Reviews - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280: does it rock our world?

[HEXUS]

NVIDIA unleashes GeForce GTX 280 hell. A beast from the Underworld or a mere shadow of G80? We tell you.

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[neonplanet40]

Underwhelmed to say the least and i don't think it deserved any awards.

I'm sure AMD/ATI will bring out a better perfomance/price ratio card and that will be the one i get as thats just silly money for to be quite fair, below par performance. Rivalled and bested at times by 18 month old technology? Not what i was expecting to be honest.

[Biscuit]

^ What he said ^

TBH i was getting quite excited about these cards as i have been holding off on buying any real upgrade as there isnt anything that i can really justify replacing atm EXCEPT my monitor. If i did get a new monitor i would have to get a new GFX card to deal with the resolutions. I thought this may be the one but at that price its just not worth it, maybe they will suprise us with the GTX260 although i wont hold my breath

[Stringent]

£400+ for a graphics card? No way. Plus I'd rather wait for the DX10.1 compliant cards to come out, and because this is new there are bound to be bugs. Noise as well can be looked at in a later revision.

I was kinda hoping these would pull me away from a core upgrade (CPU, MOBO, RAM) but its not. My 7950GX2 is quite good for now.

[neonplanet40]

it seems that if you really NEED an upgrade now. then the 9800GX2 is the card to get. Not this and even then id wait for amd/ati's cards to see how they perform. And they are def going to be cheaper that that!

[directhex]

the 64-bit precision is what excites me (professionally). and you may be pleasantly surprised at the performance hit compared to the 8x slowdown on paper

[j.o.s.h.1408]

what a waste

[MadduckUK]

really its should have been a stock clocked version. however the results would have been even less impressive in that case

[Tarinder]

The clock increases are marginal, MadduckUK.

The core is up two per cent and the shaders up four per cent. Memory remains reference-clocked.

Mentally, knock off a couple of per cent and you have a stock-clocked version's scores.

[dangel]

it seems that if you really NEED an upgrade now. then the 9800GX2 is the card to get. Not this and even then id wait for amd/ati's cards to see how they perform. And they are def going to be cheaper that that!

I stayed away from the GX2 because it's an SLI card - I just don't want the hassle frankly. I was hoping the 280 would provide that in a single chip card

[MadduckUK]

so in a bragging right only, stock vs stock. is the 280 faster than a gx2 in COH? a few percent is all that would be needed to turn that from a 280 win into a gx2.

suddenly the analysis of that game takes on a different tone.

i ask becuae im guessing (hoping) most people here wouldnt go and pay extra for "the same card but with different clocks", and would rather have a "level" figure to clock up from on there own.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

imo the 280 is a waste. too pricey and not worth over £350 for it

[shadowmaster]

These cards are know doubt powerful but at £300 for the 260, and £470 for the 280, they are awful value for money.

I'm curious to see now how the 4850 and 4870 performs

[kalniel]

imo the 280 is a waste. too pricey and not worth over £350 for it

You already said that a few posts up

I think it's pretty impressive actually. Price aside, you're getting twice the previous generation chips performance. Whatever we say about value for money there will always be these extreme products that aim to be the best at whatever the price.

[moogle]

yet another half assed card by nvidia.
will there ever be another great card?
doesn't look like it..

[directhex]

i'm still professionally excited. it's a really game-changing product from where i'm sat