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GeForce GTX 280 coverage round-up
Everything you need to know about Nvidia's brand new high-end GPU
The wait for GeForce 10 is over - although Nvidia has ditched its traditional naming scheme, so its new high-end GeForce GPU is actually called the GeForce GTX 280. It's an enormous chip that packs in 1.4 billion transistors to give 240 stream processors,a huge 512-bit wide memory interface and consequently it puts out enough heat to warm your feet by on cold winter evenings.
This article is intended to be a one-stop piece rounding up all the coverage you need.
* Here's our review of the GeForce GTX 280.
* If you just want the numbers, go straight to our performance benchmarks (opens in a new window).
* Here's a video of us taking a GeForce GTX 280 apart so you can see what lurks beneath its huge double slot cooler.
* We've also taken a closer look at Nvidia's new naming scheme, and its potential problems.
* And finally, if you want to buy one of these new cards, we've listed a selection of the best prices available on the web.
We've also rounded up the best of the reviews from the rest of the web - and we'll add to these as more reviews go up:
* Tech Report: 'What you make of the GeForce GTX 280 may hinge on where you come down
on the multi-GPU question. Clearly, the GTX 280 is far and away the new
single-GPU performance champ, and Nvidia has done it again by nearly
doubling the resources of the G80. Its performance is strongest,
relatively speaking, at high resolutions where current solutions suffer
most, surely in part because of its true 1GB memory size. And one can't
help but like the legion of tweaks and incremental enhancements Nvidia
has made to an already familiar and successful basic GPU architecture,
from better tuning of the shader cores to the precipitous reduction in
idle power draw..' (No score given)
* Tom's Hardware (US): 'The new very-high-end GTX 280 from Nvidia ($650) suffers a little from
comparison with the 9800 GX2, which regularly bested its performance in
tests, despite the inherent and irremediable drawbacks of bi-GPU cards.
But in reality, the real threat is from the card’s “little sister,” the
GTX 260, especially since the price will almost buy you two GTX 260s to
run in SLI!.' (No score given)
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i had an 880gts for a long time now, i upgraded to 2 4850's running in crossfire, my performance is so much better than before, and it cost a good couple of hundred quid less than just one 280, not only that but it uses less power too. So more bang of buck with 2x 4850's, more power efficient, and if you really want it, physix to be released on it at some point. The prices of nvidia cards was enough to brake the habit of a lifetime for me, i used to love my graphics, but nvidia lost a fan on the day they charged 400-500 quid for a single card
Comment by lunarus at 10:15am 7th July 2008
i had an 880gts for a long time now, i upgraded to 2 4850's running in crossfire, my performance is so much better than before, and it cost a good couple of hundred quid less than just one 280, not only that but it uses less power too. So more bang of buck with 2x 4850's, more power efficient, and if you really want it, physix to be released on it at some point. The prices of nvidia cards was enough to brake the habit of a lifetime for me, i used to love my graphics, but nvidia lost a fan on the day they charged 400-500 quid for a single card
Comment by lunarus at 10:15am 7th July 2008
the cheapest card i could find was £390 its a bit sad when it only as fast as 9800gx2 where is the 55nm version we need this card to be more normal on the screaming standard cooler.
Comment by Cool_CR at 4:55pm 21st June 2008
stick with my 9800gx2, thought this would blow it away in the way 8 series did with 7950 etc. looking at most reviews this doesn't appear to be the case
Comment by davo77 at 12:23pm 21st June 2008
i dont know maybe it may not that bad now would it??? how much was it? (wonder how hot it would be)...<:)
Comment by ahadihunter at 11:26am 21st June 2008
A joke in the worst possible taste. A noisy powerhungry beast that can't out-perform a quieter powerhungry beast costing over £100 less? No wonder Nvidia are talking about discontinuing the 9800x2. No prob, two 4850's in Crossfire match the 280 for £150 less, with the 4870 and 4870x2 waiting in the wings. Here's a prediction - the 4870x2 will cost less than the 280 and blow it away. 84%? £450? Good joke guys. Welcome back ATI.
Comment by Cybersciver at 2:31pm 20th June 2008
.... that it's acceptable for graphics card customers to have the option of buying a top end card.... or spend their money on both a PS3 and an XBox 360!!
Comment by cjagusz at 5:24pm 19th June 2008
Well it's just about blown my 8800 Ultra into the weeds. I bought an 9800GX2 a few weeks ago but after installing the drivers it moved my whole desktop screen to the left, no icons or start button, so sent it back. Just a bit nervous to go thru it all again, shame about the price.
Comment by pitbull466 at 10:12pm 18th June 2008
I think it's pretty much a certain now that ATi just don't have an alternative to beat this card or it's lower spec at this price. When ATi launch a card or details of their up and coming card, by that afternoon Nvidia release word on their newer, cheaper and better performing altenative. After 2 days full of news on specs, overclocking ability and benchmarks about Nvidia, ATi are fair too silent. It looks as if the 4xxx series will die on it's ass like the 3xxx series. I hope not but the silence is a worry.
Comment by crazyceo at 3:38pm 18th June 2008
72 fps is a nice min @ 1.680x1050 and 41 min is ok for the GX2. But my 3870 at 1280x1024 will play @ 48 min will everthing maxed out and I an only running a stock E6420? so its not that good I think.
Comment by toonook at 1:21pm 18th June 2008
72 fps is a nice min @ 1.680x1050 and 41 min is ok for the GX2. But my 3870 at 1280x1024 will play @ 48 min will everthing maxed out and I an only running a stock E6420? so its not that good I think.
Comment by toonook at 1:08pm 18th June 2008
72 fps is a nice min @ 1.680x1050 and 41 min is ok for the GX2. But my 3870 at 1280x1024 will play @ 48 min will everthing maxed out and I an only running a stock E6420? so its not that good I think.
Comment by toonook at 1:08pm 18th June 2008
i can see some good things from this release, the new GPU will have better driver support, so SLI maybe better. the 9600GT is the best SLI at the moment, its got to be better than them in a few months after a few forceware updates
Comment by Gr3G04 at 12:14pm 18th June 2008
Guys, this card is very disappointing. But remember how long has it taken for the 8800 XXX series to mature driver wise ... ? The GTX 280 will be far better in a few weeks.
Comment by AaronPcz at 4:22pm 17th June 2008
Poor overall performance increase over the 9800GTX coupled with a disgusting price. Next.
Comment by C7ouD at 10:14am 17th June 2008
When r the next gen of gpus arriving, sooon i imagine .
Comment by j7dunwiddie at 4:20pm 16th June 2008
the old gpus will have to drop in £ $ , this is good we should all be happy i am a bit
Comment by j7dunwiddie at 4:15pm 16th June 2008
The current price for 280 is £450-500 at the moment from major uk sites such as Overclockers, def not worth it value wise, 260 runs at £300-350. I expect the price to fall dramaticlly when ATI 48xx gets released in a week, so don't rush in to it yet.
Comment by wolfy at 2:48pm 16th June 2008
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