GeForce GTX 280 isn't the only all-new SKU launched by NVIDIA and its partners today, though.
The second-rung of the GTX 200-series is occupied by the GTX 260, which is based on the same guts as '280 but has performance pared by a reduction in power, achieved by snipping off parts of the architecture.
Trotting out the Table of Doom again:
| Graphics cards | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 1024 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 896 | NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 1024 | NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX 512 | NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512 | NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra 768 | ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 1024 | ATI Radeon HD 3870 512 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCIe | PCIe 2.0 | PCIe 1.x | PCIe 2.0 | |||||
| GPU clock | 602MHz | 576MHz | 600MHz | 675MHz | 650MHz | 612MHz | 825MHz | 775MHz |
| Shader clock | 1,296MHz | 1,242MHz | 1,500MHz | 1,688MHz | 1,625MHz | 1,500MHz | 825MHz | 775MHz |
| Memory clock (effective) | 2,214MHz | 1,998MHz | 2,000MHz | 2,200MHz | 1,940MHz | 2,160MHz | 1,802MHz | 2,250MHz |
| Memory interface, size, and implementation | 512-bit, 1,024MiB, GDDR3 | 448-bit, 896MiB, GDDR3 | 2x 256-bit, 1,024MiB, GDDR3 | 256-bit, 512MiB, GDDR3 | 384-bit, 768MiB, GDDR3 | 2x 256-bit, 1,024MiB, GDDR3 | 256-bit, 512MiB, GDDR4 | |
| Memory bandwidth | 141.7GB/sec | 111.90GB/sec | 128GB/sec (card) | 70.40GB/sec | 62.1GB/sec | 103.68GB/sec | 115.328GB/sec (card) | 72.8GB/sec |
| Manufacturing process | TSMC, 65nm | TSMC, 90nm | TSMC, 55nm | |||||
| Transistor count | 1,408M | 1,408M | 1,508M | 754M | 681M | 1,300M | 666M | |
| Die size | Unknown (big) | Unknown (big) | 2x 296mm² | 296mm² | 484mm² | 2x 192mm² | 192mm² | |
| DirectX Shader Model | DX10, 4.0 | DX10.1, 4.1 | ||||||
| Vertex, fragment, geometry shading (shared) | 240 FP32 scalar ALUs, MADD dual-issue (unified) | 192 FP32 scalar ALUs, MADD dual-issue (unified) | 256 FP32 scalar ALUs, MADD (unified) | 128 FP32 scalar ALUs, MADD (unified) | 128 FP32 scalar ALUs, MADD (unified) | 640 FP32 scalar ALUs, MADD dual-issue (unified) | 320 FP32 scalar ALUs, MADD dual-issue (unified) | |
| Peak GFLOP/s | 933* | 715* | 768 | 432 | 416 | 384 | 1,056 | 496 |
| Data sampling and filtering | 80ppc address and
80ppc bilinear (8-bit integer)/40ppc FP16 filtering, max 16xAF |
64ppc address and 64ppc bilinear (8-bit integer)/32ppc FP16 filtering, max 16xAF | 128ppc address and 128ppc bilinear INT8/64ppc FP16 filtering, max 16xAF | 64ppc address and 64ppc bilinear INT8/32ppc FP16 filtering, max 16xAF | 64ppc address and 64ppc bilinear INT8/32ppc FP16 filtering, max 16xAF | 32ppc address and 32ppc bilinear INT8/32ppc FP16 filtering, max 16xAF | 32ppc address and 32ppc bilinear INT8/FP16 filtering, max 16xAF | 16ppc address and 16ppc bilinear INT8/FP16 filtering, max 16xAF |
| Peak fillrate Gpixels/s | 19.264 | 16.128 | 19.2 | 10.8 | 10.4 | 14.688 | 26.4 | 12.4 |
| Peak Gtexel/s (bilinear) | 48.16 | 36.864 | 76.8 | 43.2 | 41.6 | 19.584 | 26.4 | 12.4 |
| Peak Gtexel/s (FP16, bilinear) | 24.09 | 18.432 | 38.4 | 21.6 | 20.8 | 19.584 | 26.4 | 12.4 |
| ROPs | 32 | 28 | 32 | 16 | 16 | 24 | 32 | 16 |
| Peak TDP (claimed) | 236 | 182 | 196 | 156 | 140 | 175 | 196 | 110 |
| Power connectors (default clock) | 8-pin + 6-pin | 6-pin + 6-pin | 6-pin + 6-pin | 6-pin | 6-pin | 6-pin + 6-pin | 6-pin + 6-pin | 6-pin |
| Multi-GPU | SLI - three-board | SLI - three-board | SLI - two-board | SLI - three-board | SLI - two-board | SLI - three-board | CrossFire - two-board | CrossFire - four-board |
| Outputs | 2 x dual-link DVI w/HDCP, HDMI mini-DIN | 2 x dual-link DVI w/HDCP, mini-DIN | 2 x dual-link DVI w/HDCP, HDMI | 2 x dual-link DVI w/HDCP, HDMI (native, on GPU) | 2 x dual-link DVI w/HDCP, mini-DIN | 2 x dual-link DVI w/HDCP (discrete ASIC), mini-DIN | 2 x dual-link DVI (HDMI) w/HDCP, mini-DIN (VIVO) | |
| Hardware-assisted video-decoding engine | NVIDIA's PureVideo HD - full H.264 decode and partial VC-1 decode | NVIDIA PureVideo HD 1st Gen | AMD UVD - full H.264 and VC-1 decode | |||||
| Reference cooler | dual-slot | dual-slot | dual-slot | dual-slot | dual-slot | dual-slot | dual-slot | dual-slot |
| Retail price (default-clocked model) | £449 | £299** | £299 | £185 | £145 | £299 (hard to find) | £239 | £89 |
A rough-and-ready assessment reveals that GeForce GTX 260 should benchmark at around 70 per cent of the level of its bigger brother.
The reason we're excited about the 260 more than the 280 come squarely down to price.
A brief look at etailers' pricing shows it to be available, in very limited quantities, from £260 through to £320.
Now, at £260, GeForce GTX 260 falls in nicely between GeForce 9800 GTX and GeForce 9800 GX2/GeForce GTX 280.
The GeForce 9800 GX2, at £299, will still provide a better HEXUS.bang4buck, but GTX 260 could be the one to go for if you want a new architecture and are resistant to the foibles that a dual-GPU architecture brings with it.
We'll be taking a look at GeForce GTX 260 performance real soon, to see if it can provide decent performance, as the stats suggest, and a modicum of value in one package.
Of course, ATI could well upset the apple-cart with Radeon HD 4850 and 4870, and we advise you to wait a couple of weeks if a graphics-card upgrade is on your shortlist.
GeForce GTX 260 for £260 here.
