The nVidia GTX 280, Released and Benchmarked.

Worth paying the extra for two of these over two 9800s?

Ya, but this is brand new.

The 8800GT also outperforms some cards made after it and was only 200$ so it happens.

congratz rahja, for creating this engineering marvel.

unfortunately, it's currently nothing more than an engineering marvel. at ~$650 US, i just can't seen how it can sell well. especially if you consider that it gets out performed by a 9800GX2 that's $150 cheaper. yes, it's two GPUs vs one GPU, but still, i think a lot of people (myself included) expected ridiculous performance for that kind of price. and we still haven't seen the HD4870X2 yet.

i might be completely talking out of my ass, but i think nvidia has more or less reached the end of the road with this particular architecture. it is initially more powerful than AMD's HD radeons because of pure brute power. however, i think the HD's architecture is more scalable. if they crank up the scaling with more parts (as seen by the HD4800), the performance goes up dramatically. the same cannot be said for nvidia's architecture.

Mind you I don't actually have two of these obviously, but looking at the specs of the card 2 of these would make 9800s look like shit, lol.

I figured as much. I've no problem spending the cash, but I want good value for my money. If there is little real world gain over a pair of 9800's, I won't bother.

Weill I'm only saying this cause the 2 GPU's only outperform 1 of these slightly, so 2 of these would destroy the 9800s. Most likely own AoC nicely.

Grats sir on the launch.

Well, This is where I need to intergect some different thoughts here. Sli is great. I however think 3-way is a little over rated. Why: only 2 cards run graphics at 2.0 speeds the last 1 runs at pci16 and does physics. Please correct me if I am wrong here. Does anyone else think this is over kill for a physics card? Beleive me when I say I like to over do things but this is a mother of a waste on a physics card.

Also gains have been, for sli:
2way = 50-60%
3way = 65-70%
over the original single card. so the 3rd card has only a slight increase in performance.

also please correct me if I am off here by alot as I may be.

well they sure are pretty, wish I had 3 or 4 but rl has other plans for my money. I am also betting that nivida already has the x460-x480's or what ever they are calling them in production so that radeon has their day and nothing more.

then we need to stop, really, I mean it. Hardware is so far advanced from software. The only game that may give harware a run is stargate and that isn't out for another year+. What do we need this for?

Lookit, Mal - https://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/...tml?EVG-GTX28S (stick OCUk up yer bum - elitist twats).

"Only" £483 inc. VAT. ($945.84)

P.S. - dribbleibbleibbleibble

512 bit!? admael is not impressed!

LOL, I just editted your post with my response. That stupid button placement takes some getting used to!

You izn't? >.< ?

PS: I merged the two threads. I am going to try and rearrange the posts, as it gives me a chance to test out the VB mod functions.

Ignore DarkNecrid he doesn't know what he's talking about. A single 9800GX2 outperforms a single GTX 280. In SLI 2 GTX 280's slightly outperform 2 9800GX2's in SLI. This information is all taking from the AnandTech review so if you're really intrested in the card I highly recommend reading that review and other reviews first. It's a really good card but it's overpriced ATM.

I perhaps sounded a bit harsh in my previous post - the GTX280 is truly an engineering marvel. It would be great to have if money wasn't a issue. I guess everyone was too hyped up and unjustly expected it to outperform two cards/chips.

I hope your joking. That's double most cards, and a fair increase over the previous best, 384 bit. It will be equal to a dual card (256*2) solution.

Malice and DarkNecrid might have been referring to two 9800GTX not GX2 (I think). If they were talking about the 9800GX2, then yes, two GTX280 would only slightly outperform two GX2 at this stage (might change with Drivers).

Yes, I think he was joking. If not.... um /confuzlled?

Oh yeh, and don't forget the GTX 260 in all of this. The 280 might be amazing, but it is pricey. The 260 is equally impressive, and costs a LOT less (399 USD)

The Anandtech testing clearly shows 260 benchmarks as well, and in SLi, those things SCREAM. I also might point out, again, their price. (Oh, and energy use) The GTX 260 is a formidable card priced quite nicely. The GTX 280 is monster card, very pricey, made for only the wealthiest gamers who want to be better than the Jones's stuff down the block. A Tri-SLi setup with 3 GTX 280 cards would be... pardon me... IS pure insanity. It is also pure checking account overdraw for most customers. I don't think I am going to get 1 of these for free, let alone 3 of them. Then again, time will tell.

Why can't I sleep? I have issues....

I'm kidding of course. 512-bit clearly justifies the 600 dollar price tag. That doubles the memory bus of the previous G92 cards.

Dark Kal and Necrid, I went ahead and deleted your previous posts. Let's keep our personal attack toned down okies? I like happiness. You are more then welcome to debate, but the "blind" or insinuating dumbness bits can be left out. You are both smart guys, and I know you can have a civil debate about the card or about pricing or what have you. If you have issues with this, feel free to PM me.

Anywho, carry on everyone. Oh, and the plans for this section are going to be really cool!

Heh yeah, 1 gig at 512 bit seems interesting.

I haven't been able to be around much, been busy the past couple of days and am still going to be for a couple more, so forgive me. If it is urgent then I might be able to jump in though.

One day I would like an in game performance rating for these systems,if one of the mega sytem owners would be kind enough to post one.

Not that I will be getting one but I am curious.

Nah, totally called for.