10 REASONS NOT TO BUY THE GTX280:

Well I recently wrote a blog entitled "Dear Nvidia, what the hell is wrong with you?" and upon it's completion I was somewhat bombarded by people who felt that the medical usage and new CUDA, PRO'S of this new graphics card (GTX200 series) was far important or outweighed the CON"S of it from a cost vs. performance or (gamers want this much speed for this much money equation.)'

What many of the writers immediately assumed was that I was disregarding the medical and scientific applications for which this new technology could be used for, and several said that my words were selfish and focused soley on achieving a couple more frames per second in some video game.

My response to them is based off of logic and reasoning. You see I do not entirely feel that Nvidia is putting all it can into it's graphics cards as of late. Many people felt cheated and or ripped off once they bought there new G92 processor based graphics cards only to find them barely faster or slower than the 8800 GTX, and GTS from now over 18 months ago.

I will state that I just don't think as far as the gamers market is concerned, when a 650.00 dollar "enthusiast level" graphics card is released, we should be benchmarking folding at home, as the majority(I'd estimate 95%) of the users will never actually use it in that context.
Nvidia has several options for the medical and scientific community that offer much better support than a gamers card. Their new TESLA products are exactly what they created to combat this need. Not to mention you can buy a GTX280 (X 4) single blade server, with 16 Gb of memory (4 Gb Per core for this very purpose.)The GTX280 retail market card couldve benefited a little more from maybe 2Gb of ram per card instead of only 1GB. They are already doing 4GB for the professional side of the market. Heck they couldve went with GDDR5 instead of the same ole same ole, they've been using for 3 years now.

This card was intended to be a new standard setting performance bar, and instead what we have received is a product that is on all accounts hard for many to open their wallet for.

The 8800GTX is still considered to be a great investment based soley on the fact that it has held it's own through almost 2 years of gaming and graphics advances, and it is the "Bar" that must be exceeded when comparing graphics cards performance from one generation to another.

But my discontent stems from the fact that Nvidia is currently sitting on graphics technology far greater than what they are making available to the public. (4 Gb instead of 1 Gb for instance) referenced above.

For instance when the G92 was released, it showed a massive improvement in cooling capability, now able to do single slot designs, and maintained almost the same performance as the G80. Some of the cards were close to the performance or were even slightly better than the 8800 GTX. But at no time did any 8800GTX owner feel that they had to go out and buy a new graphics card from a performance improvement stand point. Maybe they wanted cooler systems, or to free up a PCI slot, but the upgrade would have garnered little to no results in game over what they currently had. Especially if they were running an SLI setup, to upgrade to a G92 Series card or cards for that matter made virtually no sense.

But remember back at the benchmarks when the 5 series went to the 6 series Nvidia cards, and then from 6 to the 7 series, and 7 to 8 series. Each time there was a substantial gain in graphics capability, we will call it "faster -bigger- better", in every respect. The Gpu improvement from one generation to the next was usually 75%-100% gains in peformance level in game. Benchmarks showed this, in every generation.

Yet recently we have only been receiving, 20% to 30% gains at each cards new release, though the pricing has not dropped upon release from one high end card to the next, just the performance improvement ratio's.

Now as a gamer, I like many of you don't want to have to keep upgrading every 6 months to a new graphics card especially if it only give a marginal improvement over heat and power expenditures.
But this GTX 280 release is utterly ridiculous, and my examples for this are as follows:

10 REASONS NOT TO BUY THE GTX280:

#1: This card actually produces more heat, than the previous generation.

#2: The fan is considerably louder at all levels.

#3: The power consumption has been recorded at record high levels.

#4: The price upon release is 650.00 Dollars. You can buy (4) 8800GT's for this cost, and only two of those will outperform this card.

#5: A 9800GTX currently runs about 250.00-270.00 dollars. The GTX 280 shows on average a 30% increase in performance in game over this card. However you could easily SLI or TRI-SLI the 9800GTX and far exceed the performance of one GTX280. For even less cost.

#6: The 9800GX2 still outperforms this card in many games and is usually tied with it for any others. The 9800 GX2 is dropping in price rapidly. It will be 400.00 soon, and maybe lower.

#7: Nvidia is already working on the replacement for the card with a smaller better cooled core( which also equals higher clock speeds) in the upcoming revision, Remember the 8800GT? What happened to all the owners who bought 8800GTS 640 and 320 mb cards.

#8: The 4870 is quoted by ATI to be only slightly lower in the performance department than the GTX280, and they havent even released the 4870X2. This will put ATI on top again, just like it did when they released the 3870X2. The best part is that it will release at 150 dollars lower cost than the GTX280.

#9: Any of us currently using 8800GTX's (Single or SLI'd) 8800GT's SLI'd, 8800GTS 512mb,(Single or SLI'd) (9600GT SLI'd) or any of the 9800's will see little to no improvement over their current setup, not to mention that some of us may have to upgrade other various parts in our systems to get to the performance levels we would want. Like Going to Sli GTX 280's would most likely require a power supply upgrade for many as well. This takes the cost from 1300.00 (for SLI'd GTX280's) to over 1600.00 for the added PSU to handle the juice.

#10: All of these examples leads to the biggest one, the price per pixel pumping power is just not good deal for the marginal improvements the card will provide. Nvidia will see that it has shot itself in the foot with this one, and once ATI comes back with the "Sucker Punch" (4870X2) Nvidia will have to recover from it's bruised ego. Maybe next time they will actually put something on the table worth the bid for top spot.

NVIDIA stop sitting on your hands watching ATI trying to catch up. They are about to hit the Nitrous button, and pass you up.

No one is forcing you to buy this card...why all the ranting?


P.S. Stop being such a troll

haha to bad for you nviidia lovers 4850 here i come!

Hey SpinachEater,

It's not a rant, there are many people right now who are not sure which way they should go with their money. I wrote this to if anything help those people making an educated decision on what they should do.

However since you obviously feel the need to be the first basher of a thread, I guess you have never read any reviews of products or technology right? I guess you have never written anything that was of concern right? Well this is a big issue right now, and if you don't want to read people's opinions about technology or computer parts, them don't visit Tom's Forums, because it's filled with the same kind of stuff you see written above you.

Thanks - DragonCyber

Exactly. If you want nVidia to 'get the point' of what you are ranting about...just don't buy it. Supply and demand, my friend. If it really is that bad, they will have to scramble and come up with a better product, correct?

Yes, stop being such a troll. There is no point to this thread when the exact same information was described in the Tom's reviews for these cards. Maybe they can find a way to slap you with plagiarism.

Now I see whats wrong with you Spinach Eater. Your 3 years old and borrowing daddies computer for a moment huh?

Once again if you don't like what I've written, then don't read it. That simple

If you don't like what we respond with, don't reply back.

And how are we supposed to know if we don't like what you have written, if we first haven't read it?

Now you are messing with laws of space and time continuum.

Chill dude.

LOL.

I'm good. Just wanted to play Devil's Advocate.

@DragonRetard: You are wasting all of our time.

@SpinachEater: Great post (the spray)

I wrote this in the hopes of helping someone who was teetering on the edge of making the decision to buy or not to buy the GTX280, and once again if your not that person then this message isnt for you.

Thanks- DragonCyber

I am fine with your intentions but you respond with such distaste towards NV to a level to where it is like they have stabbed you in the back or have committed a crime. And yes, I do read reviews but typically the ones that are educational and as non-biased as possible.

Your "review" has no new information what so ever. When hardware first launches, it is overpriced. It happened in the past, it happens now, and it will continue to happen in the future. You act so shocked and horrified at this like it is the first time it has ever happened.

The card is hot? That is your reason not to buy it? Come on, get back with reality. The GPU is the size of an oil tanker...did you think it was going to be cooler than their previous chips?

Hands down I love to hear of people's opinions but when they come across as polarized rants they usually aren't worth the time. Just be more mature about it and I will stop antagonizing you. Cheers.

ati is gonna have fun this yr.
=]