GTX280 or HD4870 x 2 in CF ?

far327

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I'm really hoping for a serious increase in performance from the 9800GTX & GX2. I have a feeling the new 512 mem bandwidth on the GTX280 will be the largest step up from previous Nvidia models. Since I have an Nvidia board, I really have no choice but to hope for the best out of them, although they have seriously disappointed me lately. ATi has really built some serious momentum ever since the hype of the 3870X2. No doubt the benchies will be competitive!
 


Sure as hell hope so.
I have been saving ever since I got my GTS 640 (at release) for their next top card.

Just a few more weeks....
 

ro3dog

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My bet (as the drum rolls)the 4870x2 will have more wins over the gtx280.I believe there is something to why AMD is waintig to launch the 4870x2.This feels like Christmas.
 

terror112

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Yes, but then overall, (IMO) I would believe the GTX 280X2? will have the highest performance overall, although I don't know how they would implement their cooling technology on such a monster card. However the 4870X2 would probably be the better bang for the buck than the GTX280, and most likely perform better. Although I can see the GTX280 taking the lead in games that do not support sli/crossfire. As for me, I am looking for a card in the $300-400 range ($400-500CAD) such as the GTX 260 or the 4870. And I am hoping that they will give me more than 50% performance over my 8800GTS. Considering that the 9800GTX is %30 higher on average, I could see this being true.

Thanks, Nico
 
G

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stop calling it 9900 series... its been posed several times that the new naming scheme is gtx 280 (GTX) and the GTX 260 (GTS)...

reading 9900 is kind of annoying... ANYWAY

I hope Nvidias card will win (don't know why) but I'll get the top card from either company whenever prices come down a bit... so i'm not too excited yet
 

The_Blood_Raven

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ATI all the way, we need to reign the leash on Nvidia a little. Plus I think the ATI cards will perform close to the GTX260/280 and be much cheaper, feels like ATI's second coming. No I am not an ATI fanboy like the Nvidia fanboys here, never owned an ATI card even through the 7 series B.S. I'm just getting tired of Nvidia screwing us over with high prices and sitting on their as- butts while the GPU performance stands still. I don't care if you wont buy an ATI card for whatever reason, we just need the competition to reduce prices and most of all INCREASE FUTURE CARD'S PERFORMANCE!
 

invisik

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well wat can nvidia do if there is no competition. im sure if u owned a company u would want the most $$$ as possible. the gtx 280 is most likely going to be a big leap and so will the the 4870 but i think nvidia will come up on top. ati is only hitting the mid range because they cant fight nvidia head to head just yet plus they dont have alot of spare cash for r&d.
 

Gargamel

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I think it is a sink or swim moment for ATI and I like blood raven, believe we need them to swim to lower the costs for us, the consumer and in turn increase competitiveness across the board.

Cost to performance ratios have been comparably dormant for too long now, and on that note I think backwards compatibility for older games such as WoW and EQ2 have had far too many issues with the newer cards. I do hope that this isn't an issue for the next generation of cards, drivers that actually work on release day would be a blessing.

My two cents.
 
Well, I doubt there'll ever be a GTX280-Gx2, just like there was never a G80-GX2 or R600-X2 talk about cards that would've needed their own generators.
But I'm certain that we'll see the HD4870X2 within days of the GTX-280's launch even if you can't buy one 'til much later (rememebr these guy compete by leaking previews and rumours against each other).

Also the failure to launch anything real to replace the G80 and blaming on ATi means that they'd better launch something well developed and pretty flawless at launch because they've had all this time to do so if it's not a home-run right away then it means they never were ready to replace the G80 regardless of competition.

It'll be interesting to see what happens over the next few weeks, but I have a feeling both sides are going to have both big surprises/benefits as well as big dissapointments.
 


What are you talking about?

Seriously, increase competitiveness?
It's now more competitive than it was in the GF7/X1K days and GF6/X8 days, and far more so than the early G80 era and early R600 era.

And as for cost/performance ratios, they've never been better. The GTS-512 has been selling for around $200 for a month (now under $180 AMR) the HD3870-GDDR4 for $150/$130 after Rebate; now compare that to the GTX for most of it's life at $600, the GTS-640 at $400+ GTS-320 at $300+ and the X1900XTs at $300+ X1900XTXs at $400+ most of their lives and GF6800GT at $300+ until the end.
Seriously, we've never had it this good !!

90% of the Ultra's performance for 1/3 of the MSRP, when have we ever had a card value like that before?
The only area that you could argue there is limited competition is the eWang cards, and even then there's huge pressure from the cards below them.
Sure the Ultra's not cheap, the GX2 and X2 aren't cheap, but no one talks about cost/performance for those cards anyways, and even then an X2 for $300.

Man it's never been better except for the 'unlocking' era of cards.
 

invisik

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im was hoping nvidia would price the gtx 280 for 499.99 and the gtx 260 for 399.99.
That would be a reasonable price. But there probably charging gtx280 600$ gtx260 450$
 
Yeah, that would've been nice, but it was bound to be expensive with it being a huge chip, lotsa memory (remember basically minimum 1GB due to the interface and ROP count), and complex PCB.

Also I think nV wants to try and re-establish the $600 MSRP they used to have after all the recent bargains (which don't make them money if they have low yields).

Funny thing is that the INQ kinda commented on this just today with Charlie confirming the yields, complexity issues, but also saying nV might low ball their launch prices to create an artificially low MSRP (which of course will then be out of stock everywhere) to create demand away from the other cards. I doubt it, but if you're looking for a deal, look to to your local e-tailer on launch day, because if they pull that trick again it may be around fro a day and then gone for weeks.
 

T2bus

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I'm just sad fot those of us that bought the 3870's and 8800gt's and paid 300 for them when now they're on sale for as low as 150 or 200. Just hope the price war goes on so we can all benefit from the great deals that are coming.
 

yipsl

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It will be "better" but it might still be a failure, if leaked e-mails are true:

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/05/29/nvidia-gt200-sucessor-tapes

Despite the flames made by Nvidia fans to the article, the essential concept that GTX280 at 65nm runs into yield, design and price issues makes sense, and that Nvidia won't have viable cards until a die shrink.

IMHO, the days of monster cards are going fast and this might be Nvidia's last summer of love from gamers who just want an extra 10 fps in Crysis.

Sadly, not only does Huang talk trash about his competitors, and deny the value of dual GPU on one PCB cards, but Nvidia also relies upon promotions to get game companies in line that are as dodgy as Intel's old OEM rebate program.

Yes, it should be faster, but all that gets is the crown if the part is not available at an already overly high MSRP.



The real competition will arrive with the 4870x2 in late summer or fall. Since a 4870 doesn't provide real performance over my 3870x2, I'm waiting to get the next dual GPU on one PCB card.

It will be fun to see if triple SLI GTX280's can match two 4870x2's in CrossfireX. My bet's on the CrossfireX but then again, I am an ATI fan and have been since the Radeon 8500.

Will the GTX280 be Nvidia's next FX5800? Only time will tell, but I bet they release dodgy drivers that affect image quality (Crysis demo water style) to make a bare win in the benchies.

If the linked article from Charlie is right, then Nvidia's in a situation with 65nm monster cards that AMD was in with 65nm quads. The thermals and performance isn't there vs. the competitor and the company has to rely on fan loyalty and a 17% or so increase over the last gen.

Personally, Intel failed technologically once and won in the marketplace still. Nvidia failed with the FX series and stayed ahead. It seems there's just too much dislike of AMD and ATI for Nvidia to really go away. As long as the fanboys set aside their $600 to $900 for cards that are only a smidgen better than ATI's mainstream in a few games, then I think Nvidia will survive.

I'd prefer to see them survive as just Via's partner against the Atom, but that's because I really don't like corporate CEO's talking the way Huang's been doing lately. I like competition that brings both innovation and prices that make consumers and investors happy, but I'm tired of cult of personalities and fan boy marketing empires.
 

fejorca

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Man, I agree with you, I'm tired with nvidia ripping us off with thie "new" generation cards, I'm the kind of person that try to find the best bang for the buck and right now I'm keeping my eye on ATi because they deliver almost the same performance as nvidia (I have an 8800 GTS 320 MB G80). Let's hope that ATi keeps their prices low and performance high,
 

The_Blood_Raven

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That article from the INQ did not lie, it only sensationalized the actual truth, the GTX200 are going to have problems, its only a question of if there will be more than the 4xxx series.
 

San Pedro

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I definitely think AMD will be having better yields, but Nvidia is going to convincingly take the performance crown until 4870x2 comes. Then maybe there will be competition at ultra high end.