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GeForce GTX 280 is the new range-topping GPU from NVIDIA, coming some 18 months after GeForce 8800 GTX made a huge impression and changed for ever the way we think of graphics cards.
Let's break down our final thoughts into the constituent parts.
The architecture
The new series, consisting initially of the GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260, can be considered as an incremental upgrade on what we've seen before. There's more shading, texturing and memory bandwidth than we've ever seen before from a single-GPU design, which is nice.
The architecture's been cleaned up and leverages the full worth of the epoch-defining G80. It's wider, faster and a little cleverer, yes, but it's absolutely not the leap forward that we were expecting.
Supporting Hybrid Power, idle and low-load power-efficiency have been increased over those of previous generations, which, again, is nice and green, but readers contemplating these GPUs will be concerned with balls-out power.
NVIDIA will pare-down the high-end SKUs and introduce cheaper variants at later dates, but these won't look and perform too differently to the incumbent 9-series, from what we can tell.
We'll be hearing lots more from NVIDIA about how the GTX 200-series is a perfect fit for non-gaming tasks, via CUDA, yet your GeForce 8800 GT can do all GTX 280 can (bar double-precision accuracy), albeit a little slower.
Overall, then, it's more of the same and that's something of a disappointment.
The performance
Bigger numbers means higher benchmarking performance than any single-GPU that's crossed our path, especially as resolution and image-quality settings are increased, thanks to the massive bandwidth on offer.
Trouble is, the hotch-potch GeForce 9800 GX2 delivers much of the same.
NVIDIA may argue that GTX 280 doesn't suffer from SLI's foibles and has better multi-monitor support, and that's true. But didn't you, dear reader, expect more?
Yes, you can take out a mortgage, buy three of these puppies and have the fastest PC-based gaming subsystem this side of anywhere. But do you really want to spend £1,350 on a set of graphics cards?
The green team, too, has nowhere to go now with a single-GPU setup - this is it. We'll see overclocked versions in due course, adding a few per cent on top. GTXs will need to be SLI'd - and have all the furniture that comes with it - to extract meaningful gains in performance over and above what we've seen.
The value perspective
Going down the big-chip route is an intrinsically expensive business. Squeezing 1.4bn transistors on a 65nm process increases the price of manufacture and that cost is going to be passed on to the consumer.
Priced at around £450 on launch day, the GTX 280 is simply too expensive in an age when the rival, ATI, is clearly focussed on providing performance in the sub-£250 category.
It hurts that the GeForce 9800 GX2, pitched £150 lower than the GTX 280, is able to performance-compete with it in our benchmarked titles, leading to the inference that SLI'd GeForce 9800 GTX, priced at around £370 for the pair, will do the same.
Etailer pricing needs to drop to £350, in a hurry, for GTX 280 to be a viable solution at the high-end, we feel.
ATI's RV770 and R700 are about to hit the retail space soon, and it's only then that the true GPU picture of 2008 will emerge.
The bottom line
GeForce GTX 280 easily takes the mantle of fastest single-GPU graphics-card, with performance derived from making 18-month-old G80 that much bigger and better.
But in getting ultimate performance by going down the big-chip route bring problems. We can't envisage yields being high in the short-term, possibly leading to scaling issues if ATI's R700 is as good as it's reckoned to be.
The fundamental problem that's faced NVIDIA is that G80 was so damn good;. The bar was raised astronomically high and kept there with a succession of G80 derivatives.
We wanted another G80-type jump for this new generation and, while GTX 280 is undeniably blazingly fast, it's not by any means a comparable revolution.
GeForce GTX 280 does make for a blazingly fast single-GPU card but one that a little inelegant in approach.
BFG's slightly overclocked card lives and dies by what's written above, naturally.
We'll investigate overclocking performance and take a look at three-way SLI later on this week, so stay tuned.
HEXUS Awards
Well, it is pretty fast, right?
BFG GeForce GTX 280 OC
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