GTX 280 - Round 1

Setting up round one;

Krotech tandem Americold 1/2hp compressors R507
Intel E8500 Retail
Asus P5Q3-Deluxe Bios 0702 unmodded
Nvidia GTX 280 stock heatsink, untouched.
Corsair Dominator DR3-2133 SPD +
Corsair HX-1000 PSU

The parts selected;

The Kryotech, Operating temps of -60c unloaded, -50c loaded with a quad.

Asus P45 P5Q3-Deluxe with the 16 phase power. These boards have been slipping past 600FSB with ease and should be a good performer for 3D benching at high speeds.

Pretty much all E8x00 can hit 500FSB, a lot can hit 600FSB, for simplicity I setup at 527FSB (5Ghz) for these bench runs. This FSB should be reachable by everyone here so I am not setup ungodly for this set of runs. I did not touch any voltages other than vcore and vmem, droop enabled. I also had jumper for 2vcore enabled but was not needed.

E8500 527*9.5 @ 1.7v -55c

The Corsair 2133 are brutal but for this set of runs I left it at SPD and changed read/write enable and clock twister to moderate. I left command rate at 2.

DDR3-2133 @ 2.1Ghz 9-9-9-15-2t 2.0v ambiant

I wanted 100% stability for my video card push but I also wanted decent power behind it and this is where I ended up.

With the beta driver and rivatuner 2.09 I had no problem clocking the card. I did have to do a complete reinstall of a bench drive to get everything working perfectly. I tried to use an existing bench drive but there were issues that reinstalling both driver and rivatuner didnt fix.

I pushed the GPU to 756Mhz before problems became evident, the first sign was texture maps for the scene would get blown up and displayed on screen during a few second pause, pressing escape (drop out of 3D) would fix and I was able to complete the bench if I ran it again. Pushing the ram past 1225Mhz would give produce some tearing on screen, I dont like pushing the ram that hard so I ran most tests at 1210Mhz.

One thing I started doing on new cards is tightening the screws, be careful and use the correct size tool. This gives me a pretty good gain in clocks from the increased contact pressure. I left the shroud on for these runs, my GX2 runs better naked so I will make the change at some point.

Single GTX 280 740Mhz core, 1210Mhz memory, shader was locked to core. Stock heat sink, never removed.

The PSU is the new Corsair HX-1000, more than capable for this simple task.

ORB submission is a problem, no links for any score atm.

The numbers;

http://fugger.netfirms.com/gtx280/am3.jpg

http://fugger.netfirms.com/gtx280/01.jpg

http://fugger.netfirms.com/gtx280/03.jpg

http://fugger.netfirms.com/gtx280/05.jpg

http://fugger.netfirms.com/gtx280/06.jpg

http://fugger.netfirms.com/gtx280/bw.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzkfouDEGhI

Games;

I am a gamer and will run my card at stock for highest reliability.

I found myself switching from dual GX2's to a single GTX 280 and I wont look back. All around performance wise (1050 res) the GTX 280 wins and I will switch up to SLI soon.

For round two, 790i with memory dialed in, quad core C1 on the triple stage.

Round three, Perdro Rocha arrives on Thursday and we switch up to LN2. :up:

Thanks for the review. I was interested to hear your opinion about the GX2 as the majority of forums are still worshiping it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FUGGER

I found myself switching from dual GX2's to a single GTX 280 and I wont look back.

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That's good news.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FUGGER

Setting up round one;


I am a gamer and will run my card at stock for highest reliability.

I found myself switching from dual GX2's to a single GTX 280 and I wont look back. All around performance wise (1050 res) the GTX 280 wins and I will switch up to SLI soon.

For round two, 790i with memory dialed in, quad core C1 on the triple stage.

Round three, Perdro Rocha arrives on Thursday and we switch up to LN2. :up:

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"I am a gamer and will run my card at stock for highest reliability."

amen to that and i do the same....


Nvidia GTX 280 = 9900gtx????

I am teetering on whether or not to get one..........

Already have a Ultra and a GX2.

class of GTX 280

pict staff :eek::eek: please :)

those are nice scores for single card, my 3870X2 gets just under that, and it's a dual gpu single card. nice!

Nice job~!
Please 177.34 driver download link :)

is that straight from nVidia or what company is it from the color reminds me of evga or XFX

thanks Fugger a interesting read :)

Nice fugger:toast: I was hoping the card would be stronger in 3d01 though :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SIOUX

Nice fugger:toast: I was hoping the card would be stronger in 3d01 though :(

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Besides nature nothing the card can improve no?

Had been looking for this info. :up:

In terms of hwbot benching, looks like gtx280 might only rule 3DMark01 and Aquamark3 in SLI. :/

Thanks Fugger!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SIOUX

Nice fugger:toast: I was hoping the card would be stronger in 3d01 though :(

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Exactly the same i though when seeing the screen...

Good work Charles, is there used lod in the nature run 01?...

this card will do GOOD in 01 nature it seems... 960 at just 724Mhz, hahahaha..

great, cant wait for round 2 and 3

surprising how many cards come with the screws loose, thanks for the bench fugger.....

Thanks for providing a complete suite of benchmarks and not just Vantage. :D

Pict staff? whats that?

LOD used for 01 run only.

Running on 790i I can run at a much higher pcie frequency, scores going up.

Thanks guys, more runs inbound. Pedro is confirmed to be here on Thursday.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dpa

this card will do GOOD in 01 nature it seems... 960 at just 724Mhz, hahahaha..

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yes..for SLI users...other wise 9800gx2 is still the way to go for 01......same clocks gives you 1300+fps

sorry.... sametimes, my english is not so good :p
I'd like to see a picture of the staff that you use :) for this round...

Pictures of the staff? still not understanding. What is a staff?

pictures of the stuff you used? > setup pics

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FUGGER

Pictures of the staff? still not understanding. What is a staff?

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Pictures of setup :) sorry again

Quote:

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Originally Posted by massman

pictures of the stuff you used? > setup pics

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thanks (y) :up::up:

thanks, big review again!!!!

a single 280gtx beats out quad sli gx2 games??

Disrupt, not in sheer fps in everything but to have a unreal strong single gpu solution is the better solution for me. For both noise level and heat generation, my machine sits idle for at least 12 hours a day, idle temps are far lower to the point it is noticible in my computer room.

I am SLI capable and can always upgrade to a second card but my main game is not Crysis, this gpu does great in all current game titles with image quality.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FUGGER

my machine sits idle for at least 12 hours a day

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:slapass::slapass: Ummm...:D WCG :yepp: :wasntme:

nice going charles

your card seems more decent than mine in shader clocks ..........as i'm getting artifacts at 1500+ shaders

nice numbers too
i got some better numbers but decided not to record them as they were nothing special considering what a single GX2 does :shrug:

but going SLI with these with XP will give some great numbers once nvidia fixes this driver for '01 as CH bug is present as you can see in your test there

i was getting around 300FPS at 5.5GHz on CPU with 680MHz core
it should have been in high 300s

on LN2 in SLI and better driver these will allow for some new '01 W.R.s :) :up:
too bad Vista sucks for 3D benching on old school benchmarks.........

nice work FUGGER! You should put the SS on the card and see what it will do! :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TheKarmakazi

nice work FUGGER! You should put the SS on the card and see what it will do! :)

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Way ahead of you, but I will push the card even harder. I know I can break 750 and will end up near 800Mhz on the core (stock heatsink). I do not plan to remove it until I go sub zero.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FUGGER

Pict staff? whats that?

LOD used for 01 run only.

Running on 790i I can run at a much higher pcie frequency, scores going up.

Thanks guys, more runs inbound. Pedro is confirmed to be here on Thursday.

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Lordy I wish I could be there to hang with you guys! I cannot wait for round 2 & 3 results!! What are you going to cool the cards with when you put the cascade on the CPU? Any possibility of some '03 Tri-SLI runs with LN2??

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dinos22

nice going charles your card seems more decent than mine in shader clocks ..........as i'm getting artifacts at 1500+ shaders

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That's the same issue I'm having...my evga 280 FTW runs great at the stock 1458mhz shader clock, but has problems when it gets above 1500. I notice that the Zotac 280 amp has a 700mhz core clock, but only 1400mhz (probably 1404 actual) shader clock. Looks like the shader clock might be the weak point, but too small of a sample size to know.

yeah that doesn't surprise me though because of sooo many processors

but unlinking core doesn't help :confused:

Fugger let's see your "new" scores with those new drivers dude hahahahahahahah :up:

Pedro is in town and we are scheduled to fire up tomorrow. I have an agry bottle of LN2 in my garage.

Have you Vmodded it Fugger, or plan too?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FUGGER

Pedro is in town and we are scheduled to fire up tomorrow. I have an agry bottle of LN2 in my garage.

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yay

try to test CH on latest driver
fingers crossed it works (as in that CH is finally fixed and at reasonable FPS) :rolleyes:

Can anyone comment on safe thermals for this card?

At 700Mhz I am getting 85C under full sustained load with stock air cooler, is this too hot?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ceevee

Can anyone comment on safe thermals for this card?

At 700Mhz I am getting 85C under full sustained load with stock air cooler, is this too hot?

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Try to raise the speed of your fan

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FUGGER

Pedro is in town and we are scheduled to fire up tomorrow. I have an agry bottle of LN2 in my garage.

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Shoot my garage is a Damn sauna...its hot here in vegas this week

Unreal hot this week.

85c is a too hot, fan speed or back it off some.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FUGGER

Unreal hot this week.

85c is a too hot, fan speed or back it off some.

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Can the newer NVIDIA cards not handle high temperatures, or is it just good practice to keep the temperature lower than that? You'll have to excuse me as I've not even touched anything more powerful than a 7900GTX in my system.

I know my 7800GTX could handle temperatures up to about 100C before it began to choke and throttle down, I assume to stop overheating. Don't ask me why it was hitting 100C though, that's a different story...

The higher the temps the shorter the life span, no guesstimate but 85c will burn you.

Any results for round 2 or 3 yet Charles? Is Pedro still out there?

The faithful are waiting for the results.....;)

a quad cpu setup will have any benefits ?