GTX 260..... 192 vs 216

[snowmanwithahat]

Is the performance difference really that significant between the 192 and 216 cards?

I purchases an MSI GTX 260 (192) for $209 last night..... and am wondering if I made the wrong choice..... although the cheapest 216 core was $259, which was a little bit high for me (EVGA super-clocked)

I'm considering canceling the order on newegg though since it shouldn't be too late.... but is it really worth it?

I kind of figured upgrading from this 7800 GTX 512mb to any 260 would yield great results.... and with the 55nm products on the horizon the current 2xx series seems a bit dated as it is, i'm just not quite sure if the 216 is really that much better or worth the extra $50.

any opinions?

[Redeemed]

Its not a big difference, somewhere around 3-6% depending on the game. I would stick with what you have as the 192 shader 260's seem to overclock higher than the Core 216's.

My 192shader GTX 260 does 760core 1534shader and 2500mem. My best friend just purchased a EVGA standerd clocked 192shader 260 and his hits the exact same speeds.

You also need to get that CPU overclocked as high as you can get it while remaining stable because your CPU will be a little bit of a bottlneck for a 260.

I'd say that CPU will be a little more than a "bit" of a bottleneck for the 260.

Heck, both my old 185 and FX-60 weren't enough for a single 640MB 8800GTS back when I had the rig.

[jcrox]

I'll let you know next week, I just sold these 260's to a friend and ordered 2 of the 216's :D

[Redeemed]

I completely agree, I was just trying to take it easy on him. lol.

Oh. My bad. :lol:

[$n][pErMan]

Would a GTX 260 (or even a 280) be a decent upgrade from an overclocked 8800GTX? Or would my money be better spent waiting on the next generation cards to come out? I would be looking for a fairly noticable difference in both FPS and ability to use AA in games above 2x at 1920x1200. :)

[snowmanwithahat]

I'd say that CPU will be a little more than a "bit" of a bottleneck for the 260.

Heck, both my old 185 and FX-60 weren't enough for a single 640MB 8800GTS back when I had the rig.

yes... i'm well aware, and fortunately, it does overclock quite well, it's a 2.6ghz,(stock is 1.8ghz so it should be at FX-60 speeds).... unfortunately i'm running a 939 socket cpu.... so no new upgrades... ever, also, i'm on DDR400 memory... so upgrading that is useless as well..... This video card will be the last upgrade my system will see without a complete overhaul.

Thank you all for the advice that I was looking for.... basically the difference between the 216 and 192 are small to begin with, and very much a null point with such an outdated cpu and memory... :)

I'm holding out for my next "big" upgrade to be a whole new system... I won't say it'll be i7... it'l probably be the next gen after that even... probably going to wait for USB3.0, Blu-ray to become cheap, HDMI to be standard... etc... i know i'll be waiting a while, but I just wanted to soak the very last bit of juice that I could out of this dated hardware.

Thank you all for the advice! I'm very excited to get this card this coming week :)

[breathemetal]

[pErMan;1858702']Would a GTX 260 (or even a 280) be a decent upgrade from an overclocked 8800GTX? Or would my money be better spent waiting on the next generation cards to come out? I would be looking for a fairly noticable difference in both FPS and ability to use AA in games above 2x at 1920x1200. :)

rumor is nvidia and ati are working on lower nm chips right now :)

[snowmanwithahat]

My friend ordered the evga 260-216 just before it went out of stock... the one i was going to get for $230... I'm going to try his card out since he won't be able to use it right away (mom's making him keep it in the box because it's supposed to be a christmas present....)

So i'm going to give it a go and see how it compares to the 192 that I bought in my system at stock clocks and that vs. my best overclock (not going to bother overclocking his card.... he's not too keen on it.

I'll get back to you guys with a mini-review if it all goes through well. We both should be getting our cards this Wednesday.

[wolfgar]

Only minimal performance differences.
They have stopped shipping the 260-192.

[john19055]

Not much difference really after you overclock it a little ,Plus they have them at a great price when you can get three of them for a little over $612 and with rebates three for $555,is a dam good deal.You can almost get three GTX 260 (192) for $555 with rebates and a GTX will cost you around $420 and up.I wish I would have went that way ,three GTX 260 for around $600 and could have ran a tri system instead of my two BFG GTX 280 OCX for $880 in SLI.But I have plenty of speed as it is and I can run nearly ever game I play with max FSAA and aniso.except for a few.

[snowmanwithahat]

So.... They have the same card that i just bought for $220 shipped, for $180 on newegg after a rebate.

Also wanted to throw it out there that the 216 core is up for $242 shipped..... should have ****ing waited... I'm quite angry about the whole thing.... I may ship mine back and RMA it then get the 216 core..... however that'll have cost me $20 for shipping (to me and back) + the $242 for the 216.... which would have been the cost of the 216 superclocked that i opted to not buy because of the price...... not happy with newegg on this one.

There is possibly a chance though, it was supposed to come with a Rainbox Six game, and apparently it did not... i'm going to complain and see if i can get the $40 credited back, for $180 shipped..... wish me luck, in which case, the 192 core will stay with me

[jcrox]

I got the 216 for $239 on Friday. When I looked this morning it was @ $284... now it's back to $242?? They really jerk the prices around at newegg :thumbdwn:

[snowmanwithahat]

so.....

i went to go and instlal the new card..... it didn't work, fan didn't spin.... in fact, when i went to go put in my 7800 again.... that one just spun at 100%.... and no display....

at this moment my desktop isn't working.... i'm not exactly sure how... is it possible that the video card (260) could have shorted out, messed up or broken my pci-e slot in anyway?....

right now it seems as if my mobo is FUBAR

[Blacklash]

I had something odd occur. I ordered a vanilla Evga GTX 260 from Newegg-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130370

It came in the appropriate vanilla box however this was inside-

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/4206/evga260hb1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Xion X2]

I had something odd occur. I ordered a vanilla Evga GTX 260 from Newegg-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130370

It came in the appropriate vanilla box however this was inside-

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/4206/evga260hb1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

lolz, looks like you caught a break.

[Blacklash]

lolz, looks like you caught a break.

Yeah I was wondering why it was slightly faster than my other GTX at the same clock :p

I decided to check it out with GPU-Z when I noticed its default clocks were higher than stock. Going by the stats provided by GPU-Z it appears I received the below card instead-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130400

Anyway, ho ho ho. :D

[balex99]

Same thing happened to me. Mine is the 192 version but ordered the plain jane model and got the superclocked version.

[Blacklash]

Here's what I think. I seriously doubt EVGA messed up and put a single vanilla GTX 260 cooler on single overclocked GTX 260 Core 216. I think at least one batch of cards like this has gone out to Newegg. I ordered another one that should be here tomorrow to test my theory.

I've also heard a few folks say that 192SP GTX 260s are no longer in production. That I am not sure of. EVGA may mainly be producing GTX 260 Core 216 cards @ 626 on the core now.

I'll post my results from GPU-Z with the new card shortly after it arrives. BTW the nVidia CP reports the same thing-

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/4128/gtx260216zk0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

EDIT: I just noticed my new card shipped from the NJ warehouse. That's where I got the last one. We will see.

[Blacklash]

The second card I got from the NJ warehouse isn't overclocked however it does have 216SP.

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/4912/gtx2pn2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/2097/gtx3zb0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[jcrox]

It could be the drivers, supposedly these new 18x.xx drivers give a good performance boost... I don't know as I never tried them on the vanilla 260's but:

Single 192 vs Single 216 both @ 675mhz the 216 comes out ahead for me by around 3-5%

SLI 192 vs SLI 216 (again, this is with the new drivers) the 216 hits 10%+ :D

[Blacklash]

I'm happy with the new card thus far. I flashed the overclocked BIOS into from my new EVGA card so they will be identical for SLi.

So far its done 10 loops of 3dmark06 @ 696 on the core.

EDIT: Looks like the memory is weaker on my second card. So far it's looping 06 @ 730 with a 1532 shader clock unlinked. Memory seems to max @ 2424. The other card does 2500. I'm going to run them with the memory @ 2300, so it doesn't matter.

I may back down a bit because 730 is the max I can get before it freaks out and I don't want to kill the card for 2FPS.