Zotac GeForce GTX 260 Amp² Edition 216 Shaders

[Darkrealms]

Why are people comparing last gen 9800GX2 vs 4870/4850 X2 2GB? Doesn't that in itself kind of prove Nvidia is still current. Of course ATI's new cards should beat it. I honestly think that Nvidia won't put out a GTX X2, if they were going to it should have been a while ago now. My thoughts.

Kwod if you are going to make statements it is your responsibility to back them up. You have to expect people to ask for proof when you make a claim. This is a Tech forum, people want to see the facts.

On topic. There is an upgrade path for the new GTX260 through EVGA? What does it cost?

 

[Kwod]

Kwod if you are going to make statements it is your responsibility to back them up. You have to expect people to ask for proof when you make a claim. This is a Tech forum, people want to see the facts.

I thought it was common knowledge.....I''m the newbie afterall

Yikes. So your first question probably is: what happened with the three-card 4870 X2 + 4870 setup? The answer: with only 512MB of memory per GPU, they just couldn't handle GRID at this resolution. That's why I've excluded some other configs, as well. They just can't do this. The cards with more than 512MB of memory can, though, and the 4780 X2 is tops among them.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/15293/9

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=71468

Also, see this thread for a pic of the 4870 1 gig destroying the 4870 512 in Crysis.

IMO, buying the 4850 512 isn't such a bad move as it's cheap as chips, but I don't think it's a good idea to be buying any expensive 512's anymore.

 

[Darkrealms]

I thought it was common knowledge.....I''m the newbie afterall




http://techreport.com/articles.x/15293/9

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=71468

Also, see this thread for a pic of the 4870 1 gig destroying the 4870 512 in Crysis.

IMO, buying the 4850 512 isn't such a bad move as it's cheap as chips, but I don't think it's a good idea to be buying any expensive 512's anymore.

No worries ; )
There are people that post and never back it up (yes some of them are crazy) so if people don't they tend to be ignored. Sometimes even if they have valid points, we've just had too many crazy claims : (

Honestly if I wasn't an invidiot I'd probably have a 4850 right now. But I'm a fan, I've always admitted it. They are both good cards (especially at the $240 price point).

 

[Kwod]

No worries ; )
There are people that post and never back it up (yes some of them are crazy) ).

Oh fair go Darkrealms, I only make baseless claims and let fly with wild exaggerations 60% of the time at most

 

[newtekie1]

Why are people comparing last gen 9800GX2 vs 4870/4850 X2 2GB? Doesn't that in itself kind of prove Nvidia is still current. Of course ATI's new cards should beat it. I honestly think that Nvidia won't put out a GTX X2, if they were going to it should have been a while ago now. My thoughts.

Well the fact is that the G92 cards were simply amazing, and it has taken ATi this long to bring out something to compete with them. The HD4870 and HD4850 were great cards, but the fact is that the G92 9800GTX was dead even with the HD4850. The RV770 was hyped by a lot of people as God's gift to graphics cards, but only the very top end HD4870 could actually outperform the top end of nVidia's last generation and even then the I've seen Pre-Overclocked 9800GTX's getting pretty damn close to the HD4870's performance. RV770 was a wonderful thing for both ATi and the graphics card market in general because it finally allowed ATi to actually be competitive with nVidia, something we haven't really seen since the X1950 days. The GT200 core is just a waste, IMO, it is way too big, and way too expensive. Personally, I think nVidia was already onto a good thing with the G92 core, and should have just improved on that instead of designing a monolithic GPU like the GT200. There really is no reason that a simply improved G92 couldn't compete with the RV770. I personally would have liked to see a G92 with DX10.1 support, GDDR5 support, and another set or two of shaders.

I also highly doubt we will see a GTX X2 card, especially not before the die shrink hits. Though, I doubt we would have seen it by now either way. The 9800GX2 didn't come out until way after the original cards. I just think the GT200 core is way to big of a beast to put two in a single card, it would be too hard to keep it cool.

On topic. There is an upgrade path for the new GTX260 through EVGA? What does it cost?

It depends on how much you paid for your previous card. The GTX260 216SP costs $300 from eVGA's site.

 

[Darkrealms]

Well the fact is that the G92 cards were simply amazing, and it has taken ATi this long to bring out something to compete with them. The HD4870 and HD4850 were great cards, but the fact is that the G92 9800GTX was dead even with the HD4850. The RV770 was hyped by a lot of people as God's gift to graphics cards, but only the very top end HD4870 could actually outperform the top end of nVidia's last generation and even then the I've seen Pre-Overclocked 9800GTX's getting pretty damn close to the HD4870's performance. RV770 was a wonderful thing for both ATi and the graphics card market in general because it finally allowed ATi to actually be competitive with nVidia, something we haven't really seen since the X1950 days. The GT200 core is just a waste, IMO, it is way too big, and way too expensive. Personally, I think nVidia was already onto a good thing with the G92 core, and should have just improved on that instead of designing a monolithic GPU like the GT200. There really is no reason that a simply improved G92 couldn't compete with the RV770. I personally would have liked to see a G92 with DX10.1 support, GDDR5 support, and another set or two of shaders.

I also highly doubt we will see a GTX X2 card, especially not before the die shrink hits. Though, I doubt we would have seen it by now either way. The 9800GX2 didn't come out until way after the original cards. I just think the GT200 core is way to big of a beast to put two in a single card, it would be too hard to keep it cool.



It depends on how much you paid for your previous card. The GTX260 216SP costs $300 from eVGA's site.

I here a lot of people saying how ATI is all that and Nvidias offerings are crap : ( I don't see many people put it in perspective like you just did.
Thanks for the info about how EVGA does their step up. I wonder if thats before or after rebates ; P

 

[Kursah]

Step up is not affected by Rebates, all they care about is the price you initially paid, which you can screenshot the invoice and upload it to them for verifacation too. I am in the midst of step-up from a 260 192p to a 216p, I initially paid 299, then Newegg had a sale for about 269 a day or two later, they refunded the difference, then I sent in a 30-40 MIR (i forget lol)...but since I initially paid 299, and the new card is 299, I only pay the cost of shipping.

That probably doesn't happen for eveyrone, but at least with rebates, they don't hold it against ya.



EDIT: http://www.evga.com/stepup/default.asp

 

[newtekie1]

Yeah, just report it, the mods will be around eventually and delete the message and ban the account, and they can see it even if he deletes it.

 

[Darkrealms]

Wouldn't be the first time I reported a post and got a mod mad at me because the OP removed it before they got a hold of it. My post is deleted and would have been anyway.
Thanks erocker.

 

[newtekie1]

Wouldn't be the first time I reported a post and got a mod mad at me because the OP removed it before they got a hold of it. My post is deleted and would have been anyway.
Thanks erocker.

That issue has long been fix, in fact W1z fixed it after my incident, now all deleted messages are still viewable to the mods, and editted posts have a history so the mods can see the orignals after someone edits them.