I just bought a GTX 280. Feel free to comment on how stupid I am.

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Yes, I know very few games are currently pushing hardware. I know my lack of ability to play on a 30" monitor means I won't garner nearly enough benefit to make the price/performance ratio worth it. Yes, ATI may very well come out with a series next week that trumps it.

But I like new things because they're cool and shiny, and I felt like I was itching for an upgrade. Also, the benchmarks I've seen suggest this card is much more capable of taking on AA with much less than usual performance loss. Finally someone offered to buy my 8800GTX for $300 so I said why the hell not.

Wish me luck.

Or call me an idiot with too much extra income. Both are true.

I think you're awesome and I wish I could buy one.

I think in time you will come to realize this yourself =P. Looking at all the research that has been done on this card thus far shows that it under performs many of its predecessors. I'm getting pretty tired of the newer model GPU's being worse than the old ones, it leads to a lot of misconceptions for the consumer.

Can I touch you?

Also, the 260 could be a sweet "budget" card if it overclocks consistently along the lines of hardocp's sample, at least after the first price drop.

To be fair, you had that $300 stepping stone so it's not as bad as you initially make out. Without that money covering the move from an 8800 to a GTX 280 i wouldn't have done it... but considering it was there.... i'd be 90% certain to be in the same situation you are now

I have an 8800GTS 640. May be getting the 260 if it overclocks. Thank you OU and your gratuitous monies.

And your mother dresses you funny!

Ah, the days before the money pits of home ownership and children. Enjoy!

Well, it MAY have been stupid, but you probably won't know for four to six weeks.

Malor wrote:

Well, it MAY have been stupid, but you probably won't know for four to six weeks.

Also known as the "oh sh*t we need to release some decent drivers for this before the serfs rebel" time.

CrashedHardrive wrote:

I think in time you will come to realize this yourself =P. Looking at all the research that has been done on this card thus far shows that it under performs many of its predecessors.

To be fair, a lot of the research suggested the 8800GTX underperformed compared to two 7900GTX's in SLI or similar setups when it first arrived. Not saying this is the same thing, but that it usually takes a couple months of driver optimization and titles that can take advantage of the horsepower to come out until it's clear how good a card is.

Regardless, while chances of the card proving it's high price is extremely unlikely, I don't think this will be obsolete in what in can handle for the near future.

nossid wrote:

Also, the 260 could be a sweet "budget" card if it overclocks consistently along the lines of hardocp's sample, at least after the first price drop.

Yeah, I was planning on just getting the 260, so I have no idea what came over me. I felt like a sucker the second I did it. That said, I figure if I upgrade to a new monitor or something else in the next year or so, I won't have to second guess if my video card will be up to the task, nor wonder if running a title in DX10 will be too much of a performance hit. Also, I live in an older building, so even if the ATI cards prove to be a worthy competitor I would feel too nervous running a dual-GPU setup in my room.

If I hadn't just bought guns I'd have one myself.

You are not stupid. You just have no willpower, much like me.

I'll be there with you in a few weeks, but I'm waiting to hear what ATI has to show first I'd love to hear some hands on impressions compared to your 8800GTX.

Supposedly ATI isn't even attempting to compete for the top single card anymore, so if you just want one card.. The 280/260 are going to be the way to go.

Although Anandtech recommends the 9800GX2 as a better buy right now at $150 less and better performance in most high end titles.

Thin_J wrote:

Although Anandtech recommends the 9800GX2 as a better buy right now at $150 less and better performance in most high end titles.

Yeah, but the increased power usage that might cause problems at the older house I live in, combined with the much more heat and noise, and it starts becoming less desirable to me. Plus, I'm wary of dual-GPU setups. I've had two friends who did it and hated it immensely because of the poor scaling with many games that aren't AAA and the microstuttering problem.

Also, for every review that has the 9800GX2 doing better than the 280 in recent games, many including PC Gamer, Legit Reviews, Hardware Canucks, DriverHeaven, etc. have the opposite results. I tend to take benchmarks with a huge heaping of salt because they're always so all over the place. I'm also not planning on playing on a resolution as high as those that would have the benefits of a dual GPU.

Also, I need to deny that this purchase was anything other than the wisest decision I could make. Give me that.

Kuddles, the 9800 is operating on a very similar(like someone cloned them and f*cked up a little bit) chip to the 8800GT series. Therefore the drivers optimize better. Give it 4 weeks to get some better drivers and it will probably start preforming better.

AT least you got a good price for your old card.

kuddles wrote:

Also, I need to deny that this purchase was anything other than the wisest decision I could make. Give me that.

It is the wisest decision you could make. Congratulations sir on your boundless wisdom. May your card kick ass for five years

Thin_J wrote:

Supposedly ATI isn't even attempting to compete for the top single card anymore, so if you just want one card.. The 280/260 are going to be the way to go.

Although Anandtech recommends the 9800GX2 as a better buy right now at $150 less and better performance in most high end titles.

That's not what the rumours are. The rumours are that ATI's top next-gen card narrowly beats or equals the GTX280 in performance.

Where'd you end up getting that card? I can't possibly afford one but I was curious because my guys I deal with at PC Cyber didn't have any yet. Usually when I go in to buy some stock, they're bugging me to buy something new and shiny.

I buy the majority of computer stuff from Direct Canada (which is just a no-frills division of the same people who run NCIX). Service has always been fantastic for me and this time was no exception. Bought it yesterday afternoon and it arrived at my house from Vancouver shortly after I left for work.

The exceptions to that are when I'm building for someone else who is uncomfortable about online shopping, so I just use PC Cyber or GamePower in the Glebe. I also buy monitors locally because they tend to be the most likely to have some weird issues and I don't want the hassle of doing an exchange to an online store.

Duoae wrote:

That's not what the rumours are. The rumours are that ATI's top next-gen card narrowly beats or equals the GTX280 in performance.

I think you're reading the wrong sites, but we'll see.

Thin_J wrote:
Duoae wrote:

That's not what the rumours are. The rumours are that ATI's top next-gen card narrowly beats or equals the GTX280 in performance.

I think you're reading the wrong sites, but we'll see.

http://www.unleashonetera.com/

1 Teraflop is just slightly higher than 933....

Plus there were other rumours before this site went up. Now, i don't want to conclude something completely random but i think that ATI/AMD would have a hard time justifying advertising a teraflop card if they didn't at least make 1000 flops.

Duoae wrote:

Plus there were other rumours before this site went up. Now, i don't want to conclude something completely random but i think that ATI/AMD would have a hard time justifying advertising a teraflop card if they didn't at least make 1000 flops.

Sounds like Sony marketing.

Seriously, though, I think the skepticism comes from AMD/ATI's extensive recent history of turning out hardware that is mostly underwhelming compared to Nvidia's best products. I'm skeptical too, but I'd be delighted to see the next high end Radeon really come out swinging.

You should post some screenshots with details cranked on Political Machine 2008. Or Dwarf Fortress!

I kid, I kid.

I just upgraded from a 7900GT to an 8800GT and I'm semi-regretting it. Good luck to you with your purchase, I don't know what you play or how you play it (i.e. DX10 or not) but I found that I probably didn't need to upgrade yet.

Podunk wrote:

I'm skeptical too, but I'd be delighted to see the next high end Radeon really come out swinging.

Yeah, as I said, my original goal was to wait until next week and pick up a 260. I was well aware of the rumors about ATI potentially having the superior tech for a lower price when I made my ill-fated choice. If I get burned by being a stupid early adopter, so be it. Even if the results came out in their favour I probably would have gotten the 260 anyways, I've had too much of a bad experience with the last two ATI cards I owned.

Besides, I'm not too worried about it. I don't see myself getting a monitor above 1920 X 1200 anytime in the near future. Thus, I may end up feeling bitter about spending $650 on a card less powerful than one that is $400, but at the same time, i'll be playing the vast majority of games on the highest settings above my monitor's refresh rate either way so it's not like I'll see much of the performance loss.

kuddles wrote:
Thin_J wrote:

Although Anandtech recommends the 9800GX2 as a better buy right now at $150 less and better performance in most high end titles.

Yeah, but the increased power usage that might cause problems at the older house I live in, combined with the much more heat and noise, and it starts becoming less desirable to me. Plus, I'm wary of dual-GPU setups. I've had two friends who did it and hated it immensely because of the poor scaling with many games that aren't AAA and the microstuttering problem.

Also, I need to deny that this purchase was anything other than the wisest decision I could make. Give me that.

Reality is a crutch for the undermedicated.
http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3334

I have been hearing that the new nvidia cards are louder, run hotter, and have slightly worse performance than the 9800gx2. This is from numerous benchmarks and people on the nvidia forums that already bought it. Let us know how it runs, but from the many reviews I read it doesn't bode well. Who knows what will happen when the optimized drivers come out, but little can be done about the heat and noise...which means no Overclocking for those tweak enthusiasts out there.

but little can be done about the heat and noise...which means no Overclocking for those tweak enthusiasts out there.

Well there are these little things called water cooling systems many of which connect to your GPU...

I don't know I think the GTX280 looks great just not $650 great. I think it's a bit silly to compare it to two 9800 GTX's sandwiched together on the same PCB and then say this card sucks. Especially since multiple GPU solutions don't really perform as well as they should with all games.

I'd say if the GTX280 were $50 more than the 9800GX2 i'd buy it over the 9800GX2 in a heartbeat but with the price being $150 more it just doesn't make sense to me at the moment. I'm also betting the performance delta from the 9800GX2 will widen with future driver updates.

Well, all the benchmarks for Crysis on the XP "fake" Very High settings with EdgeAA enabled at 2 at 1920 X 1200 managed to stay above 25 FPS, and sometimes hit pass 60, so that's pretty cool. I'm still not going to claim it's worth the jump from my GTX for anyone not as wasteful with their income as me, I'm not that delusional, but I'm happy especially considering these are preliminary drivers. I had a business function to go to tonight so I'll have to test it in Vista 64 in DX10 later.

Also, the noise is nowhere near as bad as the reviews are claiming. Maybe it gets worse at higher resolutions, but it's only noticeably louder than my previous card if I'm deliberately trying to listen to it. Could get louder during longer play sessions but I'ld say it's nowhere close to say, the noise my 360 makes.

I was going to post unboxing pics but my digital camera just fizzled (and my glasses broke. These things always happen immediately after a frivolous purchase.)

CrashedHardrive wrote:

I have been hearing that the new nvidia cards are louder, run hotter, and have slightly worse performance than the 9800gx2. This is from numerous benchmarks and people on the nvidia forums that already bought it. Let us know how it runs, but from the many reviews I read it doesn't bode well.

This month's issue of PC Gamer, Tom's Hardware, Legit Reviews, Driver Heaven and Extreme Tech all had their reviews saying the reverse was true, that in most cases it matches or blows 9800GX2 out of the water, particularily when you start increasing the AA. Not to say they are the "true results", but I take all these benchmarking reviews with a hefty amount of salt because they're always all over the place.

The GTX 280 is th e single best performing video card on the market today. Please take special notice a the word "single" as there are SLI setups that will beat it. That however is to be expected. Do I think the performance increase is worth the exorbitant price tag? That is a matter of personal opinion and amount of expendable income. I will say however that ATI's Radeon HD4850 costs $199 retail and in Crossfire setup it out performs the GTX 280 in many tests. $400 vs $650. However if you do not have a motherboard that supports Crossfire then I would say the GTX 280 is the best single video card setup on the market today. Although you can always buy another GTX 280 in the future to SLI them if you have the motherboard to support that. Then you will indeed rule the online gaming realm as far as graphical hardware performance.

You are lucky to have the financial ability and freedom to buy this video card so soon after release. I'm a bit jealous.

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