, 04:52 AM

Running mine off a 400 watt and no problems
Also ran an 8800 GTX for a year off the same psu and everything was fine. I personally fell minimum spec requirments for graphic cards are grossly inflated.

MisterMister

07-06-08, 06:02 PM

They have to account for a margin of safety. Not all PSU's are created equal. Its mostly about how many AMPS your PSU makes not WATTS... however no one looks at amps. Thus parts companies need to go off of Watts, which is all fine and good but like I said the AMPS created aren't always going to be equal even if the watts are.

Simply put, a 500W PSU with a good amp to watt ratio can and probably will run a card with a minimum 650W PSU requirement... however if they stated 500W as the "minimum" you would get a lot of people with lower performing PSUs blowing their cards, then bingo they get stuck with thousands of RMAs.

Think about that.

Nv40

07-08-08, 01:56 AM

heatlesssun

07-08-08, 02:10 AM

Questions i have about the GTX 260.

1)How about the sound ?

Have read reports somewhere that the GTX280 fans are too loud .. how about the geforceGTX260 ? aside from speed also looking a quiet video card.

2)Do i need a special cable/adapter for my PSU for the GTX260? Which brand?

my PSU its CORSAIR HX620
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/2562-corsair-hx620-620w-power-supply-review.html

A single GTX 280 under load isn't that loud. If you are a noise freak it might be a problem but a single GTX 280 isn't that much different than the single 9800 GX2. SLI is a different story. Three of these suckers running at 100% are very loud and hot!

I think the GTX 260 uses to 6 pin PCI-E plugs, so you should be ok.

AthlonXP1800

07-08-08, 04:28 AM

A QX9650 draws LESS power than an X2 4400+ CPU.

Yeah but not much difference.

QX9650 drew 21.2W vs Toledo 2.4GHz's 24W, 3W less power idle.

http://www.lostcircuits.com/cpu/amd_phenom9350/poweridle.gif

And QX9650 drew 64.8W vs Toledo 2.4GHz's 86W, 21.2W less power at full load.

http://www.lostcircuits.com/cpu/amd_phenom9350/powermax.gif

http://www.lostcircuits.com/cpu/amd_phenom9350/6.shtml

Nehalem will have 30% less power than Yorkfield at the same clock speed.

AthlonXP1800

07-08-08, 04:30 AM

How come you returned your 4870?

I returned it because I experienced bad fps in games, it either bad card or bad driver. Been cleaned out drivers and cleaned installed Vista both didnt helped.

AthlonXP1800

07-08-08, 05:01 AM

Athlon get the GTX 260 and benchmark for me PLEASE. I've been thinking about getting one as well and I want to see how it really performs on my cpu. I want to know how much cpu limiting would occur. If its only like 5 fps then who cares.

Okay I am benchmark Crysis for you to compare my CPU with GTX 260 vs QX6800 with 4870 from Xbitlabs review here (http://xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/ati-radeon-hd4800-games_5.html#sect0) with same settings Xbitlabs used and measured min and avg fps recorded with fraps. At 1280x1024 they recorded 12fps min and 30fps avg, mine recorded 16fps min and 33-35fps avg.

Hope this help. :)

AthlonXP1800

07-08-08, 05:08 AM

Questions i have about the GTX 260.

1)How about the sound ?

Have read reports somewhere that the GTX280 fans are too loud .. how about the geforceGTX260 ? aside from speed also looking a quiet video card.

2)Do i need a special cable/adapter for my PSU for the GTX260? Which brand?

my PSU its CORSAIR HX620
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/2562-corsair-hx620-620w-power-supply-review.html

Since I got the card installed on last Saturday, it still sound like silent, way too quiet than both Sapphire 4870 and Gainward Geforce 8800GTX.

BFG GTX 260 OC use 2x 6pin PCIE plugs from your PSU will be fine, BFG bundled 2x 6pin PCIE adapter. I didnt used the adapter so I used 2x 6pin PCIE cables from my PSU.

Nv40

07-08-08, 11:56 PM

Since I got the card installed on last Saturday, it still sound like silent, way too quiet than both Sapphire 4870 and Gainward Geforce 8800GTX.

BFG GTX 260 OC use 2x 6pin PCIE plugs from your PSU will be fine, BFG bundled 2x 6pin PCIE adapter. I didnt used the adapter so I used 2x 6pin PCIE cables from my PSU.

Toms review compare the GTX280 as loud as a washine machine under load , and the GTX260 slighty better. That alone have me away from buying one GTX260. Another is the heat. This is a major one ,because i have an heavily overclocked Qx9650 already running close to the max recommended INTeL safe temps .
did you know if the hot air that comes from the fans stay inside the case ?