I wonder what a card like this, with its still relatively massive dies, is doing to Nvidia's bottom line. They can't be making very much money on that thing? ATI/AMD is probably quite capable of knocking down the MSRP by up to $100 and still turn a decent profit on the card.
This is a good card, but I dont think the tests with just a half of dozen nvidias games are enough to affirm the GTX295 beats HD4870 X2. Why dint use GRID, Assassin's Creed or Devil May Cry 4 in the tests??? The results would be VERY different, probably.
Always the results will depend on what games are chosen for the review as more games on the review as much better!! ;)
Originally Posted by Tim S I think you should be able to fold on both GPUs, since you can do that with the 9800 GX2. :)
last time i checked (summer) one has to disable SLi, and start 2 Folding clients. so the new nVidia driver sorted that out?
Going to have a look at it - I've got a way to meaningfully benchmark Folding now, so we will be adding it to our test suite in good time (probably after CES now)
Originally Posted by Design_Master This is a good card, but I don’t think the tests with just a half of dozen nvidia’s games are enough to affirm the GTX295 beats HD4870 X2. Why dint use GRID, Assassin's Creed or Devil May Cry 4 in the tests??? The results would be VERY different, probably.
Always the results will depend on what games are chosen for the review… as more games on the review as much better!! ;)
This was a preview done with the terms outlined on the first page. When it comes to reviewing the hardware properly, we'll be using a decent selection of games without holds barred.
Originally Posted by Design_Master This is a good card, but I dont think the tests with just a half of dozen nvidias games are enough to affirm the GTX295 beats HD4870 X2. Why dint use GRID, Assassin's Creed or Devil May Cry 4 in the tests??? The results would be VERY different, probably.
Always the results will depend on what games are chosen for the review as more games on the review as much better!! ;)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim's article Nvidia will release its next high-end graphics card at CES in Las Vegas on January 8th and the company has given us the opportunity to give bit-techs readers a sneak peek at how the GeForce GTX 295 will perform. However, because the card is not available on the market yet, and wont be until January 8th at the earliest, the company has asked us to adhere to a number of restrictions.
Rather than hide away from these, we decided that it would be best to put them out in the open so that you can understand why we havent done a full-blown performance disclosure on the card. This is what we were asked to agree to before publication:
* Top 5 Games benchmarks only
* Plus one other title of their choosing
* No other benchmarks period
* No acoustic measurements
* No power measurements
* No PhysX testing or benchmarks
Originally Posted by Redbeaver so.... 2 of these in SLI would make Quad-SLI? :D (like 2x 9800GX2 before...)
to ATI: burn, baby, burn!
And two Radeon 4870 X2's also make QuadFire... so you've just nulled your own point.
Need I mention that the X2 still has its side-port disabled? Hiding extra bandwidth for when nVidia tries to take its "crown" away?
From these preliminary benchmarks the nVidia is squeezing by the X2 rather than, as Tim stated, smacking it around like AMD did to nVidia with the X2. I wouldn't be surprised if:
A) nVidia releases GTX 295.
B) ATI follows up with a driver update + unlocks side-port.
C) X2 inches away and takes the spot back.
There just isn't any of that effort reflected in this card as in the X2 -- which was something completely different and interesting. It's still a far more "advanced" card from a technological perspective (fitting two GPU's + 2GB total memory on a single PCB). nVidia is just taking crazy glue and trying to stick cards together, hoping for the love of God that they'll work and claim some decent benchmarks before they overheat and melt like the 9800 GX2's did. nVidia simply needs to step back and redesign their line-up.
Does anyone else thing it looks like a vhs cassette tape?
It is the first thing that popped into my head when I saw it, the sort of dull weird textured black plastic and the cut out where the actual tape would be, I expect the back will have the winding bits on it.
After running the Far Cry 2 benchmark at 1920x1200, Ultra High, no AA, I get an average of 50fps and a minimum of 37!
Should do me alright for the next year or so :)
When I took my gtx260 out of the static bag I was pleasantly surprised that the shroud covers the gfx card top and bottom, so there's little chance of passing any static through my grubby little mitts onto delicate circuitry - it's a shame this hasn't continued onto the 295.
I am also not very impressed. From what i read, they based it on 2x 260, while al of us were hoping for 2x 280. That would have given ATI the run for the hills that nVidia should come up with after 5 months of waiting. And the naming scheme really makes less and less sense! Why on earth is this not called the GTX260-X2, or DGTX260 or smth like that?
Originally Posted by Xtrafresh I am also not very impressed. From what i read, they based it on 2x 260, while al of us were hoping for 2x 280. That would have given ATI the run for the hills that nVidia should come up with after 5 months of waiting. And the naming scheme really makes less and less sense! Why on earth is this not called the GTX260-X2, or DGTX260 or smth like that?
We actually talked about what the GTX 295 is in the article (2nd page). It's 2x240 SPs, 2x80 tex, 2x28 ROPs, 2x896MB of memory with GTX 260 clock speeds. So, in reality, it's somewhere between GTX 260 and GTX 280 before it's doubled up.
Originally Posted by Tim S We actually talked about what the GTX 295 is in the article (2nd page). It's 2x240 SPs, 2x80 tex, 2x28 ROPs, 2x896MB of memory with GTX 260 clock speeds. So, in reality, it's somewhere between GTX 260 and GTX 280 before it's doubled up.
True, i was taking some liberties ;)
The point is though that it's not the 2x 280 that everybody was waiting for.
Originally Posted by Tim S We actually talked about what the GTX 295 is in the article (2nd page). It's 2x240 SPs, 2x80 tex, 2x28 ROPs, 2x896MB of memory with GTX 260 clock speeds. So, in reality, it's somewhere between GTX 260 and GTX 280 before it's doubled up.
True, i was taking some liberties ;)
The point is though that it's not the 2x 280 that everybody was waiting for.
could it be because nvidia has gone down the path that bigger is better and not cared for "efficiency?" and thus actually can't put that kind of spec'd car in that sort of setup?
I've been preaching that for awhile now about the 260+ extra shaders.. I have a 260 in my rig and currently run two monitors- one 1080p and the other's a crt for fps games online at 1600x1200- also have a hdtv on the svid
I think gonna skip this line.. the gx2 earlier this year was a disaster rushed out with nothing but fanboys and hype to back up it's claims on crysis.. the only thing I like about this card would be the amount of power you'd save over going sli 280's.. I'm looking at ati when the next round comes out with the way it's looking
I pretty much gave up on sli as a viable option, just too much power used for what your getting back.. why I was kind of interested in this card..I really like the 280 as a single card solution, no sli issues, but the price turned me off- suprised it took them this long to release and they still lose to ati (of course crysis is pure nvidia- they worked in the backroom with crytek =] no secrets there)
My commentary isn't on the product itself or the review in general, but the insight Bit-Tech provided in terms of the demands issued to them by the vendor. It helps put the first look preview into perspective, and provides some transparency to what to expect in terms of potential slanted data.
Bravo, I wish more reviews would frame the behind the scenes negotiations that are certainly taking place when previews (or even reviews) are generated. This is important to know for astute consumers who want to make their best decisions ... secondly, it exposes the companies to their PR methods, and hopefully keeps them honest. I also appreciate the non-tacit way of explaining what motivations may be behind such demands, they appear reasonable ... so, it is no reason to shout 'fire'.
I don't see the point in using dual GPU and/or SLI/CF. It's power hungry, the benefits are minimal, get more heat into the system and will cost you a kidney on the illegal body part market. If it would have been used in arcade cabinets for all day usage I would understand. But since Arcades are left overs of the golden age of gaming. It has no use for it along that path.
Don't get me wrong I was a long time first buyer of the best of the best GPU hardware and SLI. But then one day I realized I had a very expensive graphics cards that would play all old games and where waiting for over two years for the games it suppose to run. Once those games where released the very expensive SLI setup was barely capable to play those games and the Hardware was surpassed by a much more energy efficient single card solution that cost 1/3 of the price of the Expensive SLI setup I have.
My second realization was that my expensive SLI setup was 80% of the year running outlook and Firefox and showing a pretty desktop and when I was looking at two large black bricks through the case window I found it was depressing to see such powerful graphics cards used for a simple desktop, something that a old Matrox card from 1996 could easily do also.
just imagine if Nvidia had put 2GB on this, to properly match the GTX280 cores, or better still, if they used 2GB GDDR5 like the 4870X2, it would seem that two 280's with 2GB would easily best a 4870X2, but in this configuration, it fails, why oh why
Originally Posted by Tim S I think you should be able to fold on both GPUs, since you can do that with the 9800 GX2. :)
last time i checked (summer) one has to disable SLi, and start 2 Folding clients. so the new nVidia driver sorted that out?
Going to have a look at it - I've got a way to meaningfully benchmark Folding now, so we will be adding it to our test suite in good time (probably after CES now)
wow talk about not impressive at all, yet another flop by nVidia and yet again with the superglue sli setup, come on be smart and go with a single pcb board wow so not impressed.
Comments 26 to 50 of 61
ReplyAlways the results will depend on what games are chosen for the review as more games on the review as much better!! ;)
Going to have a look at it - I've got a way to meaningfully benchmark Folding now, so we will be adding it to our test suite in good time (probably after CES now)
This was a preview done with the terms outlined on the first page. When it comes to reviewing the hardware properly, we'll be using a decent selection of games without holds barred.
:)
And two Radeon 4870 X2's also make QuadFire... so you've just nulled your own point.
Need I mention that the X2 still has its side-port disabled? Hiding extra bandwidth for when nVidia tries to take its "crown" away?
From these preliminary benchmarks the nVidia is squeezing by the X2 rather than, as Tim stated, smacking it around like AMD did to nVidia with the X2. I wouldn't be surprised if:
A) nVidia releases GTX 295.
B) ATI follows up with a driver update + unlocks side-port.
C) X2 inches away and takes the spot back.
There just isn't any of that effort reflected in this card as in the X2 -- which was something completely different and interesting. It's still a far more "advanced" card from a technological perspective (fitting two GPU's + 2GB total memory on a single PCB). nVidia is just taking crazy glue and trying to stick cards together, hoping for the love of God that they'll work and claim some decent benchmarks before they overheat and melt like the 9800 GX2's did. nVidia simply needs to step back and redesign their line-up.
fanboy much?
It is the first thing that popped into my head when I saw it, the sort of dull weird textured black plastic and the cut out where the actual tape would be, I expect the back will have the winding bits on it.
After running the Far Cry 2 benchmark at 1920x1200, Ultra High, no AA, I get an average of 50fps and a minimum of 37!
Should do me alright for the next year or so :)
When I took my gtx260 out of the static bag I was pleasantly surprised that the shroud covers the gfx card top and bottom, so there's little chance of passing any static through my grubby little mitts onto delicate circuitry - it's a shame this hasn't continued onto the 295.
We actually talked about what the GTX 295 is in the article (2nd page). It's 2x240 SPs, 2x80 tex, 2x28 ROPs, 2x896MB of memory with GTX 260 clock speeds. So, in reality, it's somewhere between GTX 260 and GTX 280 before it's doubled up.
The point is though that it's not the 2x 280 that everybody was waiting for.
could it be because nvidia has gone down the path that bigger is better and not cared for "efficiency?" and thus actually can't put that kind of spec'd car in that sort of setup?
I think gonna skip this line.. the gx2 earlier this year was a disaster rushed out with nothing but fanboys and hype to back up it's claims on crysis.. the only thing I like about this card would be the amount of power you'd save over going sli 280's.. I'm looking at ati when the next round comes out with the way it's looking
I pretty much gave up on sli as a viable option, just too much power used for what your getting back.. why I was kind of interested in this card..I really like the 280 as a single card solution, no sli issues, but the price turned me off- suprised it took them this long to release and they still lose to ati (of course crysis is pure nvidia- they worked in the backroom with crytek =] no secrets there)
Bravo, I wish more reviews would frame the behind the scenes negotiations that are certainly taking place when previews (or even reviews) are generated. This is important to know for astute consumers who want to make their best decisions ... secondly, it exposes the companies to their PR methods, and hopefully keeps them honest. I also appreciate the non-tacit way of explaining what motivations may be behind such demands, they appear reasonable ... so, it is no reason to shout 'fire'.
Don't get me wrong I was a long time first buyer of the best of the best GPU hardware and SLI. But then one day I realized I had a very expensive graphics cards that would play all old games and where waiting for over two years for the games it suppose to run. Once those games where released the very expensive SLI setup was barely capable to play those games and the Hardware was surpassed by a much more energy efficient single card solution that cost 1/3 of the price of the Expensive SLI setup I have.
My second realization was that my expensive SLI setup was 80% of the year running outlook and Firefox and showing a pretty desktop and when I was looking at two large black bricks through the case window I found it was depressing to see such powerful graphics cards used for a simple desktop, something that a old Matrox card from 1996 could easily do also.
I had just one thought: Never again.
Yay! Thanks Timmy :)
-
« Previous
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
Next »
Discuss in the forums