Hands-On with Nvidia's New GeForce GTX 280!
Posted 06/16/08 at 08:00:00 AM by Michael Brown
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The GeForce GTX 280 in Action
We can’t take the performance of an engineering-sample board with early drivers as gospel, but the benchmark results have us hungry for shipping product!
Few things piss us off as readily as new architecture that offers only incremental improvements in performance. Fortunately for Nvidia, that’s not the case with the GeForce GTX 280. Assuming the drivers that ship with this card deliver performance as good as these beta versions, Nvidia will have another in what has been a long list of winners on its hands.
The GTX 280 delivered real-world benchmark numbers nearly 50 percent faster than a single GeForce 9800 GTX running on Windows XP, and it was 23-percent faster than that card running on Vista. In fact, it looks as though a single GTX 280 will be comparable to—and in some cases beat—two 9800 GTX cards running in SLI, a fact that explains why Nvidia expects the 9800 GX2 to fade from the scene rather quickly.
We’re especially pleased with the performance delta we observed with Crysis: Even with the resolution at 1920x1200, 4x antialiasing enabled, and all the game’s other quality settings on high, our engineering sample delivered the game at more than 30 frames per second running DirectX 9. Games still run slower on Vista, however; Crysis, for example, shed about eight frames per second running DirectX 10, but it was still twice as fast as a single 9800 GTX. And remember, we tested an engineering sample running on pre-release drivers.
The GTX 280 absolutely clobbered AMD’s dual-GPU Radeon 3870 X2, delivering superior overall benchmarks in both Windows XP and Vista. The one bright spot, oddly enough, was the X2’s Crysis performance in Vista: AMD’s part managed to run the game two frames per second faster than Nvidia’s latest. The single GTX 280, on the other hand, was more than twice as fast running the RTS World in Conflict under Vista.
| BENCHMARKS | |||||
| Prototype GTX 280 | PNY 9800 GTX | PNY 9800 GTX in SLI | MSI Radeon 3870 X2 | ||
| 3DMark06 Game 1 (fps) | 43.9 | 31.3 | 57.6 | 46.6 | |
| 3DMark06 Game 2 (fps) | 38.8 | 24.8 | 45.9 |
42.0 | |
| 3DMark Vantage: Game 1 (fps) | 17.5 | 8.0 | 15.3 | 9.5 | |
| 3DMark Vantage: Game 2 (fps) | 14.5 | 7.7 | 14.8 | 9.5 | |
| Crysis (fps) | 22.6 | 11.7 | 12.8 | 24.8 | |
| Unreal Tournament 3 (fps) | 76.5 | 75.4 | 81.4 | 63.6 | |
| Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts (fps) | 47.8 | 37.5 | 40.1 | 41.7 | |
| World in Conflict (fps) | 31.0 | 19.8 | 29.0 | 13.0 | |
| Best scores are bolded. Nvidia-based cards are tested with an EVGA 680i SLI motherboard; AMD-based cards tested with an INtel D975BX2 motherboard. Intel 2.93GHz Core2 Extreme CPUs and 2GB of Corsair DDR RAM used in both scenarios. Benchmarks performed at 1920x1200 resolution on ViewSonic VP2330wb monitors. | |||||
280 vs 260
Submitted by Mathewpb on Sat, 07/12/2008 - 3:25pm
When comparing clock speeds and mhz's it seems that a 260 would be the better choice. Bonus is that 260 is at least $100 to $200 cheaper.
i have one question about
Submitted by Devo85x on Wed, 07/09/2008 - 8:36am
i have one question about these... why would you buy a GTX 280... you can get 2 260s for the same price... btw JUST ORDERED A GXT 260 FROM EVGA W00t!!!@@@ CANT WAIT!!!@#@#@
to the apple fanboi.....
Submitted by gatorXXX on Sun, 06/29/2008 - 6:10am
Change your name to Johnny Appleseed and pick the seeds out your a$$....yup nvidia still beats ati/amd in benchmarks, but at least you don't have to sell your house, dog, and pimp out the wife to great gameplay...so...NAH!!!!!
Submitted by Sparx10 on Wed, 06/18/2008 - 7:54pm
This card isn't coming out a month later. It's been released today in Canada, and Alienware is now using it in thier PCs, so it must be out in the states too.
Submitted by -it- on Wed, 06/18/2008 - 6:12pm
its out on newegg right now. i would know. i bought one
Submitted by Devo85x on Tue, 06/17/2008 - 2:42pm
Does anyone know about how much this card will cost? I am going to buy a new graphics card and I dont know if i should get a 9800 GTX or a GTX 260... i will only have about $300 to spend
Submitted by -it- on Wed, 06/18/2008 - 6:13pm
maybe a 8800 gtx or 9800gtx. some people are saying the 8800 gtx is faster than the 9800, but im not really sure.
Submitted by dovid on Tue, 06/17/2008 - 8:26am
you have to remember that it is just a prototype.
The final product will be better or more revised. This is also using early drivers as well so they too are a factor. and why would nVidia release a prodeuct that is worse than their previous models???**************************************************
macbook pro 2.6ghz 512 mb of vram 8600m gt 17" w/24" 1920x1200 hdcp monitor, mac pro 2.8ghz 8 core w/8800gt w/2 24"1920x1200 hdcp monitor, iPod touch 16gb. iPod classic 80gb. yes i am an apple fan! :)
Submitted by forcifer on Mon, 06/16/2008 - 11:25pm
have fun paying $650 for something that barely beats a $429 product...nvidia loses this round =/ 2x 4850s is going to be cheaper, and maybe even 2x 4870s
Really? because I've seen
Submitted by Strongbad536 on Mon, 06/16/2008 - 9:11pm
(about SLI comments above)
Really? because I've seen numerous reviews of hardware and systems alike where SLI systems will get way more frames per second in Crysis. Interesting... could it have been that when it came out, there were the bugs that you speak of, but with updates, it started utilizing SLI.
but that still doesn't explain how the benchmarks for the same card are different across the same issue, and between the web and mag. See my comment in the July issue feedback thread for more information.
Geforce goodness
Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Mon, 06/16/2008 - 6:36pm
Move over Vaseline and make room for the GTX280. mmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmm Sweet. Looks good, smells good and freaking turns me on. God where is my Economic Stimulus check?
Submitted by astera on Mon, 06/16/2008 - 6:04pm
im very anxious to see this on a real bench mark program or to see what new technology it brings to the gaming industries. the 9000 series brought about direct X 10 and that was a huge revolution to nerds everywhere, with crysis showing it off. so what does the gtx 200 series bring with it besides power?
Submitted by greds04 on Mon, 06/16/2008 - 9:25am
Meh...no comparison against the GX2 wonder why, could it be that the 280 cannot beat it (apparently true on other review sites)?
And no mention of price either, I'll buy the GX2 for $150 less and get better performance thanks all the same nVidia...Oh and well done on bringing the cost down on the previous models now the GX2, GTX, and 8800 Ultras are more competitively (and realistically) priced against the alternatives (ATi 3870 and 3870x2).
Submitted by Strongbad536 on Mon, 06/16/2008 - 8:43am
I think there has to be a problem here Michael. First of all, how is it that two 9800GTXs in SLI can only get 12.8 fps in Crysis? (yet in the July issue of the mag you said a single 9800GTX got 31.9; you're benchmarks for the 8800GTS were also different, even when they were in the same issue: look at the deathmatch page, then the review for the 9800GTX)
Benchmarking irregularities aside, how is it that the GX2 gets about 40 fps in Crysis, yet two 9800GTX's in SLI can't beat out SLI on a single card? So I think you got some 'splainin' to do...
Submitted by astera on Mon, 06/16/2008 - 6:02pm
i did my own series of tests when crysis first came out. for some reason the game does not like sli. it will keep running worse when you go to sli. it makes it very bad to bench mark based on that game. but it is true, a single card will out perform sli on crysis just because the game has to many bugs.
Submitted by dovid on Mon, 06/16/2008 - 7:41am
amazing. *shock* and it is with iffy drivers too.... ha ha ha!!! ati/amd still trails behind nVidia! :)
macbook pro 2.6ghz 512 mb of vram 8600m gt 17" w/24" 1920x1200 hdcp monitor, mac pro 2.8ghz 8 core w/8800gt w/2 24"1920x1200 hdcp monitor, iPod touch 16gb. iPod classic 80gb. yes i am an apple fanboi.
In the words of the great Peter Griffin...
Submitted by Talcum X on Mon, 06/16/2008 - 7:25am
Freakin' Sweet!
**********
Every morning is the dawn of a new error.
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