GTX 260 vs. 8800 GTX Image Quality - Surprise?

Jeffredo · Feb 11, 2009

Hello guys. First let me preface this with I'm not trying to start a war! :laugh:

I purchased an EVGA GTX 260 "FTW" Edition back in September. My previous card was an EVGA 8800 GTX. When I installed it I noticed the extra power and smoothness of FPS, but I also "thought" I noticed a slightly degraded image quality. AA didn't seem to work as well, and the general "look" of my games wasn't quite as nice. I just chalked it up to my imagination and the card maybe needing to "break in" a little.

This past weekend that GTX 260 shorted out. I was playing WoW and it locked up and upon reboot the screen was black. I took it out and it smelled burnt. Thankfully I hadn't sold my 8800 GTX so I popped it back in. Even with WoW the I.Q. looked better and smoother. I fired up Fallout 3 and it was noticeable better - AA, shadow quality and lighting effects.

My question is, has anyone else noticed this with the GTX 260 (or GTX 280 for that matter) vs. 8000 or 9000 series cards? It may just have been my individual card (it did fail after five months so it make have been bad from the beginning). I sent the card back to EVGA today - not sure what they will send back. I'm a bit leery now of keeping whatever they replace it with if this is indeed something others have notice. As much as I've loved my three EVGA cards I may go with an HD 4870 1GB and sell the replacement while its still sealed (just to see if its better from an IQ standpoint).

Never thought I was overly picky with such things, but apparently I am.

BloodTotal · Feb 11, 2009

different cards actually give different image quality, google it.

it is fully a factor, that it might have been just your card

wolf · Feb 11, 2009

Jeffredo said:
Hello guys. First let me preface this with I'm not trying to start a war! I purchased an EVGA GTX 260 "FTW" Edition back in September. My previous card was an EVGA 8800 GTX. When I installed it I noticed the extra power and smoothness of FPS, but I also "thought" I noticed a slightly degraded image quality. AA didn't seem to work as well, and the general "look" of my games wasn't quite as nice. I just chalked it up to my imagination and the card maybe needing to "break in" a little.

This past weekend that GTX 260 shorted out. I was playing WoW and it locked up and upon reboot the screen was black. I took it out and it smelled burnt. Thankfully I hadn't sold my 8800 GTX so I popped it back in. Even with WoW the I.Q. looked better and smoother. I fired up Fallout 3 and it was noticeable better - AA, shadow quality and lighting effects.

My question is, has anyone else noticed this with the GTX 260 (or GTX 280 for that matter) vs. 8000 or 9000 series cards? It may just have been my individual card (it did fail after five months so it make have been bad from the beginning). I sent the card back to EVGA today - not sure what they will send back. I'm a bit leery now of keeping whatever they replace it with if this is indeed something others have notice. As much as I've loved my three EVGA cards I may go with an HD 4870 1GB and sell the replacement while its still sealed (just to see if its better from an IQ standpoint).

Never thought I was overly picky with such things, but apparently I am.

I have owned a GTX260 and 8800GTX and found them to be pretty darn close, just some reflections and mirrors were a little worse on the 8800GTX, i never once thought my 260 was the worse of the 2.

hat · Feb 11, 2009

To be honest I didn't notice an image quality difference between my fx5200 ultra (which the FX series was supposed to have absolutely atrocious image quality) and my 6800xt. Then I had a readon x1800xl and still didn't notice a difference.

Honestly I believe that the biggest image quality difference comes from being able to crack up the settings higher than they were before, so using this logic the GTX260 has way better image quality than the 8800GTX.

KainXS · Feb 11, 2009

someone has already brought this up

wolf · Feb 11, 2009

yeah i mean i find the biggest IQ difference certainly comes from the monitor used IMO.

EnergyFX · Feb 11, 2009

Seeing as how your 260 failed so soon... perhaps it was never running quite right to begin with. So so image quality could have been a symptom of whatever caused the failure.

wolf · Feb 11, 2009

EnergyFX said:
Seeing as how your 260 failed so soon... perhaps it was never running quite right to begin with. So so image quality could have been a symptom of whatever caused the failure.

excellent point, its the first GT200 card Ive personally heard has failed.

phanbuey · Feb 11, 2009

may also be driver settings... but interesting. I havent noticed a degradation from my g92...

Jeffredo · Feb 11, 2009

EnergyFX said:
Seeing as how your 260 failed so soon... perhaps it was never running quite right to begin with. So so image quality could have been a symptom of whatever caused the failure.

This could very well be it. Or I could have got an extraordinarily good 8800 GTX two years ago and just didn't know it!

I was shocked when it failed too. I never OC'd it myself (it was factory OC'd to 666 mhz) and my case is well ventilated and the operating temps never topped 70C. Just bad luck. Since it was the top end "192" shader card of EVGA's I'm kind of wondering what I will get (since they aren't made anymore).

Kursah · Feb 11, 2009

They'll take care of ya...if they have no more of those to replace, then you'll probably get a 65nm or 55nm 216 260. This is one of the first GTX260 failures I've heard of, I bet there was something to do with your IQ issues and it's problems. Gotta have a lemon out there for everything, some have more than others, this series of cards has really impressed me.

Bummer it died, but at least you kept a damn good backup card. :toast:

inf3rno · Feb 11, 2009

Jeffredo said:
This could very well be it. Or I could have got an extraordinarily good 8800 GTX two years ago and just didn't know it!

I was shocked when it failed too. I never OC'd it myself (it was factory OC'd to 666 mhz) and my case is well ventilated and the operating temps never topped 70C. Just bad luck. Since it was the top end "192" shader card of EVGA's I'm kind of wondering what I will get (since they aren't made anymore).

And it seems you are still in shock!!!

Failure happens. I work here in a company and we manufacture high end hardware. Despite our hard efforts we say it is 99.9% OK. There is always .1% failure chances in electronic products.

And in your case that .1% hit the bulls eye.

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GTX 260 vs. 8800 GTX Image Quality - Surprise?

Jeffredo

BloodTotal

wolf

Performance Enthusiast

hat

Enthusiast

KainXS

wolf

Performance Enthusiast

EnergyFX

wolf

Performance Enthusiast

phanbuey

Jeffredo

Kursah

Super Moderator

inf3rno

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