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Looks a decent bump in efficiency but I am not sure about the pricing TBH.
Emm,what??The Maxwell architecture is able to do more with less silicon real estate than ever before, thus likely helping Nvidia's gross profit margins compared to AMD's current performance-comparable GPUs that require almost twice the die-size.
The GM107 is 148MM2 and the Pitcairn GPU is 212MM2. That is 43% bigger and the R7 265 uses a die salvaged chip too. Please can you change that part of the review as it is massively inaccurate.
Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 18-02-2014 at 03:14 PM.
Tarinder (18-02-2014)
If it had the bigger bus cards in that price bracket have, maybe. But that tiny little 128-bit bus is a hell of a bottleneck on this, and at that price it's no sale.
The cooler looks quite, well unpleasant. Surely a larger single slot design would have been just as effective, more like that of an old single slot 6670, Then at-least it may be more appealing to users of Small Form Factor PC with highly limited space
I know I am being a bit of a git about this but the fully enabled Pitcairn die(212MM2) is being used in the R9 270X,which is another level of performance above the GTX750TI. For instance,the R9 270X is around 35% faster in Crysis3 and 45% faster in BF4:
http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphi...axwell/?page=7
http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphi...axwell/?page=5
So in terms of die area,they are quite comparable for performance/mm2 IMHO,although Pitcairn has to include a 256 bit memory controller in the die which takes up more space.
I think the better comparison might be to the Bonaire XT GPU in the R7 260X which is around 160MM2 including a 128 bit memory controller,and is anything from similar speed to upto 15% to 20% slower. However,part of the die area is taken up by the Tensilica audio DSP too which Pitcairn lacks. OTH,even compared to a die salvaged Pitcairn graphics card,Bonaire does poorly regarding power consumption,especially so when compared to the GM107. It does make me wonder whether that DSP is not helping for some reason.
Ultimately,the GM107 gives Bonaire XT a bit of a bloody nose and performance/watt looks very good as a whole.
Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 18-02-2014 at 03:53 PM.
What CAT-THE-FIFTH said
Wondering why NV is launching this card on Maxwell instead of faster cards... but thinking about it they are using this to showcase for laptop OEMs. With Apple dropping NV for AMD, they need to get more laptop OEMS back in the game. Guess we'll see if it plays off.
Of course the cynic in me says they are waiting for Keplar cards to sell before bringing Maxwell in. Or maybe higher spec cards arent meeting fab targets, just like the drama with Fermi chips. ****ty wafer yeilds.
At this point we don't know if higher end cards will exist at 28nmOriginally Posted by mercyground
#correction
"comprising of a 128-bit memory interface" --> "comprising a 128-bit memory interface" or "composed of a 128-bit memory interface"
Goodly review nonetheless
It amazes me how many of these boards have over the top dual fan designs.
Just keep it simple and keep it cheap.
The problem is that a crappy heatsink is mostly likely going to affect sustained boost clockspeeds,especially if aggressively implemented and the card goes past its TDP limits for short periods. Non-deterministic boost has no real upper limit. Its the problem with all this agressive clock boosting tech from Nvidia and AMD. In the past cards really only downclocked to save power,so it would be easier to design a heatsink to maintain performance over a wide range of conditions. Things are not so straight cut now.
Well the reference card manages to sustain top boost indefinitely, so I don't think it needs much in the way of cooling.
I mean that's the whole point of this card, low power, low heat.
Whereas I agree the long twin fan MSI card is a bit silly,plonking one of those coolers with the tiny high spinning fan and basic aluminium heatsink is just as bad. I can remember those single slot ones years ago - they were noisy under load.
My 7600GT,7900GS,X1900GT and HD5670 had them and they were not very good for sound characteristics.
The only reason I got a GTX660 is since the SKU had lowest power limits of any of the Nvidia boost enabled cards,meaning most cards top out at the same boost speeds,so it is more consistent than a number of other SKUs.
NV Boost only has a guaranteed minimum clockspeed boost and can boost beyond spec for short periods. What reviews mention are average clockspeeds,not the maximum - at least that is what I can gleam from them. The problem is reference cards like the GTX760 and Geforce Titan started throttling after 5 to 15 minutes of continual boost. The GTX660TI did the same thing to a lesser degree. You are lucky to see even two to three minute test sequences in most reviews. Non-reference cards don't have this issue. I would rather that a better heatsink be used,than a tiny crappy one,especially if it is going to be in case for a few years full of dust,and they will be quieter too.
The sort of market I would be recommending this card for,would be in cramped HTPC cases and upgrades for systems with more maginal PSUs. I would rather a better cooler be installed from the get go,as it is unlikely the cases will have much ventilation.
Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 18-02-2014 at 08:48 PM.
mercyground (19-02-2014)
Who will be first to market with a passive version? They're likely to get my money.
Noisy under load?
Difference between reference and custom is marginal at best.
Reading around this review and some of the other material out today on Maxwell releases, I suddenly realised what the real target for this card is ... Steam boxes.
A 60W 1080p gaming card? Frugal enough to run on a Pico PSU with a low power processor. Got to be, surely?
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