260 GTX potentially the best stock cooler card?

[phanbuey]

from what i know nvidia practices gpu harvesting... so they make as many gtx 280 GPU's as possible, and when the MF process fails they simply disable the gimped shader block and then make a 260... but as the process gets better and because the demand of 260's is so great that i bet they are disabling the slowest shader block on a 280 gpu to make a 260... that + less heat = killer overclocks ... i mean really 756 w/ 1512 shaders on a 280 w stock cooling? unlikely.

also if anyone wants my 260 192sp bios to play with (it took me a day to get it right) PM and ill send it to you... itll keep your temps low and possibly raise your overclock. the fan speed is set to default under 50, but it has a more aggressive ramp up to keep temps while gaming/folding under 70C.

 

[Prash]

Ygpm

 

[raptori]

I got mine one weak ago Leadtek GTX260-216 over it to 670/1400/2400 and its not the max its amazing card i went from 8800GTS 320MB to this one so you can imagine the difference.

 

[btarunr]

from what i know nvidia practices gpu harvesting... so they make as many gtx 280 GPU's as possible, and when the MF process fails they simply disable the gimped shader block and then make a 260... but as the process gets better and because the demand of 260's is so great that i bet they are disabling the slowest shader block on a 280 gpu to make a 260... that + less heat = killer overclocks ... i mean really 756 w/ 1512 shaders on a 280 w stock cooling? unlikely.

Also take into account that with rising demand and falling price-points, they just could be altering the thresholds (parameters that determine which SKU the GPU goes to, on the basis of its performance in binning/harvesting), to step up yields, and you could be getting cores that don't clock well. Again, just a hypothetical scenario. Although not with GPUs, we've seen that happen with the Core 2 Quad Q6600 later down its market life.

That aside, GTX 260 (216) is a great card, even better in SLI. Two cards worth ~$460 will outperform one R700 worth ~$510.

 

[Prash]

Also take into account that with rising demand and falling price-points, they just could be altering the thresholds (parameters that determine which SKU the GPU goes to, on the basis of its performance in binning/harvesting), to step up yields, and you could be getting cores that don't clock well. Again, just a hypothetical scenario. Although not with GPUs, we've seen that happen with the Core 2 Quad Q6600 later down its market life.

That aside, GTX 260 (216) is a great card, even better in SLI. Two cards worth ~$460 will outperform one R700 worth ~$510.

There is a possibility, but i don't think it has happened with GPUs in such scales till now, as it has happened with the processors, and i hope it doesn't happen in future too.

 

[phanbuey]

Here is bios:

(WARNING: Flashing BIOS can be deadly. It voids warranty and should only be done if you know what you are doing.)

ok disclaimer over. This bios has more aggressive fan profiles to keep the temperatures below 70... if they get above 74, the fan will run at 100% untill they go below 70... the fan will ramp up dramatically at 64C to keep the card cool... at below 50 -55C the fan is at 40% to keep things quiet. I have yet to break 67C with this profile.



(GTX 260 ONLY!)

 

[Kursah]

GTX260 192Sp or 216SP?

I just set for a 75% min fan speed and keep at 60C or lower in most occasions. 70% is probably the best noise/performace speed tho.

 

[Hayder_Master]

the stock fan really good and cool i don't think need more than 80% stock fan speed , the mas speed of stock fan is 3800 RPM , so if you have nice cooling case this cooler will be more than enough

 

[phanbuey]

Since the cards are physically identical with the exception of a few more shaders being lasered off, I would ASSUME that the 192SP bios will work fine for the 216... the difference in memory is why the 280 bios doesnt work with the 260 cards. Otherwise its the XFX black edition bios that I got from the GPU database and then flashed onto my 192SP cards - so I would say this is a 192SP bios...

if somebody has a 216 bios they can post, that would be awesome (maybe in a more relevant thread like the 260 TPU thread).