GTX260 Redesign...

[Zap]

Originally posted by: josh6079

Originally posted by: Zap

Originally posted by: nosfe
why not just let their board partners make custom designs?

Partners are allowed to make custom <stickers, except on the highest end products (which of course is a moving target). What makes you think they aren't?

Fixed.

Whatever you want to believe. *shrug* Just because most partners do not does not mean it isn't allowed. The typical reasons for not creating one-off designs are cost and time.

 

[josh6079]

Originally posted by: Zap
Whatever you want to believe. *shrug* Just because most partners do not does not mean it isn't allowed. The typical reasons for not creating one-off designs are cost and time.

Oh no, I know. I agree. It is allowed.

I was just making a joke about how the only difference you can really tell between cards often times is because of the stupid stickers they put on them.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

so the new gtx260 has a lower cost but now is made of lower quality material, such as capacitors, pcb, + all other variables.

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster
This kind of gives one some hints about the yields for the GT200 (both 65nm and 55nm) chips.

What's you're hypothesis on the yields?

 

[Xellos2099]

So how does the original gtx 260 65nm compare to the current 55nm?

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: Xellos2099
So how does the original gtx 260 65nm compare to the current 55nm?

The 192sp one is slower but the 216 version is about the same basically.

 

[Xellos2099]

I guess it is a good news that I jumped on the unnerf 55nm of gtx 260 for 200 AR.

 

[nosfe]

Originally posted by: Zap

Originally posted by: nosfe
why not just let their board partners make custom designs?

Partners are allowed to make custom designs, except on the highest end products (which of course is a moving target). What makes you think they aren't?

well the fact that while browsing through the sites from evga, xfx and bfg, i've only found one 9800gtx+ with a custom heatsink and none of the gtx 2xx series had a custom heatsink(aside from the watter cooled editions). I've barely seen gtx 2xx series cards with custom heatsinks(though this one looks nice) let alone custom pcb's, that's why i'm thinking that maybe they aren't allowed or something. Why are there so few custom designs from nvidia partners out there compared to ati?(i'm talking about 9800gtx+ and up)

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: nosfe
Why are there so few custom designs from nvidia partners out there compared to ati?(i'm talking about 9800gtx+ and up)

Added design cost due to the more complex PCB?

 

[Cookie Monster]

Originally posted by: thilan29
What's you're hypothesis on the yields?

With the GTX280 transitioning to GTX285 along with the shrink to 55nm while the GTX260 staying where it is, its obviously that yields on full fledged GT200 cores aren't very high compared to slightly crippled cores used in GTX295/GTX260/c216 etc.

Its a good move for nVIDIA since they gotta do something about the left over GT200 cores (ones that are usable ala GT260 and c216 variants, so that they can make up for the production and other related costs). So basically, the yields must have been terrible which isnt too far fetched seeing as only ~92ish "usable" chips were produced per wafer (not including possible defects within the usable cores and so forth). One can assume why nVIDIA set the initial MSRP of $599 on the GTX280s.

Im guessing that the yields must be pretty good on the 55nm compared to what they had initially, especially with the current B3 revision of 55nm chips where they are able to lower the core voltage even more. Im not sure if the current GTX260s use B3 revision, since the review samples were using the B2 revision. The difference between the two is mainly the voltage levels. This is pretty much why they have been able to get away with a much cheaper PCB since this new design is enough to accommodate the chips power requirements. (And probably why they delayed the GTX295 in the first place since the GT206 chips went through three respins) Coming to think of it, the newer GTX260s with the new PCB might accommodate B3 revision chips.

Until we see a review on these cards based on the new PCB, Im going to hold my judgement on overclockability, power consumption and stability.

 

[Xellos2099]

Another thing, if I OC my GTX 260 55nm, should I be able to approach the GTX 280 performance or not even close?

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: Xellos2099
Another thing, if I OC my GTX 260 55nm, should I be able to approach the GTX 280 performance or not even close?

You should be able to get into the range of GTX280, but there is a difference in memory size that the GTX260 will not be able to overcome in rare situations. 896 vs. 1GB. Rare.

The 280 has 4 advantages over the 260.

1. Shader count: 280 has 240sp's. 260+ has 216sp's. (32 less sp's)
2. Frame buffer: 280 has 1GB. 260 has 896MB (128MB less)
3. Memory bus width. 280 has 512 bit wide bus. 260 has 448 bit wide bus. (64 bit deficit)
4. Higher core, shader and memory clocks to begin with.

Quite a bit to overcome with just an overclock, but if the o/c is high enough, you can come close to 280 in a fair amount of situations. Maybe even exceed in a few instances.

 

[Xellos2099]

Of course I don't expect it to be the same as the gtx 280. Is the different between the two small like compare to 8800gt to 8800gtx or is ti big like compare the 8800gts320 to 8800gts 640?

 

[Tempered81]

Overclocked 260 @ 715mhz core whooping up on a stock GTX280
http://www.xbitlabs.com/images...m/results/crysiswh.png


article:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articl...e-gtx260-216-55nm.html

 

[Cookie Monster]

Here is the new GTX260 based on the new PCB design

Note that the core revision is B3 meaning its running at a lower vcore compared to previous GTX260s. (Hence the reductions in power components)