New Nvidia Cards Nearly Double GPU Performance
Whereas the massive 9800 GX2 runs in a two-GPU SLI configuration, the GTX 280 and 260 still only have one GPU. However, that single GPU nearly matches and even exceeds the performance of the GX2's two in many tests.
Once Nvidia enables SLI for the GTA 280 and 260 cards, it will most likely result in a near doubling of performance for top-of-the-line PC video cards. AMD-owned rival ATI is also expected to be announcing a new line of cards in the next few weeks.
As expected, the GTX 280 and GTX 260 performance comes at a significant price. While the 9800 GX2 can be bought for $470, the GTX 260 will go for $400 while the GTX 280 is priced at $650.
Though the GTX line only has one GPU, the physical card and its attached cooling mechanism still occupy the space of two PC card slots. As with the equally-massive 9800 GX2, the card only plugs into one PC slot.
At present, the usage rates of the GeForce 9800 GX appear extremely low, as the hardware does not even appear in a list of the 40-plus most common video cards installed by Steam users. The GeForce 8800, utilized by 9.36% of survey respondents, currently tops the chart.
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CoreContingency
replyShow me the games and I'll show you the money. Great hardware, but I just don't see the market for it. Every new game is going to be built around the lowest common denominator; the graphics capabilities of the PS3 and 360.
I have two 8800GTX's in SLI. They will run damn near anything at 1920x1080 for me in with the graphics cranked to max. Well, everything but Crysis. A game to even which the developers have eluded to is not optimized as well as it could have been.
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to be fair, we're just now about to start getting cards significantly faster than the 8800gtx from.. late 2006?
with far cry's hdr patch (their sort of v.high settings) i think the cards of the time couldn't really do it either for the most part.
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It was the same way for the 8800 GTX, but we are seeing games now that finally bring it to its knees. What you're paying for by being an early adopter is longevity.
In any case though, a GTX 280 is only ever going be to slightly faster than two 8800 GTXs in SLI, so you may as well wait until the next generation.-
We are? I still play games in 1920x1200. To it's knees implies running like shit in 1024x768, which no game not even Crysis can do. Crysis can't run in massive resolutions, but lowering it to 1280x800 is just fine. Least it is for me anyway. Might have to lower some settings.
However besides Crysis I run pretty much everything in 1920 on max details. Not sure I see a need for a new card just yet. These cards are for 7 series owners.
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Yeah I run a mix of high and very high (set in the cfg files because I'm running XP...so I have to trick it to use some of the effects I like)...and at 1280x960 it runs pretty damned well. Vista/DX10 is just a bad combo for that game...Vista is slower than XP, DX10 is more demanding, and Crysis is a demanding beast to begin with. It seems that the best places to trim/prune to get performance and great visuals are the resolution (this is why I still refuse to buy an LCD for my desktop monitor...I HATE the native resolution limitations), and DX10 (while its nice...some of the nice features are available in DX9 with some work in the config file). And I've found that XP is still nice and fast compared to Vista (I intend to get Vista and dual boot at some point for DX10 stuff...but I just don't feel really compelled to do it).
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Which are due out in what, 3-4 years? Certainly don't need a $600 card to play endless UE3 based games for the next 3 years when my current rig laughs at that engine.
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