Rumour control: GeForce GTX 260 to get more stream processors

The GTX 260 doesnt get over 150FPS like the HD4870, it's a crap card! The hardware industry is full of spoilt little sh*ts. For people claiming NVIDIA to have no strategy, or that they fail - it's pathetic. They have led the market for the last 3 years up until now in which time it is almost garenteed they will take the lead again. ATi were bought about by a company that was fighting a loosing battle - doesn't say much for the red team. It's so sad how people bash companies, when a few months down the line they will release hardware that will decimate everything and the same people who bashed them shall but it. /YAWN /new hobby please.

Comment by Syzygy2005 at 10:32pm 26th August 2008

This doesn't come with a die shrink does it? I'd wait for the die shrink tbh, the GTX260 is still a castrated card. The full fat HD4870 is where it's at atm.

Comment by Zhaoman at 12:36pm 26th August 2008

I dont agree. I think if you are buying a car and spending thousands you will either a) already know or b) find out exactly what those letters mean. You certainly dont need "inside knowledge" to know one engine is direct injection and the other common rail injection (DI/CI). This is quite distinct and the manufacturer will not hide the differences. Nvidia on the otherhand will simply add a + or rebrand an old 8800 a 9600 to keep shifting the cards. Now in this situation you would certainly need "inside knowledge" to find this out. The Ford engines would be explained in a brochure or on the forecourt. The Nvidia cards to the non-enthusiast market most wouldnt have a clue.

Comment by pveater at 11:50pm 25th August 2008

i see what vulcan means. i see how cars named can easily be confusing for people not in the industry or those who havent done research. for example, whats the difference between a ford focus 1.8 TDDI and a focus 1.8 TDCI of exactly the same year and trim even. well does anyone know, can anyone answer that? i bet they cant, without either being in the industry of researching, googling. maybe some think the TDDI is better than the TDCI because its a letter later in the alphabet. well it isnt. the TDCI is newer and better. who would know this without research or inside knowledge? it is the same for graphics cards, no casual buyer will fully understand the quirks of naming graphics cards even if they are simplified same as how 99 percent of people wouldnt understand the difference between those cars so it seems like a moot point complaining too much about names, because people in the car industry dont majorly and its the same situation

Comment by toderling at 5:11pm 25th August 2008

the reason car naming v specs is world's away from what nVidia are doing, is that car makers have the sense to make lots of changes with a new model - even if it looks only subtly different there can be thousands of changes - but they do this once every year or two, then they leave it be until the time comes for a new model with tons of improvements - look at the last 3 generations of the Honda Civic type-R...all completely different, each one better (in some way) then the last. If car manufacturers did the same as nVidia, then the car industry would be in such a mess it'd be untrue...but that's the whole point of the whole GTXR3i joke (and it is JUST A JOKE...observational humour that doesn't need to be taken too seriously and analysed to the point it gets ridiculous) is that maybe, just maybe, nVidia should stop panic-updating their products and replace their current/end-of-life cards with new models (which could have the same name) that have lots of improvements, rather than updating their products and giving them little '+' tags and annoying people who've just gone and spent money on what they thought was the best (and newest) on offer only to see it replaced/updated a week later and priced cheaper just because someone else has released their latest models. And it is a joke, so yes let's give nvidia cards ridiculous car-type nicknames or mobile phone nicknames because nvidia are being silly and reinforcing the view that they may be worried that some of their 70% market share will be eaten into.

Comment by EdArch at 4:23pm 25th August 2008

Nobody really wants to read that rubbish you two. Just one of you take a stand and be mature! I hate it when all the fanboys chime in as well. Can't you just recognise the pros and cons of each product? Surely the wise people are those who do so.

Comment by RedHotsRule549 at 2:04am 25th August 2008

i think you are, as you are clearly the sole person who has taken exception to a perfectly solid analogy which everyone else obviously understands fine. no need to act like an ass. i read the first line and ignored the rest, as its no doubt waffle. the only point being made by some here is that nvidia need to streamline the naming system. probably they do, but it will still likely only be understood by those in the know in this industry much like car naming models and generations, and still people will ask which card is better than which. so nvidia can try, but it wont really change anyway from what i can see by people still asking which cards outperform others

Comment by vulcanproject at 11:48pm 24th August 2008

more for less . same with the ATI Radeon HD 4870 you get more Stream processors but less power for gaming and you pay less £$ for having more. happy but confuzzy days for all .jj7

Comment by kingjohn721 at 7:22pm 24th August 2008

either way in both old and newer versions, it does what they want by getting us talking about it. Add that to it's bettering performance over the 4870 and they still hold the mid and high end market. You all know how Nvidia works things so you shouldn't be moaning about it now. If you purchased the first card then at the very least you still have a very good card and if you are buying one now, guess what? You still get a very good card thats still top of its class and future proofed unlike its competition.

Comment by crazyceo at 3:49pm 24th August 2008

The point is the base car maybe the same i.e 'focus' but each different model is defined different, whereas the base model here is GTX2xx but even though this new card is different it is being sold under the same name as the current one. i dont see two 'focus st's on the market one being 2L and one 2.5 turbo. Oh and of course a 08 model (mark 2) would be different to 02 (mark 1)thats got nothing to do with the nvidia naming farce? Ok bottom line all can we agree the naming thing is fubar? and car naming is somewhat as well although the more letters after that GT the better right? ;)

Comment by tiff_lee at 2:24pm 24th August 2008

arguing with a good analogy, thats the point, all the differing models will be differing specs, but its still the same base car. same thing with nvidia, adding another model to the evolution of this card is nothing more than whacking a different letter after a car. car naming if anything is more confusing, because makers retain the model name even over many generations. a 2002 focus 1.8 ghia is very different from a 2008 focus 1.8 ghia for example. yet they have exactly the same name for one number........but i dont hear anyone complaining about confusion with anything like that. they get over it ok

Comment by vulcanproject at 12:15am 24th August 2008

But I aint laughing. Well ... I am a little to be fair. They release the whole 9 series, then quickly after they release the 260 and 280 and now so soon after that they are notching up the 260 (no doubt soon to be followed by upping the 280). Then I'll buy one ... then they'll release the 360/380 series and upset me again just like they did when I bought the 7900 and they released the 7950 a week later, and when I bought my 9800gx2 and they released the 260 3 weeks later ... but ... such is life I guess. I just wished we didn't get these crappy updates and instead they focused more energy and time on bigger leaps!

Comment by CSQuake at 7:32pm 23rd August 2008

Your car naming analogy is rather poor considering the fact all the different examples you gave (gt, gtr, gtt) would be of different models which have different specs. You don't see ford releasing several focus st's within 6 months of each other all market'd as the same product yet at the same time completely different.

Comment by tiff_lee at 6:33pm 23rd August 2008

let's see who can come up with the best (and most ridiculous) name for the upraded GTX260! We've already had GTX 270 and GTX 260+...my guess is GTX 265 type-R C'mon everyone, play the game! Prizes to be won!

Comment by EdArch at 3:24pm 23rd August 2008

At least by doing this they are admitting that they got caught with their trousers down in the mid-range graphics card market. I wouldn't be happy if i'd just puchases a GTX260 though (especially before the last round of price slashes too).

Comment by frontline at 3:18pm 23rd August 2008

the whole point of competition in ANY market or form is one upmanship. lmao thats entirely the point of competition if no one has noticed.....naming is a valid point that nvidia will have to address, looking at its new mobile parts nvidia's naming scheme is nothing short of absurd. but i hardly think its a valid point to really criticise nvidia at merely the news of improving its products. its like moaning about a car maker adding a letter on the end of an existing model, i dont hear people moaning about a car maker using GT, GT-R, GT-T, GT-S etc. it could be streamlined, but nonetheless its almost entirely academic to the news reported here.

Comment by vulcanproject at 3:06pm 23rd August 2008

Fanboy this fanboy that don't people got bored of the same old arguments? I know I get bored just reading them. Anyway half the criticism of nvidia here is merely regarding the naming stratergy and how confusing it is becoming. Yes we all were aware nvidia were switching to a 55nm process but as newparadigm says it does appear to be a case of constant oneupmanship wihich is fair enough it is competition but to constantly flood the market with cards of different specs/same name and vice versa why bother? surely time and money could be invested into producing a single new innovative product?

Comment by tiff_lee at 2:57pm 23rd August 2008

They really think they have something with the 4 series. 4870 is no better than a GTX260 (CPC recommendation) and the 4870X2 is beaten on the most demanding and newer games by the GTX280 (CPC benchtests @1680 X 1050). Now any news coming out of Nvidia is instantly deemed negative and pulled to pieces. Look at your own products first. One half decent product range is not a success. Chickens and unhatched eggs comes to mind.

Comment by crazyceo at 1:02pm 23rd August 2008

some peoples comments are just nonsense. before you all start moaning further and saying its just a knee jerk reaction by nvidia, you may want to get your facts straight and listen to what has already been said by me and what was in the news before and around the launch of these parts. if you need any further proof that this was planned long ago then just check the link............................http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8515&Itemid=65

Comment by vulcanproject at 12:46pm 23rd August 2008

some peoples comments are just nonsense. before you all start moaning further and saying its just a knee jerk reaction by nvidia, you may want to get your facts straight and listen to what has already been said by me and what was in the news before and around the launch of these parts. if you need any further proof that this was planned long ago then just check the link............................http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8515&Itemid=65

Comment by vulcanproject at 12:46pm 23rd August 2008

Really,yet another half arsed Nvidia new Gpu quickly rushed out, Nvidia are still clearly worried about the HD4 series affecting their so called market lead. Wait until Intel really gets in on the act then both Ati and Nvidia will have to really get their houses in order. I prefer ATI, their Crossfire is far better than Sli, and im really pleased for Ati that they have some great cards that are giving Nvidia some serious worries, roll on the HD5 series.

Comment by blazinglory at 8:01am 23rd August 2008

Seems like an attempt to get the GTX 260 to perform better than the HD 4870... regardless, if this continues I'll be going Ati with my next upgrade, nVidia are "supposed" to be changing their naming system according to an old CPC blog post... clearly that isn't happening and will just confuse the average consumer, who won't get the nVidia GPU lineup, especially as they're still releasing new 9 series cards... nVidia are on a losing streak if they keep this "+" effort up and can't keep it simple like Ati.

Comment by thewelshbrummie at 12:45am 23rd August 2008

it was known from before the GT2 series even launched that there was to be a die shrink from the dated 65nm process these cards are built on to 55nm just a few months after. the shrink will make the cards cheaper, cooler and improve power consumption, assuming nvidia choose not to use the headroom to increase the clocks of the GT280 to where they were originally intended to be. GT260 is nothing more than parts that fail QA for GT280, and hence have shaders disabled to rescue some of the wafers still suitable for sale as a lower end part. when the die shrink appears, it will also improve the failed parts and allow nvidia to increase the amount of usable streams should they choose. as it is, should the revised card actually get 15 percent odd more streams, it will almost certainly end up being faster than the 4870 overall

Comment by vulcanproject at 9:17pm 22nd August 2008

it was known from before the GT2 series even launched that there was to be a die shrink from the dated 65nm process these cards are built on to 55nm just a few months after. the shrink will make the cards cheaper, cooler and improve power consumption, assuming nvidia choose not to use the headroom to increase the clocks of the GT280 to where they were originally intended to be. GT260 is nothing more than parts that fail QA for GT280, and hence have shaders disabled to rescue some of the wafers still suitable for sale as a lower end part. when the die shrink appears, it will also improve the failed parts and allow nvidia to increase the amount of usable streams should they choose.

Comment by vulcanproject at 9:17pm 22nd August 2008

they are making changes for the better. I'd be plenty miffed if I'd just got one. I suppose they could have done something really stupid and put a "Turbo Button" on it.

Comment by crazyceo at 8:34pm 22nd August 2008

I've hardly had my GTX260 a month now and they're already improving the f**king thing. Great. Another piece of my damn hardware rendered obsolete.

Comment by msremmert at 7:28pm 22nd August 2008

adopt the '5' approach like AMD did with their phenoms, all they simply need to do then is say that they're releasing a new card which will satisfy everyone (whos a fan of course) and people wont be confused wondering which version of the 260 it is when they're buying it they can just look at the retailers page for the 'GeForce GTX 265' if they didn't do that then '270' would be the only other option, but I dont think that there would be a big enough performance leap for it to be just one down from the '280'.... We'll just have to wait and see if they were being honest when they said that they have learn't there lesson with this whole bad naming scheme...

Comment by NikoBellic at 5:43pm 22nd August 2008

Doesn't the gtx 260 just have a few clusters disabled so can't they be flashed at all.

Comment by eddie543 at 5:42pm 22nd August 2008

Gtx 260 + ??

Comment by pcn00b at 5:32pm 22nd August 2008

is that nvidia seems to have no strategy at all, they appear to be permanently in a state of confusion. They are releasing cards which are good, then just reacting to the competition by adding a bit more or upping the clock frequencies. This points to a reactionary rather than visionary approach to their R&D. Compare this with ATI who have set out a strategy for their g.cards. They built the best mid range cards they could then left them alone knowing they had a strategy for creating a high end card... they dont seem to be locked in to the game of continuous series of one-upmanship's that nvidia are trying to play with them. Personally I find Nvidias behaviour usettling, as it can only end up confusing the g.card market for most casual buyers and points to a lack of direction on their part.

Comment by NewParadigm at 5:10pm 22nd August 2008

GTX270 anyone? Surely much easier than doing the whole 8800GTS thing all over again

Comment by RedHotsRule549 at 5:05pm 22nd August 2008

Nvidia are really starting to pi** me off with their naming startegies and continual arsing around with already released products... and that from someone who is a long time nvidia user (not fan ... user)

Comment by NewParadigm at 4:57pm 22nd August 2008

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