Reviews - NVIDIA ForceWare 180: GeForce GTX 260 performance realised?

[HEXUS]

NVIDIA's latest drivers arrive with the promise of blazing-fast performance. Do they deliver? We find out.

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[Webby]

Well since you used the cheapest priced 260 you could find you could have done the same for the 4870 which would be £200 (also not in stock ) http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=33741 raises the bang for buck up to 1.22 (still less than the 260 but closer).

If we look at available to buy today (in stock cards from Scan) then the 260 is available for £250 the 4870 for £210 which alters the bang for buck to 1.15 for the 4870 and 1.03 for the 260.

Since the review will not be updated on a regular basis to show changes in price and their effect on the bang for buck perhaps using cards which are actually available to buy when the review is published would be a better measure? As you yourself say its a pre-order card and the price may change (and its unlikely to go down if it does!).

[Zak33]

Something for nothing is nice, for people who are already owners of these cards.
Two of my mates will be very pleased now for example

[sleepyhead]

I'd like to do my own run through between my current drivers (176.something) and this 180 version on an 8800 ultra

I'll post up settings and results in the appropriate section of the forum (hopefully tonight).

It'll be good to see increases in performance similar to what Hexus saw on the GTX260 but alas, i do not have those games!!

[moogle]

alas, i do not have those games!!

You could always download...




















the demos obviously!

[Cichlidash]

Its good to see Nvidia giving a free performance increase here and with luck Ati will strive even harder with their drivers, so us the customers end up winning all around. Well I guess we now need to wait and see what Ati actually manages to do with its next driver set now I think thats out on the 10th December.

[Tarinder]

Well since you used the cheapest priced 260 you could find you could have done the same for the 4870 which would be £200 (also not in stock ) http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=33741 raises the bang for buck up to 1.22 (still less than the 260 but closer).

If we look at available to buy today (in stock cards from Scan) then the 260 is available for £250 the 4870 for £210 which alters the bang for buck to 1.15 for the 4870 and 1.03 for the 260.

Since the review will not be updated on a regular basis to show changes in price and their effect on the bang for buck perhaps using cards which are actually available to buy when the review is published would be a better measure? As you yourself say its a pre-order card and the price may change (and its unlikely to go down if it does!).

Webby,

I am going to make a point of updating this review's HEXUS.bang4buck every three days, to see how pricing is played out.

As always, thanks for your thoughts.

[kalniel]

Good review, especially the benchmark choices which really show how nVidia have been working hard to improve performance on games they didn't do so well on before.

[crazy]

ATI have new catalyst drivers coming in December

[Webby]

Tarinder good to hear

Would it be feasible to compile a bang for buck page for all cards tested since the benchmarks changed? Maybe having 4 graphs bang for buck at 2560*1600, 1920*1200, 1680*1050 and 1280*1024. If that was then updated once a week or even fortnight it would give a good indication of where things stand, you could even reference the pricing from this thread http://forums.hexus.net/graphics-car...-x-thread.html which I update approximately once a week to save you hunting out the best prices. Or I guess if you just used Scan and/or Ebuyer you would get a reasonable idea of current pricing.

Just a thought would also allow people who have 1680*1050 monitors to see how much more benefit they would get perhaps from a 4870 over a 4850 for example where you would normally only publish the 1920*1200 bang for buck.

[moogle]

Just a thought would also allow people who have 1680*1050 monitors to see how much more benefit they would get perhaps from a 4870 over a 4850 for example where you would normally only publish the 1920*1200 bang for buck.

It would be better I agree, for example if one card is trumped by another in almost all the 1920 tests it could be on par with the same card in the 1680 or 1280 tests and save someone quite a bit of cash if they were using the review to help them decide what card to get.

[this_is_gav]

ATI have new catalyst drivers coming in December

If you haven't noticed yet, ATI have new Catalyst drivers every month. The clue is in the 8.8, 8.9, 8.10, 8.11, 8.12, 9.1, 9.2 etc.

[sp3n]

excellent - performance upgrade for free! well definetly been upgrading my drivers now

[b0redom]

Does anyone know if there's a similar performance increase for the GTX280?

[Webby]

I would say yes, but that is purely based on the assumption that the optimisations will aid cards of the same architecture similarly.

[kalniel]

I would say yes, but that is purely based on the assumption that the optimisations will aid cards of the same architecture similarly.

Unless, of course, your GTX280 isn't the limiting factor, which is more than possible.