Why a GeForce GTX 280 is still much better than a 9800 GX2 or 8800 GT SLI

[Blacklash]

I bought my 8800GTX in 11|2006 and have not upgraded since then.

You should check into nVidia's ability to do some DX 10.1 functions, more specifically those that involve AA.

"NVIDIA does enable developers to query their driver on support for a feature. This is how they can support multisample readback and any other DX10.1 feature that they chose to expose in this manner. Sure, part of the point of DX10 was to eliminate the need for developers to worry about varying capabilities, but that doesn't mean hardware vendors can't expose those features in other ways. Supporting DX10.1 is all or nothing, but enabling features beyond DX10 that happen to be part of DX10.1 is possible, and NVIDIA has done this for multisample readback and can do it for other things."

Source:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3334&p=7

[Viral]

I don't personally understand why people still think the 9800GX2 is the better product. Sure, GTX 280 is priced a bit too high, and definitely more than I'm willing to spend even despite the fact that I have enough saved for two of them.

Wake up people, 9800GX2 has always been a stop gap solution.

[E30325i 2.7]

Originally Posted by Maverickman

For those of you with a GeForce 9800 GX2 or GeForce 8800 GT SLI setup who are contemplating picking up a GeForce GTX 280, here's some advice from someone who has used both. If you can stomach the price, the GTX 280 will be well worth the investment. Many argue that a 9800 GX2 or SLI setup is just as good or better than a single GTX 280. If you look strictly at the benchmarks at all those websites, this may appear to be true. However, benchmarks only reveal part of the story. It's the GAMING EXPERIENCE that means the most. Right now, the GTX 280 offers by far the best gaming experience on games like Crysis and COD4. My 9800 GX2 would stutter all over the place on Crysis. The GTX 280 runs it as smooth as butter at 1920X1200 with everything on HIGH and three settings on the right at VERY HIGH. It does stutter for a second in highly textured areas, but this is to be expected on such a demanding game. I would say that the overall framerates are similar to the 9800 GX2, but the stuttering problem is almost non-existent with the GTX 280. This really improves the gameplay experience in Crysis. COD4 also runs without stuttering on the GTX 280. I did get those "microstutters" with the 9800 GX2.

In sum, the GTX 280 is an incredible performer. You wouldn't think so by looking at all those benchmarks, but if you can get the card, you'll be astonished at the gaming goodness it can offer. It has changed the whole Crysis experience for me!

i totally agree came from a GX2 and is never ever going back

[tdream]

Well all I will say is microstuttering annoys the HELL outta me! The drivers just aren't up to scratch or the bus between the two cards isn't enough, or the memory isn't enough. Something is just plain wrong with the implementation of sli (haven't tried cf but I expect the same problems (google it)), single card will always pwn multi card solutions.

The only issue for me is the price... is it worth it?

[K007]

this microstutter...can it be frapsed?

[tdream]

Originally Posted by K007

this microstutter...can it be frapsed?

Didn't try, no longer have SLi. Imagine playing the game and pressing pause and unpause for 1/100th of second every second.

Or a different analogy... it's like pouring water out of a bottle. The bottleneck is too small so the water comes out choppy.

[Shocky]

I really don't know why people are whining about the GTX280, I've upgraded from a 8800GTX and the improvement is massive, easily double what I was getting previously, as the OP stated Crysis is smooth as silk at 1920*1200 on high now, this was previously unplayable on my 8800GTX, unreal engine based games all running at 1920*1200 with 4xAA, again perfectly smooth, was actually shocked at the difference in bioshock, the framerate is so much higher I can enable v-sync and the framerate never drops below 60fps. it's insane, the 8800GTX could barely maintain 30fps with same settings and v-stnc off.

As for SLI and disadvantages, I previously used a 7950GX2 so don't want to go sli again any time soon, scaling issues, profiles/driver support and microstutting I can do without.

[K007]

Originally Posted by tdream

Didn't try, no longer have SLi. Imagine playing the game and pressing pause and unpause for 1/100th of second every second.

Or a different analogy... it's like pouring water out of a bottle. The bottleneck is too small so the water comes out choppy.

hmm...then i must be lucky with my 7950GX2 since i haven't had issues like that ><

[K007]

wonder if its because i am on a CRT?

[walterman]

Yes, the GTX280 is a better card for high res gaming than the GX2, mainly due to the larger frame buffer, no doubt. But it's sad to read that in some games, the average frame rate is lower than on the GX2 due to the bandwidth of the card

This card has 3x times the shading power of the G80, but only a 45% higher bandwidth. Remember what happened with the 7800GTX vs the 6800Ultra. 2x times faster in some games (2 MADD vs 1 MADD), but slightly faster on the rest (same bandwidth +-). Also, remember the huge boost that we saw on the 7800GTX512 when nvidia finally raised the memory clocks.

I think that nVidia should have put GDDR5 to allow the GT200 core to perform always 2-3x times faster, in ALL the games, and not only in those that are bounded by the shading power (Crysis).

[CaptNKILL]

I wonder if the refresh of this series will have GDDR5.

[walterman]

Originally Posted by CaptNKILL

I wonder if the refresh of this series will have GDDR5.

I cross my fingers too, cause i need "something" with higher bandwidth to finally upgrade to 1920x1200 & do not complain about the framerate with SSAA 2x.

Also, i hope that if nVidia goes with GDDR5 (perhaps after watching the performance of the 4870X2), they keep the 512bit bus, & the number of ROPs. They did it properly with the G70->G71.