The where to buy a GTX 280 thread

[staffsMike]

Well if the leaked results are anothing to go by the Hd4850 is percetly resaonable for 1920 x 1200 so the HD3470 will be prefect for it.

Unless you absolutely need to run everything with full AA all the time then there is little point spending all that money, it doesn't makes sense even if you are richy rich and can afford to.

They won't be better no, but they will be plenty good enough.

[FifthFreedom]

Yeah, and I'd rather spend half the money and upgrade twice as often.

Then you always have the upper hand.

Lol I guess I just hate waiting...

I have all the other parts now, so there just sitting there waiting for pixels.

I can tell my Antec 1200 is unhappy... ^^

[staffsMike]

Well even if you do want the nvidia, assuming the ATi cards are what we think they are.. nvidia will have to lower their prices to be competetive for the bulk of the market.

Having the best card is great.. but not if you ask as much as they are for it when ATi are doing a decent enough job at half the price lol

[Fraz]

Anyone know if graphics cards such as the GTX280 are actually making use of PCI-E 2.0? I.e. is having a PCI-E v1 mobo going to start bottlenecking these things?

[staffsMike]

I doubt it. Doesn't seem to affect the GX2.

[Noxvayl]

Very narrow-minded view of things.

I've been following these releases for a while as the lowest res my monitor supports is 1920x1200. There are a couple of games I cannot play that I would like to because of this. The GTX280 was a potential candidate for resolving this, alas its still a bit too slow for my liking.

You also must realise that everyone has a different amount of disposable income. What seems prohibitively expensive to one person, can be pocket change to another.

Basically, anything is worth it if it does what you want and you can afford to buy it. Anything else and compromises have to be made somewhere

Narrow minded? Is that why you fit into one of the categories? Being rich doesn't mean you have to be stupid at the same time you know. Just having money to spend shouldn't necessarily mean you should through it away on items that aren't worth it.

Well if the leaked results are anothing to go by the Hd4850 is percetly resaonable for 1920 x 1200 so the HD3470 will be prefect for it.

Unless you absolutely need to run everything with full AA all the time then there is little point spending all that money, it doesn't makes sense even if you are richy rich and can afford to.

They won't be better no, but they will be plenty good enough.

Precisely. At a high resolution there is no need for AA and some could even argue that AF could be turned down as well because the higher resolution naturally does these things already. The whole point of AA is to make lower resolutions looks as good as higher resolutions because of the lack of pixels to produce a smooth picture. Your resolution produces smooth pictures by default so AA is wasted power tbh as it basically smooths already smooth lines. You don't require a card that can turn everything to full at higher res because it looks better with higher res already.

I doubt it. Doesn't seem to affect the GX2.

I haven't noticed any reviews comparing the two tbh so wouldn't really know. My guess is that it would have more of an effect on the GTX280 than the 9800GX2 because of its higher bandwidth and likewise for the other cards with high bandwidth. The thing is we aren't really sure what those gains would be yet as I haven't seen them get tested.

[staffsMike]

From what I read some time ago I grant you, PCIe 8x was pretty much enough to run 8800's to within the high 90%'s of what PCIe x16 could.

So i'm pretty sure PCIe x16 has some life in it yet.

[Noxvayl]

From what I read some time ago I grant you, PCIe 8x was pretty much enough to run 8800's to within the high 90%'s of what PCIe x16 could.

So i'm pretty sure PCIe x16 has some life in it yet.

Good point. Was it an article on crossfire by any chance as I seem to recall something similar myself, you jogged my memory

I guess from that you could safely say PCI-E2.0 wouldn't hold much of an advantage, it might be slight but nothing any one would notice anyway.

[Bugbait]

Smells like a bit of jealously on this thread. Price aside the GTX280 is the fastest single GPU card on the market. If you need the extra performance, can't or don't wish to use SLI (includes GX2) then what other options are there? I read talk about bang for buck and price/performance ratio. What's the point of having a good price/performance ratio when the game you want to play at a certain resolution and setting only runs at 10fps?

Sure, if you don't need it and you just want the latest and greatest for ePeen reasons then knock yourself out. However, there are plenty of gamers around with the disposable income and desire to run their games faster. Power to them.

[Bugbait]

Narrow minded? Is that why you fit into one of the categories? Being rich doesn't mean you have to be stupid at the same time you know. Just having money to spend shouldn't necessarily mean you should through it away on items that aren't worth it.

What is worth? If you spend £500 on something that is slower and inferior in every way to something that's £300 then yes, that's arguably stupid. If you're spending £500 on something that's better in almost every way, except price to something that's £300 then the worth is subjective and relative to the user. You might think it's stupid for someone to spend double the amount for 25% (just random numbers) extra performance but for them the extra 25% could be the difference between enjoyable and annoyance.

[staffsMike]

It's not jealousy from my point of view. I could happly afford one of these if I wanted one.

The fact of the matter is, the 8800/9800GTX offers the bangs you need for 1920 x 1200.

The HD3870x2 and 9800GX2 offer way in excess of the bangs you need for 1920 x 1200.

The 280 just takes the piss. Not many people need that sort of power right now. In a year or so it might be different but in a year or so it might be at a reasonable price.

[Colossous]

http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3334&p=11

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.ph...1&limitstart=8

In both these reviews above the Gx2 is better at high res, granted early drivers etc but for a card thats considerably more expensive than the Gx2 it is still a bit daft to spend that much money on the new one !!
Wait untill the new ATI cards are out if only to see if the prices drop.

[shaithis]

Narrow minded? Is that why you fit into one of the categories? Being rich doesn't mean you have to be stupid at the same time you know. Just having money to spend shouldn't necessarily mean you should through it away on items that aren't worth it.

Firstly, I am FAR from being rich. Secondly, I am FAR from being stupid.

In fact, you are the only person in this thread to show stupidity.......So, perhaps you need to go away and have a think about how the world can be viewed differently by different people. Your view on things is not the be-all and end-all of everything. Seriously, get over yourself.

[Noxvayl]

Firstly, I am FAR from being rich. Secondly, I am FAR from being stupid.

In fact, you are the only person in this thread to show stupidity.......So, perhaps you need to go away and have a think about how the world can be viewed differently by different people. Your view on things is not the be-all and end-all of everything. Seriously, get over yourself.

When have I said my view point is the be all and end all? My view point is mine and mine alone and I don't expect you to understand it nor accept it for that matter.

[Bugbait]

The fact of the matter is, the 8800/9800GTX offers the bangs you need for 1920 x 1200.

The HD3870x2 and 9800GX2 offer way in excess of the bangs you need for 1920 x 1200.

That's a pretty broad statement and far from "fact". Crysis anyone? Even the ancient WoW won't run at 60fps+ all the time at 1920x1200 with a 8800GTX (I have one and play WoW regularly at that resolution) with everything on maximum, although it's not far off. I would say the 9800GX2 is a good match for 1920x1200 but excess would be a stretch. My 8800GTX struggles with some CNC3 battles, although that could be due to the game's rendering engine too.

EDIT: I bought the 8800GTX when it first came out and paid over around £400 give or take for the privilege (sarcasm). At the time I thought it was overkill for anything I wanted to play and it was partly true. Over a year and a half later and extensive gaming it's still kicking along. Even in hindsight I think it was money well spent, all things considered.

[shaithis]

When have I said my view point is the be all and end all? My view point is mine and mine alone and I don't expect you to understand it nor accept it for that matter.

The sheer fact that you cannot accept that this card is useful/worth it to someone shows that you do not accept any view but your own.

You've made your mind up and everyone else is wrong.