Retailer spills the beans on GTX280

[j.o.s.h.1408]

Yeah, but if people wanted to have the issues that come with SLi they should just buy a 9800 GX2. It beats the GTX 280 in most tests and you can find it for £300 online.

NVIDIA have produced the single fastest graphics card ever made and noone wants it. Thats quite laughable really.... Maybe if it wasn't for the 9800 GX2 and the price was £350 people would buy a GTX 280 easier...

The point of it being the fastest single card is not why where laughing. where laughing because its only 40-50% faster then a 8800gtx. a card thats been out nearly 2 years. NOW THATS COMEDY right there

[shaithis]

The point of it being the fastest single card is not why where laughing. where laughing because its only 40-50% faster then a 8800gtx. a card thats been out nearly 2 years. NOW THATS COMEDY right there

and if they get another 50% out of it in the next 6 months, they will still be on target for Moores law.

I fail to see whats to laugh at though? The card isn't "light years ahead" but then who the hell expects that?

People very quickly forget (or perhaps they just have never experienced) past history in the graphics card market. Its just business as usual.

[dangel]

People very quickly forget (or perhaps they just have never experienced) past history in the graphics card market. Its just business as usual.

NVIDIA set the bar themselves though - the 8 series. After the 'refresh' of the 9 series, and so much time in between, people naturally expected another big(ger) jump. Couple that with the (frankly) withering price tag and it kinda adds up. For me anyway.

Apparently, i'm not the only one: http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/14...280/index.html I'm with him - 9800GX2 + 40% would of been 'nice'

Two 4850's are faster and (yet) cheaper so it says..

[ikix]

It does seem to add up but i think the GX2 makes any jump seem non existant, but then SLI would do tht.

I have just read on fudzilla that apparantly nVidia is going to release some new drivers for the 9800GTX which are meant to bring some quite big performance jumps for it with some inside apparantly calling it 9800GTX+, so intentionally goofing out the card for no reason, GREAT!

[SiM]

It does seem to add up but i think the GX2 makes any jump seem non existant, but then SLI would do tht.

I have just read on fudzilla that apparantly nVidia is going to release some new drivers for the 9800GTX which are meant to bring some quite big performance jumps for it with some inside apparantly calling it 9800GTX+, so intentionally goofing out the card for no reason, GREAT!

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?op...7975&Itemid=34

That would be awesome!!

[Noxvayl]

and if they get another 50% out of it in the next 6 months, they will still be on target for Moores law.

I fail to see whats to laugh at though? The card isn't "light years ahead" but then who the hell expects that?

People very quickly forget (or perhaps they just have never experienced) past history in the graphics card market. Its just business as usual.

Taking what you have said where we expect a 50% performance increases every 6 months or so we should have had 200% performance gains over the 8800GTX by now shouldn't we? Granted for the past 2 years ATI have slumped to an all time low not being able to achieve much performance gains over them selves and falling way behind nvidia. Then for nVidia they got there 50% improvement over the 7800 series with 8800GTX but then proceeded to wait 2 years instead of 6 months(which 6 months is the norm not 2 years) for there next 50% increase. Quite far behind expectations based on your assessment of the way the market should be moving.

Basically the way I see it is that the market has slowed down significantly and nVidia is to blame for being complacent and milking the 8800 series for more than it was ever necessary to do. ATI is also to blame for not being able to push nvidia to progress but why the hell does nvidia need some one kicking them up the ass before they do something? You don't see Intel sitting back saying oh well we are so far ahead of AMD we can sit back and rest for a while. They are still going ahead as planned launching the nehalem this year and they are steaming forward with Larrabee which is going to be a beast whatever AMD do they need to do it FAST as they might be swallowed by Intel soon if they are not careful.

Sure its just business as usual but from my point of view its bad business and its a major shafting to there customers who have come to expect so much more from them in the past.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

well said

[ikix]

Basically the way I see it is that the market has slowed down significantly and nVidia is to blame for being complacent and milking the 8800 series for more than it was ever necessary to do. ATI is also to blame for not being able to push nvidia to progress but why the hell does nvidia need some one kicking them up the ass before they do something? You don't see Intel sitting back saying oh well we are so far ahead of AMD we can sit back and rest for a while. They are still going ahead as planned launching the nehalem this year and they are steaming forward with Larrabee which is going to be a beast whatever AMD do they need to do it FAST as they might be swallowed by Intel soon if they are not careful.

Sure its just business as usual but from my point of view its bad business and its a major shafting to there customers who have come to expect so much more from them in the past.

All business really, although it sucks in terms of what you have said a good businessman looking to make MONEY would just sit and milk the 8 series while the competition is very weak and then compete the 'next round' with their next series rather than having to create another one just to compete with the new offering from the other company.

[Bugbait]

Granted for the past 2 years ATI have slumped to an all time low not being able to achieve much performance gains over them selves and falling way behind nvidia.

That's the key right there. R&D is expensive. Why show all your cards when you don't have to? Sure, consumers will love it but it makes poor business sense. Once a card is released it's all about recouping R&D expenses incurred in developing it. If you still have the fastest card on the market then why release a better product before you need to? This would only reduce your profit margin.

Basically the way I see it is that the market has slowed down significantly and nVidia is to blame for being complacent and milking the 8800 series for more than it was ever necessary to do.

Nvidia may have bigger and better technology up their sleeves but until AMD step up to the plate and challenge them then why bother? It makes perfect business sense to milk the 8 series for all it's worth since it has been so successful.

Sure its just business as usual but from my point of view its bad business and its a major shafting to there customers who have come to expect so much more from them in the past.

How is it bad business? Customers can moan all they want but what are they going to do about it? Threaten to only use AMD from now on? Some might but emotions aside it's not the smartest thing to adopt an inferior product out of spite, you only hurt yourself. Sure, I agree that Nvidia aren't doing the best for the consumer but it's about their bottom line at the end of the day.

[kalniel]

We need the market to slow.

Developers can't make money from titles that don't run well on consoles. The PC only needs enough power to scale up performance in line with increased resolution of high end displays. Ultra-high end display is a very niche and expensive market, so ultra-high end graphics can be the same.

[dangel]

The higher the high end - the better the midrange. I'd rather it got faster again

[kalniel]

The higher the high end - the better the midrange. I'd rather it got faster again

Yeah but there aren't that many e-peen affictionados in the mainstream market

[SiM]

Yeah but there aren't that many e-peen affictionados in the mainstream market

Me!

[MadduckUK]

you've got an 9800gtx, that's not mainstream

[Hicks12]

we need game developers to slow and same with the cards, the developers are pushing cards to the limit because its new, look at the 360 and ps3 they have an eqivilant of a 7800 and yet they can pump out graphics near the level of 8800 etc? because the developers have had time to use the hardware to its full potential, in theory a 8800 series will beat a 7800 in every possible test but then the developers just jump to the next card as soon as its out. I have no doubt crysis could be very playable on an 8800 series card(gt/gts etc) on max if they were able to enhance it instead of moving onto what would appear to be the gtx280 etc.

At the moment its nvidia/ati that have to design cards for games but it should really be the other way round, games are designed on the technology today not later.

[SiM]

you've got an 9800gtx, that's not mainstream

I thought it was.
Low-mid: 9600 series
Mainstream: 8800gt-9800gtx
High end: GT260 - 9800GX2