GTX 280 owners... interested in what you think so far

[cm123]

I know the price is crazy and AMD might have a winner coming with HD 4870 (and I'm a AMD fan) - however sure many of us got GTX 280 - myself included being working in the industry as part of my job I have each compaines cards.

What I've found so far is, the game I play the most by far is cod4, others CoH, fear, and bunch of others as well...

cod4 I've found the GTX 280 (VS HD 3870, HD3780x2, HD 4850) to really do well in the eye candy this time around (again I'm big ATI fan and normally feel Nvidia can not beat the graphics), I always crank everything up as far as I can as fyi...

odd thing though, while its fast, maybe the best way to say it is that its not smooth, goes along well when not having to turn fast while in a game/cod4, then left and right sides look a little broken up or should say not smooth (not terrible, however everyone takes notice that has seen this) - also found once in awhile pauses for a brief moment.

again though, I think its the best graphics Nvidia has ever had, fast as hell in the real world, however for the $$$ I sure the heck hope drivers improve a few things in the up coming weeks or so... and NOT take away quality of image.

other games, are all about the same being 100% honest, I almost never crash while playing, I have a couple of times with the GTX 280 (I do NOT overclock at all) - I know I see the benchies where the 9800x2 beats the 280 - does not seem that way when playing games in rhe real world (to me at least).

My final thoughts, lets hope AMD really can pull one off with the HD 4870 - that being said (and again I favor AMD), I think other than price they have their hands pretty full - much more than it seems right now today... 280 for the costs should in fact have dx10.1 (crazy top line, top price, not all top line features). If had to buy it on my own (if my job no needed me too), just not sure I would buy it again or not???

fyi... rest of system running (most of the time) is Intel 9770 with 4GB mushkin assc. ddr21066, veli-raptor drives (pair of them) and X-Fi Titum. PCIe audio, killer NIC, Vista32 Ulit. - (have matching AMD 9850 sys as well). - Cosm.-S case, mushkin 850 ps.


How is it going for others that have the GTX 280? happy about the buy or buyers remorse? best thing Nvidia had so far or ???

how about spending the big $$$ and not having dx 10.1, whats your thoughts on that?

 

[chizow]

This is probably better off in the GTX 280 thread and may get moved over there, but I'd say for starters, turn on Triple Buffering and Vsync if you're using an LCD to take care of that smoothness issue and screen tearing issue.

 

[Red Storm]

Originally posted by: cm123
... killer NIC...

Not to sound like a jerk, but spending money on a Killer NIC is a good way of telling people not to put much faith in your opinion on electronics.

On a more serious note, the GTX280 is a nice performing card, but it's $600 price tag is unreasonable and ridiculous and only makes me more eager for AMD's 4870 and the X2 variant.

 

[cm123]

Originally posted by: Red Storm

Originally posted by: cm123
... killer NIC...

Not to sound like a jerk, but spending money on a Killer NIC is a good way of telling people not to put much faith in your opinion on electronics.

On a more serious note, the GTX280 is a nice performing card, but it's $600 price tag is unreasonable and ridiculous and only makes me more eager for AMD's 4870 and the X2 variant.

Not sound like jerk back, most people who comment on killerNIC are not owners (most, not all) - in my job I'm going to have it to have my job - that being said, would I buy it on my own??? Yep, I would actually after having now for good amount of time (had it for a bit before it went on sale actually).

One of the most interesting things is how upset that darn card makes people - most reason I like it - truth about it, makes game play feel small bit more level in heavy action times, I never get crazy high pings like most people when gaming online and someone comes on that has terrible lag (they bring with them).

The bad, drivers actually are pretty good, the card though, its picky, and thats not the half of it - if your always changing your hardware (and I am) - then you'll deal with having to re-load the drivers often, firmware wanting to reload and few things like that - also times doing other things than gaming, sorry to this (tick off other killer NIC owners on this one), its slow, sometimes really slow - at times I'll have 4 to 6 people over on my systems gaming, while gaming is pretty good, file transfer and web surfing, they nearly all make comments, sure static DNS helps web surfing some, not much though.

Does for me the killer NIC make my game better, well first off I suck most of the time - so what does it matter...

speaking of that, I have PhysiX card used for testing, never really left it in my systems - that'll make you more happy (joking with you of course)... time to sell that at bargin price I guess.

Really though, not looking for people to have faith in my opinion, looking for others comments and thoughts on this card really VS maybe whats coming - not debate like the big thread about it coming out and such...

tripple buffer - doing all that, vsync, I'll try that once, really always stayed away from that in the past - interesting to try - played little cod4 moments ago, really does have some great graphics out-put, actually prefer it slightly to the HD 4850, sure the 4870 will give it run in that area - love the power in the single gpu too. I did do clean Vista install, however starting to think maybe driver just not load totally correct or the such - unless others here see or have had the same them happen and yes, I'm using 22" LCD.

Red Storm, I hear ya on the $600 (and I mean nothing here at all in my comments bad as fyi...) - being AMD fan myself, I hope for good showing of the HD 4870 - I think its needed since Nvidia sure will release slighty different cards to hit or match AMD price points (in time), and if they also have the top dog and do well with the other price points - could hurt already hurting a bit AMD - also love to see AMD get little more hp in the cpu area, the 9850 when can get it to 3+GHz area (when and stable) is pretty interesting, puts them in the game real well as long as could still hold the price points.

 

[lopri]

It's your privacy but I can't help but wonder what kind of job it is. A boutique PC shop?

Network cards can be expensive. Haven't used the Killer NIC, but I do plan to purchase a high-quality gigabit card for my home server in the near future. You'd be surprised how much CPU cycle is consumed while transferring various types of data through on-board NIC. I wouldn't buy the Killer NIC, though. Doesn't make sense to have a gigabit network card on a PCI slot.

On topic: OP's observation is interesting yet makes sense. Thank you for sharing your experience. I do think that the current ForceWare is likely holding back the GTX 280's true potentials. (as well as the perceived 'un-smoothness') Once NV masters the art of DX10 or whatever they're planning to do, the GTX 280 will shine through, IMO. (Although by that time NV may have a leaner and meaner version of GT200)

 

[cm123]

Originally posted by: chizow
This is probably better off in the GTX 280 thread and may get moved over there, but I'd say for starters, turn on Triple Buffering and Vsync if you're using an LCD to take care of that smoothness issue and screen tearing issue.

thanks chizow for the ideas - the vsync indeed does end GTX 280 having I guess then tearing - seems vista not liking nvidia 177.35 or 177.39 drivers, still crashes good amount (going to try another fresh install vista) - again thanks as I know this post is not about these issues...

interesting not many 280 owners want to comment or not many here could be the case of course.

do you guys really like all the posts being moved into one thread? myself, I no like that much, too hard to find much of the comments on item and/or each persons thoughts - sure I know at times people post the same thing over and over, however that just happens still in the same thread then.

 

[Skunkwourk]

Originally posted by: cm123

Originally posted by: chizow
This is probably better off in the GTX 280 thread and may get moved over there, but I'd say for starters, turn on Triple Buffering and Vsync if you're using an LCD to take care of that smoothness issue and screen tearing issue.

thanks chizow for the ideas - the vsync indeed does end GTX 280 having I guess then tearing - seems vista not liking nvidia 177.35 or 177.39 drivers, still crashes good amount (going to try another fresh install vista) - again thanks as I know this post is not about these issues...

interesting not many 280 owners want to comment or not many here could be the case of course.

do you guys really like all the posts being moved into one thread? myself, I no like that much, too hard to find much of the comments on item and/or each persons thoughts - sure I know at times people post the same thing over and over, however that just happens still in the same thread then.

possibly waiting for the 4870 before committing to a purchase.

 

[cm123]

Originally posted by: lopri
It's your privacy but I can't help but wonder what kind of job it is. A boutique PC shop?

Network cards can be expensive. Haven't used the Killer Nic, but I do plan to purchase a high-quality gigabit card for my home server in the near future. You'd be surprised how much CPU cycle is consumed while transferring various types of data through on-board NIC.

On topic: OP's observation is interesting yet makes sense. Thank you for sharing your experience. I do think that the current ForceWare is likely holding back the GTX 280's true potentials. (as well as the perceived 'un-smoothness') Once NV masters the art of DX10 or whatever they're planning to do, the GTX 280 will shine through, IMO. (Although by that time NV may have a leaner and meaner version of GT200)

Hi lopri - i'm senior engineer and (one of the) buyer (of course can't post the company, my comments here are nothing more than that, my comments and personal, not company thoughts) at the company, in the past was product manager and line manager with good size (one of the largest MS system builders in the US) system company (nope not AMD nor Nvidia of course).

Intel PT1000 is great NIC - killer NIC is pretty fun to play around with indeed, from file stand-point the Intel NIC kills it, unless switch modes on the killer NIC (takes reboot) and even then still PT1000 is faster, even in games its pretty close, only the large action times does the killer NIC seem to shine, thats when the other guy says that bs when you shot him while he shooting you (what I found).

You are right on the on-board, I know many people like to debate that - get really good NIC like the PT 1000 and will notice things just seem to pop much better or have that smooth feel.

I personally think the killer suffers from being PCI VS PCIe and yes I know used to be latency issue on the PCIe bus - not today on the highend chipsets.

I think your right on the drivers, (again I'm AMD fan) the GTX 280 to me is looking like a darn good card (as long as gets more stable with drivers) - as long as AMD can keep close, makes things better for all of us.

 

[HOOfan 1]

Originally posted by: cm123

do you guys really like all the posts being moved into one thread? myself, I no like that much, too hard to find much of the comments on item and/or each persons thoughts - sure I know at times people post the same thing over and over, however that just happens still in the same thread then.

At first I thought it was a good idea, to keep the "brand loyal" members in separate threads, that lasted for all of 10 seconds.

Now I agree, I find it nearly impossible to track the progress of these threads, find responses to my posts and find information in there threads.

Unless I decided to spend 15 hours a day in these forums.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: HOOfan 1

Originally posted by: cm123

do you guys really like all the posts being moved into one thread? myself, I no like that much, too hard to find much of the comments on item and/or each persons thoughts - sure I know at times people post the same thing over and over, however that just happens still in the same thread then.

At first I thought it was a good idea, to keep the "brand loyal" members in separate threads, that lasted for all of 10 seconds.

Now I agree, I find it nearly impossible to track the progress of these threads, find responses to my posts and find information in there threads.

Unless I decided to spend 15 hours a day in these forums.

Not to completely derail this thread, but I agree. I'd much rather have a bunch of small GTX 2xx and HD 48xx threads discussing different aspects than these huge monolithic threads that have other threads merged into them. The big threads are great to keep up with if you are constantly reading, but if you take a day off from AT forums you're lost. The merging makes them terribly disjointed too. I can't imagine that 10 day old, 50 page thread would be very inviting to newcomers either.

 

[cm123]

guess its says something as to the success for Nvidia of their top gun (lack of people having and posting) the GTX 280 comments -

been using my card lots more now, between couple of systems (listed above), found couple interesting things, on fresh install of vista, installing sp1 first before any drivers seemed to improve things (no need for vsync) - on amd 790fx asus board with the 280 in, see couple crashes while gaming per day - on the Intel x38 asus (max. form. board) runs pretty smooth, only leaving cod4 and CoH will there be error pop up.

not change the subject of this post, the creative X-Fi titium audio card I'm lov'in - great sound and have not had single driver issue, even to me tops the xonar asus sound card...

glad to see its not just me that no likes the toss everything in the same thread format -