NVIDIA GTX 280 Performance Revealed - MSI N280GTX
Introduction
Published: 16th June 2008 | Source: MSI | Price: £420 est. |
Introduction
Over the past couple of months, pictures and sketchy information about NVIDIA's latest flagship GPU have been circulating the internet. While NVIDIA have done their best to keep things quiet, many of us have been holding off on a much needed graphics card purchase to find out exactly what NVIDIA have had up their sleeves. Well, after being fed a flurry of re-hashed technology from both NVIDIA and ATI in the form of their Dual-GPU 3870x2 and 9800GX2 graphics cards, the wait is finally over - and today Overclock3D have managed to get their hands on NVIDIA's new-gen flagship GPU - the GTX 280.So, why the change in naming convention I hear you ask? Well after attending NVIDIA's recent press event, the reason given is that they wanted to mark the fact that these really are a new generation of GPU's. Calling the GPU a 9900GTX simply didn't do justice for the number of changes they've made, and 10800GTX...is just plain silly. Obviously, NVIDIA will also be releasing lower-end cards based on this architecture later in the year (GTX 230 maybe??) and the current naming convention would not have allowed for this.
Starting with the basics, NVIDIA have designed the GTX 200 series to be much more than a standard graphics processor. Coining the two phrases "Beyond 3D" and "3D Beyond" as part of the driving force behind the architectural design of the GTX 200, NVIDIA have been demonstrating just how the unbeatable multi-threaded performance of the GPU can be put to good use in applications such as video transcoding or medical research such as Folding@Home via CUDA. As many of us will already know, physics processing via the PhysX API is also being transferred over to CUDA and this, combined with the fact that the GTX 200 series is fully Tri-SLI ready, should lead to some very interesting times ahead - in both gaming and general computing.In terms of actual architectural differences, the GTX 200 series is the first to implement NVIDIA's second generation unified shader. According to NVIDIA, this offers significantly enhanced features and can deliver on average 1.5x better performance than that of the GeForce 8/9 series. The SPA architecture of the GTX 280 also enters the second-generation, with an increase in the SM's per TPC from two to three, and an overall increase in TPC's per chip from 8 to 10. This results in a whopping increase in processor cores to 240 from the original 128 of the G80 and G92. Manufactured using a 65nm fabrication process, the GTX 200 also includes 1.4 billion transistors (more than double that of the 8800GTX).
Special attention has also been made to power efficiency with the GTX 200 GPU's, featuring four different power modes rather than the standard 2D/3D modes found on most other cards. Once again referring to information from NVIDIA, these modes will be: 2D mode with a power consumption of 25w, DVD playback mode with a consumption of 35w, 3D performance mode with a worst-case (TDP) consumption of 236w and support for NVIDIA's HybridPower mode, which effectively powers down the GPU and switches to an on-motherboard solution.NVIDIA have also kitted the GTX 280 and 260 with 1GB and 896 MB frame buffers respectively. Ignoring the dual-GPU cards such as the 9800GX2 for one minute, this is an almost double increase in frame buffer from the previous generation cards and should help performance when gaming at high resolutions with anti-aliasing. Memory addressing has also received a bump in spec, with a 512-bit memory interface (up from 384-bit in previous gen) and a modified texture to frame buffer (TEX:FB) ratio to ensure that texture units are not starved for data.
So now that we've got all of the formalities out of the way, let's take a close-up look at MSI's GTX 280 and find out how all of this new tech translates into FPS figures for our avid gamers...
Most Recent Comments
to be honest my experience with nvidia hasnt been that great!
i had a 8800gtx had its replaced Twice
ive had the 9800 gx2 for less then a month and it has been replaced already
blue screens and high temps are some of the things that come free with nvidia cards lol
i like ATI but they have been one step behind hopefully with this card ATI will shine :D
i had a 8800gtx had its replaced Twice
ive had the 9800 gx2 for less then a month and it has been replaced already
blue screens and high temps are some of the things that come free with nvidia cards lol
i like ATI but they have been one step behind hopefully with this card ATI will shine :D
It was the latest from the normal nvidia site mate. Not sure what version, but I can check later if needed.
OS was Vista 32Bit SP1
From what I've heard "around", the 4870 will be able to turn out some decent numbers but not enough to give NV anything to worry about. The 4870x2 however should obliterate all.
...that is until NV decide to make a 280 GX2 which would clean up yet again.
Reason I ask was the last time I installed Vista on my gaming pc, somewhere along the line I had to use rivatuner.. don`t remember totally why, but I know I used to use nTune and found it ok.
I have to reinstall either today or 2morrow and would prefer to use nTune.
Would indeed be mouth watering vS 48xx range testing. I have a feeling AMD/Ati are going to wipe the floor with pricing.
Agreed, interesting to see how ATI are gonna hit back, especially with them doing a few PR events like cinema 2.0 and AMD/ATI Game Initiative....the 48xx range has got to be something special to put them back on a competing foot...time will tell....
Well, i've cancelled the order for my GX2 SSC and i'm going to bite the bullet and get 2x 280 GTX. May as well take full advantage of the 790i and go with a proper sli setup. Am i right in thinking it would be a waste of £££ getting a factory oc'd gpu's and that i'd be better off getting stock ones and clocking them myself?
Depends on the card, but most non factory oc'd cards can be oc'd easily, running my gx2 at the evga SSC edition settings with no problems, probably could squeeze more out of it if I put the fan up...i adjusted the fan once though and it sounded like a vacuum cleaner....
Great review Jim. Nice performer, but the price tag is too much for my pocket. Will you make a review with the gtx260 too? That would be great, because this one is more in my price rank.
Thx again for the review, mate.
Thx again for the review, mate.
Great review Jim. Nice performer, but the price tag is too much for my pocket. Will you make a review with the gtx260 too? That would be great, because this one is more in my price rank.
Thx again for the review, mate.
Yeah I'm sure we will. Just getting some of the ATI ones done at the mo, then we'll pick up whatever we left behind :)
Thats great mate. I was hoping for the ati reviews too. Let the gpu war begin :D.
Ive seen loads of reviews and i agree with what somebody said. I believe newer games and updated drivers will take advantage of this monster. I think this because looking at Vantage scores with single, SLI, and Tri-SLI it ranks supreme over even the GX2. Im also firmly believing (By seeing many different reviews) that this card is being held back by CPU.
With that being said, how well do you think one of these would perform on my 939 system if say i had availibility to 4gig DDR500, x64 Ultimate, and an Opty 175 thats reached 3.1ghz on air? (Serious question guys)
Looking forward to the reivew of the ATI lineup as well.
With that being said, how well do you think one of these would perform on my 939 system if say i had availibility to 4gig DDR500, x64 Ultimate, and an Opty 175 thats reached 3.1ghz on air? (Serious question guys)
Looking forward to the reivew of the ATI lineup as well.
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From what I've heard "around", the 4870 will be able to turn out some decent numbers but not enough to give NV anything to worry about. The 4870x2 however should obliterate all.
...that is until NV decide to make a 280 GX2 which would clean up yet again.