Almost in perfect condition GeForce GTS 250

[MrNobodie]

Hi, I go my hands on a GTS 250 with the box and the accessories !
It was cheap (1L of beer) and I thought it might complete my collection.

Should I do modern review for fun and post some results for people who might be interested ?

 

[droopyRO]

It would be nice to test it agains an modern integrated GPU, if you have one. Like a Ryzen 3400G or newer Intel chips.

 

[Macro Device]

Ryzen 3400G

It will be a K.O. Vega 6 (or 8?) iGPU is on par with GTX 750 if i'm not mistaken, or probably GTX 650. Regardless of that GTS 250 is no competition for it. Some sorta 10 FPS versus 30 FPS.

Should I do modern review for fun

Of course!

 

[Dr. Dro]

I got one of the original G80 (Quadro FX 5600), 1.5GB 8800 GTX. You need 342.01 drivers.

Most games don't run on this hardware level anymore. Of recent releases, only ones I tested that work are the Final Fantasy pixel remasters.

 

[MrNobodie]

It would be nice to test it agains an modern integrated GPU, if you have one. Like a Ryzen 3400G or newer Intel chips.

Sadly I don't have a iGPU of this type but I'll admit it would be fun to compare "entry GPU" 15yrs appart.

It will be a K.O. Vega 6 (or 8?) iGPU is on par with GTX 750 if i'm not mistaken, or probably GTX 650. Regardless of that GTS 250 is no competition for it. Some sorta 10 FPS versus 30 FPS.

Of course!

True, I'm testing it, and even if it says directx 11, it 11.1 and don't work with a lot of thing (Unigine Superposion & passmark for exemple). So it's hard to find "moderne" games. Best games are the ones from 2008 / 2013 I think. Demanding and seems to work.

I got one of the original G80 (Quadro FX 5600), 1.5GB 8800 GTX. You need 342.01 drivers.

Most games don't run on this hardware level anymore. Of recent releases, only ones I tested that work are the Final Fantasy pixel remasters.

I didn't check what driver nvidia gaves me but it was from 2016 so probably the one you say.
I have a 8800GTS 512mb and I didn't know there was a 1.5GB !

Yes like I said juste above some bench said nope wrong dx11.
I'm testing it in 1080 even if it's better in 720p or 900p in some case. But I want to see if it would be "usable" in a moderne setup.
Like GTA V still run OK, lowest quality 1080p around 33 fps with 22fps 1% and 9fps 0.1%.

I'll test other games. If you have some request for games please feel free to ask. If I have them I'll do it.

 

[MrNobodie]

I have a lot of all card, maybe I'll do a post to go on details about them:

FX 580

8800GTS

ATI HD 5830

R9 290

2x GTS 250 X

GTX 260 X

GTX 580 X

R9 390 X

9800 GX2 X

GTX 590

GTX 460GS

GTX 470

GTS 250

Black : Not tested
Green : Working
Yellow : Display working but major issues
Red : Dead GPU

Most of them were free or under 10€.

I'm starting to do a google sheet with some perf for fun and I'll post it to have a sort of comparison.

 

[tussinman]

Review would be cool, especially if you did games from that era (crysis, BioShock, fall out 3, mass effect, fear 2, borderlands)

 

[MrNobodie]

Review would be cool, especially if you did games from that era (crysis, BioShock, fall out 3, mass effect, fear 2, borderlands)

Okay I already have Bioshock, Fallout 3 & NV and mass effect. I need to buy the first and not remasterised crysis

 

[GreiverBlade]

dropping a comment to sub the thread

 

[Dr. Dro]

Sadly I don't have a iGPU of this type but I'll admit it would be fun to compare "entry GPU" 15yrs appart.


True, I'm testing it, and even if it says directx 11, it 11.1 and don't work with a lot of thing (Unigine Superposion & passmark for exemple). So it's hard to find "moderne" games. Best games are the ones from 2008 / 2013 I think. Demanding and seems to work.


I didn't check what driver nvidia gaves me but it was from 2016 so probably the one you say.
I have a 8800GTS 512mb and I didn't know there was a 1.5GB !

Yes like I said juste above some bench said nope wrong dx11.
I'm testing it in 1080 even if it's better in 720p or 900p in some case. But I want to see if it would be "usable" in a moderne setup.
Like GTA V still run OK, lowest quality 1080p around 33 fps with 22fps 1% and 9fps 0.1%.

I'll test other games. If you have some request for games please feel free to ask. If I have them I'll do it.

It was the highest end pro card back then, full G80 core with double density memory, while 8800 GTXs had 768 MB this one had 1536. GTA V runs the same on my card, around 20-30fps with single digit 0.1.

These GPUs are only compatible with DirectX 9 and 10, 11 only runs in limited functionality mode (restricted to DirectX 10 features). Unigine Superposition won't run, but Valley, Heaven and earlier will (sans tessellation capabilities).

Borderlands 2 and Pre-Sequel are amongst the newest games that will run on this kind of hardware. The original Metro 2033 should run as well, with DX11 features disabled. Batman Arkham City is another great game that will run well on these.

 

[QuietBob]

This card only supports DX10.0 and OGL 3.3, so you won't be able to test any recent titles. And there weren't many games taking advantage of DX10 specifically, so for practical purposes you'll be limited to DX9 titles.

Nevertheless, looking forward to whatever benchmarks you'll post!

 

[Audioave10]

Yes!............ I have two of them.

 

[LabRat 891]

Just something to add:
nVidia, at some point severely gimped G92 performance.

I can't recall the exact driver, but (especially) OGL performance plummeted somewhere around the GTS250's release.
(You can see when it happened by the Quake 4 results across G92 cards in archived 8800GT, 8800GTS 512, 98000GT/GTX/GTX+, and GTS 250 TPU reviews)

BTW, SLI beyond 2 cards works using the last SLI patcher on like 310-series drivers (IIRC).
I remember playing STALKER Anomaly on 3 (or 4?) GTS 250 1GBs on my x570 using MaxCloudOn risers and my X570's bifurcated x16 slot.

 

[MrNobodie]

I did some test and I'll do more, everything in 1080p.

Bench	GTS 250 (AVG / 1% / 0.1%)
Unigine Heaven	41,9 fps avg / score 1057	Medium
Unigine Valley	28,2 fps avg / score 1179	Medium
Unigine Superposition	X
petest11	29 / 2,2 / X score per bench (dx9 / dx10)
Minecraft	160 / 120 / 64	Fast / 5 chunks / no soft light ...
GTA V	33 / 22 / 9	Everything in normal (low)
GTA IV	44 / 11 / 4	Everything in low
GTA SA	136 / 69 / 35	Ultra
Far Cry 3	45 / 35 /19	Medium
CIV 5	34 / 12 /10	Medium
Fallout NV	60fps ok	Ultra no AA
Skyrim Original	48 / 29 / 6	Ultra no AA
Tomb Raider	68 / 52 / 45	Medium

I'll do some recommended games.

Thank you for your messages and all the informations it's really nice !

 

[P4-630]

So you got a perfect Minecraft/GTA SA gaming machine now, congrats!..

 

[QuietBob]

I did some test and I'll do more, everything in 1080p.

Are you testing with your current setup? Also, could you post a GPU-Z screenshot of the card?

 

[natr0n]

Looks like a bootleg china made... but if it works it works.

 

[MrNobodie]

Are you testing with your current setup? Also, could you post a GPU-Z screenshot of the card?

Nope I use an other PC :
Ryzen 5 5500
16 GB 3200Mhz
1TB QVO 870 Samsung
850w CS850M Corsair

Sure here is the GPU-Z

Looks like a bootleg china made... but if it works it works.

Yeah the design is not great for modern standards. But Twintech was a commun brand bad then (at least in Europe)

 

[damric]

There just to happens to be a category for these in the latest HWBOT Team Challenge:

HWBOT Team CUP 2023 - nVIDIA GPU @ HWBOT

Level 2 HWBOT overclocking competition running from 2023-07-15T12:00 till 2023-09-15T12:00.

hwbot.org

Might as well run that 3DMark03 and get the points for your team.

Futuremark Legacy Benchmarks

Download legacy versions of 3DMark, PCMark, and other Futuremark benchmarks for free.

benchmarks.ul.com

 

[QuietBob]

Twintech was a commun brand bad then (at least in Europe)

TBH I never heard of them, and I also live in Europe. Perhaps it was only popular in certain regions?
Just for fun, I approximated your card with an HD7970 and ran Heaven and Valley on my Win7 machine, using the same settings. But my results are quite different:

 

[MrNobodie]

There just to happens to be a category for these in the latest HWBOT Team Challenge:

HWBOT Team CUP 2023 - nVIDIA GPU @ HWBOT

Level 2 HWBOT overclocking competition running from 2023-07-15T12:00 till 2023-09-15T12:00.

hwbot.org

Might as well run that 3DMark03 and get the points for your team.

Futuremark Legacy Benchmarks

Download legacy versions of 3DMark, PCMark, and other Futuremark benchmarks for free.

benchmarks.ul.com

Thank you that's really cool ! I'll download some bench and post them !

TBH I never heard of them, and I also live in Europe. Perhaps it was only popular in certain regions?
Just for fun, I approximated your card with an HD7970 and ran Heaven and Valley on my Win7 machine, using the same settings. But my results are quite different:

View attachment 307821View attachment 307822View attachment 307823

Looks like I can't use a key board. I'll redo the bench but I think it's 14,9 fps and not what I typed. Or since I did the bench and at the moment of posting I tought it would be nice if I add the quality, and I said medium instead of low.
I'll post the screenshot when it's done !

When I was looking for some old hardware I've seen a lot of Twintech, 4XX, 2XX and 9XXX series.

Yep it was in low, my bad !

I have a capture card. For the next bench I'll just record everything and post the video with the table.

3DMark03	49435
3DMark06	18412

Done with a capture card so no impact on the perf :

I let the default config as shown in the video.

Any tips for making Crysis run ? It crash directly, no menu nothing. I hit play, black screen for 5s and then back to the descktop.
If some of you also have a tip for making RTSS working on every games ? Impossible to have the fps counter on Bioshock ...

 

[QuietBob]

Any tips for making Crysis run ? It crash directly, no menu nothing. I hit play, black screen for 5s and then back to the descktop.

You'll probably need to swap an outdated library. PCGamingWiki has the details.

Impossible to have the fps counter on Bioshock ...

Original Bioshock, including the Steam version, requires multiple fixes on modern systems. Steam overlay doesn't work, so you can't use it for fps monitoring, but I had success with FRAPS previously.

 

[Zyll Goliat]

TBH I never heard of them, and I also live in Europe. Perhaps it was only popular in certain regions?
Just for fun, I approximated your card with an HD7970 and ran Heaven and Valley on my Win7 machine, using the same settings. But my results are quite different:

View attachment 307821View attachment 307822View attachment 307823

Honestly 7970 is much better card.....'tho Heaven Benchmark preferred Nvidia GPU's so the result is more or less expected....

 

[MrNobodie]

You'll probably need to swap an outdated library. PCGamingWiki has the details.


Original Bioshock, including the Steam version, requires multiple fixes on modern systems. Steam overlay doesn't work, so you can't use it for fps monitoring, but I had success with FRAPS previously.

Thx a lot I'll try your tips for Crysis and bioshock when I'm back home !

Honestly 7970 is much better card.....'tho Heaven Benchmark preferred Nvidia GPU's so the result is more or less expected....

That's true when we compare the GTS 250 and the 7970 on the medium stetings it's not a big gap. It's like 60% faster, but a 5yrs gap, 3GB GDDR5, GPU clock, ... I think in games the gap is way bigger.

 

[Zyll Goliat]

That's true when we compare the GTS 250 and the 7970 on the medium precept it's not a big gap. It's like 60% faster, but a 5yrs gap, 3GB GDDR5, GPU clock, ... I think in games the gap is way bigger.

Yeah for sure I will dare to said that 7970 is"good enough" for gaming even on some latest&modern games.....THX again for yours benchmarking @MrNobodie and IF you don't mind I may suggest that next time you could also include Passmark 9 results just because it's simple benchmark that works on anything and it's really easy to compare all GPU results online.......