First GTX260 (216 SP) benchmarks

[CaptNKILL]

You cant go wrong with the 4870X2. I know that people say dual GPU solutions are garbage and so forth and for a while that was the case, but not anymore, at least not with ATI.

I have a good friend with a 4870X2 and I had the pleasure of watching him play about 10 different games with that card, let me tell you something................all of the games scaled really well, no microstuttering that I could see (looked as smooth as any single gpu setup out there) and you can play with the highest AA settings imaginable.
The 7950GX2 was a nightmare for me. I'm the kind of guy who would rather have a slower card than have to screw with settings constantly to make sure my card was running as fast as it should. I pretty much just stopped playing games because the GX2 was such a pain in the ass.

I guess the good part about the 4870x2 is that it'll most likely still be an improvement even if crossfire is broken in a certain game. With the 7950 it was actually slower than the 7900GTX when SLI wasn't working (ie 80% of the time).

I don't have the money to get anything right now though, so my options are still open. I always forget that if I spend $550 on a card and end up hating it I can either return it or sell it for more than its worth on ebay. :p

[JoJomomo]

The 7950GX2 was a nightmare for me. I'm the kind of guy who would rather have a slower card than have to screw with settings constantly to make sure my card was running as fast as it should. I pretty much just stopped playing games because the GX2 was such a pain in the ass.

I guess the good part about the 4870x2 is that it'll most likely still be an improvement even if crossfire is broken in a certain game. With the 7950 it was actually slower than the 7900GTX when SLI wasn't working (ie 80% of the time).

I don't have the money to get anything right now though, so my options are still open. I always forget that if I spend $550 on a card and end up hating it I can either return it or sell it for more than its worth on ebay. :p

I agree about the 7950GX2, it was junk most of the time. The 4870X2 is in a different league alltogether though, not just because its more powerful but because it scales so well and I have yet to only see one game that crossfire did not work in and that was Two Worlds.

[jAkUp]

You also have your GPU overclocked 200Mhz. :lol:

If that's common, then count me in. But I have a feeling you're in the minority with clocks like that.

You also have to remember that the extra VRAM on these cards can benefit in other ways that usually do not show up in benchmarks, like less stuttering, smoother gameplay, less hard drive trashing, etc.

[JoJomomo]

You also have to remember that the extra VRAM on these cards can benefit in other ways that usually do not show up in benchmarks, like less stuttering, smoother gameplay, less hard drive trashing, etc.

+1 This is probably what made the biggest difference in games like Mass Effect and Bioshock when combining AA usage.

[CaptNKILL]

You also have to remember that the extra VRAM on these cards can benefit in other ways that usually do not show up in benchmarks, like less stuttering, smoother gameplay, less hard drive trashing, etc.

That's true.

Still, I'm using a 768Mb card, so the benefits from 768 to 896 probably wouldn't be too big. I'm sure there is a difference between 512 and 896\1Gb cards though.

[JoJomomo]

That's true.

Still, I'm using a 768Mb card, so the benefits from 768 to 896 probably wouldn't be too big. I'm sure there is a difference between 512 and 896\1Gb cards though.

Yeah thats the nice thing about the 8800GTX, still has a good bit of Vram.

[Dazz]

According to Expreview (http://en.expreview.com/2008/08/21/nvidia-will-offer-a-upgraded-gtx-260-in-mid-september/), the only thing changed on the 260b is the SP count. Nothing else is supposed to be changed, at least at reference level.

I may go SLi i wonder if the 192PS and the 216PS will work in SLI? If not then i will not buy nVidia again as it is stupid that they phase products out so quick with no unpgrade path.

[JoJomomo]

I may go SLi i wonder if the 192PS and the 216PS will work in SLI? If not then i will not buy nVidia again as it is stupid that they phase products out so quick with no unpgrade path.

Ummm........why not just purchase another 192ps GTX 260 for cheap? Honestly the new one is not going to make a big difference at all.

[JH24]

Hardocp's review is out. I didn't know the card was made on a 55nm process. Great performance, although the price is too high at the moment. I wonder if ATI will make an improved 4870 or just lowers the price instead.


http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTU1NiwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

[JoJomomo]

Hardocp's review is out. I didn't know the card was made on a 55nm process. Great performance, although the price is too high at the moment. I wonder if ATI will make an improved 4870 or just lowers the price instead.


http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTU1NiwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

Im not impressed.

We were able to take it a little further. We squeezed an additional 50MHz out of the GPU, for a total of 705MHz, which is 129MHz faster than NVIDIA's design. The streaming processors overclocked to 1490MHz, 248MHz faster than the reference spec. And finally, we took the memory up by 73MHz to 1195MHz actual speed, or 2.39GHz DDR. That is 196MHz faster than NVIDIA's recommended clock rate, which increases the memory bandwidth from 111GB per second to 133.8GB per second.

My 65nm GTX 260 is running at 760core 1540shader and 2600mem.


The few extra shaders are not going to help that much and if anything my higher overclock would negate it completely.



I saw the same thing happen with the 9800GTX+, people were thinking that they would overclock higher than the regular 9800GTX but the truth was that they didnt get any better overclocks on the 55nm.

My old 9800GTX ran at 850core 2200shader and 2400mem, very few guys with 9800GTX+'s could hit those clocks.



I know every chip overclocks differently but it will take more than a 10nm die shrink to make a noticable difference.

[JH24]

^ I can't say I'm impressed either, but it does increase the general performance, but it doesn't justify the current higher price at all IMHO.


To be honest, I wasn't expecting anything groundbreaking though.

[zer0]

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-260-core-216--bfg-ocx-maxcore/1

[Redshirt #24]

Once the price on the 260b drops and the old 260 stock finally cycles out, then...but as it is, right now it's just what I call Refresh One: the inevitable gotta-beat-the-other-guy first refresh.

[hemmy]

I may go SLi i wonder if the 192PS and the 216PS will work in SLI? If not then i will not buy nVidia again as it is stupid that they phase products out so quick with no unpgrade path.

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

[Redshirt #24]

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/nvidia_geforce_gtx_260_216shader/default.asp

[JH24]

I was wrong, the improved GTX 260 is still made on a 65 nm process I just read on Hardocp. The main goal just was to get the 260 to perform better than the 4870, in which they succeeded, but it is too expensive at the moment.


A higher price than the 4870 would be justified, but it would have to lower a bit though. Without the die shrink, I guess the 260 hasn't become any cheaper for Nvidia to produce.