*GTX 260/280 Unofficial TPU! Thread*

[Tatty_Two]

I really found no improvements on my old 192sp going from 1.12 to 1.18, some have claimed to hit the 800/1600 mark doing such tho. All I found was increased temps.

My GTX260 core216 runs great and uses less voltage than my 192sp did...I'd say try 1.06v and find a decent OC (maybe what you already have) and use lower voltage. Though under water, temps aren't really an issue! Hell at 1.12v temps weren't an issue for me, at 1.06v on the new card, atm I can't go over 57c..idle at 38c on stock air, so I can't complain!

Also, got the 180.43 drivers up and running, got a +10FPS increase in overall average FPS in FC2's benchmark for those that care, the game runs amazing still, no issues. Yes I did lose fan speed, but I don't care, I just modified my fan profile to start at 75% (see OP for instructions) and I'm good to go!

So do you find that your 216sp card performs better overall, temps aside? I just have this fear of getting a 280 of a 216 260 and them not overclocking very well and performing less than this card at 800/1600......I was going to go 4870x2, but thats just e penis territory, this card gives me everything I need and TBH I am 100% happy with it......damn great cards IMO.

 

[Kursah]

I wouldn't have wasted the extra cash if it wasn't a step up that cost me no more than the cost of shipping. I haven't tried to see how far mine can go, just got it set to 666/1443 linked and 1200, I've yet to have an issue...I keep meaning to see how it oc's lol.

Your card is a good sample, I wouldn't move from it till the 55nm's are out imo. My card is great, sure it's faster, it's got more under the hood so to say...but if the price difference is over 30 (us) bucks...I wouldn't even consider it. I'm very happy with my card, and if I wouldn've stayed with my old one, I'd still be happy. It plays all my games fast, IQ is great, it stays cool, easy to OC, it's all good!

Also with the 180.43 drivers, FurMark will not bench/run, it'll open and won't crash, it just won't show the 3d, just the logo...I think it has something to do with the new OpenGL stuff in the 180's.

 

[Fitseries3]

looks like i'll be in here soon. just picked up a NIB Evga GTX260 216 for $190.

 

[Kursah]

Amazing deal man! Lookin forward to ya donatin to the thread!

 

[AddSub]

I finally got my new 950 Watt PSU set up along with another EVGA GTX 260, although there is lot of cable management left to be done.

I can't really post any benchmarks yet since I sold my 4GB DHX RAM kit few days ago and I'm running on 1GB of cheap PC4200 RAM. Running only 1GB of PC4200 is probably bottlenecking my SLI, especially considering that I'm running Vista. My new 4GB kit should be here next week or so. (G.Skill Pi Black)

However, even with 1GB of low spec RAM I can already see some major differences. Especially in FurMark and Crysis. I've done some preliminary benchmarks and FurMark shows an incredible 98% scaling on pretty much any resolution. Crysis Benchmarking Tool shows about 85% scaling on 1600x1200@100Hz 4xAA @ Very High setting.

I'm currently running 178.13 driver-wise.

 

[erocker]

I finally got my new 950 Watt PSU set up along with another EVGA GTX 260, although there is lot of cable management left to be done.

I can't really post any benchmarks yet since I sold my 4GB DHX RAM kit few days ago and I'm running on 1GB of cheap PC4200 RAM. Running only 1GB of PC4200 is probably bottlenecking my SLI, especially considering that I'm running Vista. My new 4GB kit should be here next week or so. (G.Skill Pi Black)

However, even with 1GB of low spec RAM I can already see some major differences. Especially in FurMark and Crysis. I've done some preliminary benchmarks and FurMark shows an incredible 98% scaling on pretty much any resolution. Crysis Benchmarking Tool shows about 85% scaling on 1600x1200@100Hz 4xAA @ Very High setting.

I'm currently running 178.13 driver-wise.

OMG! I can't believe you are running crysis with 1gb of slow ram! That's just plain awesome! Sweet cards too man!

 

[AddSub]

OMG! I can't believe you are running crysis with 1gb of slow ram! That's just plain awesome! Sweet cards too man!

It takes forever to load the "benchmark_gpu" timedemo and my hard drives are spinning like crazy but it probably helps that I have a decent RAID0 setup so all the paging to disk is relatively quick, or quicker that is.

Aside from Crysis and FurMark, I did try few runs of FluidMark last night which shows no difference at all between one card or two and I've tried all three modes available. (AFR/AFR2/SFR) I'm not sure if it's the drivers or something with my custom SLI profile.

Either way, I'm going to wait for my new 4GB kit before I play around some more.

 

[shawnizzzle]

Hell im just trying to get my cpu stable right now i think my q6600 is on its last leg.(I ran 1.78volts through it for quite some time now.) Now at 3.6ghz its hard to keep it stable enough to run 3dmark. Though it is a huge improvement over the 9800gtx's.

Im having a problem with my damn drivers. Can everybody please post up what the best drivers is for them as far as stable. Thanks

 

[AddSub]

1.78V? That's a bit extreme. I've owned two 65nm quads so far and I've never pushed them over 1.475V - 1.485V.

As for drivers, I would stick to the WHQL drivers as a general rule. Using beta releases is just asking for trouble. Nvidia drivers have been historically shaky to being with, WHQL or not, and using betas or even third party "re-mix" drivers (DNA, Omega, etc) is not something I would recommend.

Specific versions? 178.13 WHQL are decent (what I'm using right now), although you can expect some drops in performance. (I did under 3DMark 06, in a single GPU setup anyway.)

The original PhysX 177.83 WHQL from mid-August were very stable, although these drivers don't have the Vantage and Crysis Warhead performance tweaks that newer drivers have.

I would steer away from 180.xx line until official and certified WHQL ones are launched in mid November.

 

[shawnizzzle]

1.78V? That's a bit extreme. I've owned two 65nm quads so far and I've never pushed them over 1.475V - 1.485V.

As for drivers, I would stick to the WHQL drivers as a general rule. Using beta releases is just asking for trouble. Nvidia drivers have been historically shaky to being with, WHQL or not, and using betas or even third party "re-mix" drivers (DNA, Omega, etc) is not something I would recommend.

Specific versions? 178.13 WHQL are decent (what I'm using right now), although you can expect some drops in performance. (I did under 3DMark 06, in a single GPU setup anyway.)

The original PhysX 177.83 WHQL from mid-August were very stable, although these drivers don't have the Vantage and Crysis Warhead performance tweaks that newer drivers have.

I would steer away from 180.xx line until official and certified WHQL ones are launched in mid November.

the 1.78v was for over 4ghz so it is extreem right now its on 1.46v@3.83ghz. Also im going to try the 178.13( i have like 9 downloaded so it dont take to long) but have you tried the 178.24 and if you did what made you go back to 178.13. Thanks any reply's is appreciated

 

[johnspack]

Well, looks like an intel really would help my 280gtx.. Kursah put the bug in my ear about farcry2, so now I have it, can't stop playing it. But I hit low 30s for my minimum, although using all ultra high settings and 2x aa at 1920x1200. Actually getting lower mins than warhead! Well no aa in warhead but still... Got to be my athlon pulling low fps like that. Using the 180.43 drivers.

 

[johnspack]

Ok, I've got ultra max or very high, whatever the highest is for all settings, at 1920x1200 but only 2x aa, I ran a 3 loop bench using the first 3 ranch I think benches in a row, and this is all I get! :

Now there's a cpu bottleneck!

 

[shawnizzzle]

How do you guys think farcry2 would play on my system im leaving in a lil bit to go get it and more stuff(diaper,bbaby wipes, the neccessitys lol) i game at 1920x1200.

 

[Kursah]

Okay, look at Johns specs and he can play the game at that rez, you'll be just fine!

Enjoy!

 

[shawnizzzle]

yah i got the game and i havent played it much but it looks like im averaging about 40-45fps. Once my driver screwed up and when the card downclocked into 2d mode it never clocked back up and i still averaded about 25fps

 

[AddSub]

Yeah, with your quad over 3GHz and a GTX 260 it should be quite playable.

 

[Solaris17]

I finally got my new 950 Watt PSU set up along with another EVGA GTX 260, although there is lot of cable management left to be done.

I can't really post any benchmarks yet since I sold my 4GB DHX RAM kit few days ago and I'm running on 1GB of cheap PC4200 RAM. Running only 1GB of PC4200 is probably bottlenecking my SLI, especially considering that I'm running Vista. My new 4GB kit should be here next week or so. (G.Skill Pi Black)

However, even with 1GB of low spec RAM I can already see some major differences. Especially in FurMark and Crysis. I've done some preliminary benchmarks and FurMark shows an incredible 98% scaling on pretty much any resolution. Crysis Benchmarking Tool shows about 85% scaling on 1600x1200@100Hz 4xAA @ Very High setting.

I'm currently running 178.13 driver-wise.

dude that is an amazing rig you should start your own thread when you get the 4GB kit and let those things fly!

 

[johnspack]

Darn fc2, still only about 10% through, keep taking side trips, graphics are amazing on ultra high. I can kick it up to 4x aa without much of a hit. Gawd I'm glad I grabbed a 280gtx while I could afford one!

 

[johnspack]

Also something I find odd, gpuz shows sli available for my 9800gtx and 280gtx cards, weird!

Shows sli available in the 177.92 driver as well.

 

[Tatty_Two]

Also something I find odd, gpuz shows sli available for my 9800gtx and 280gtx cards, weird!

Shows sli available in the 177.92 driver as well.

Thats because it knows no better in it's programming......should read "multi GPU" but to GPU-Z that might mean the same thing as SLi.

 

[shawnizzzle]

I found that with the new 180.43 drivers make my card run very cool its not getting any hotter than 64'C overclocked. The new revision of evga precision that fixed the fan control issue sure does make things alot better. I cant stand not having my fan turned up a lil bit

 

[trt740]

I just sold my two 4850 for 295.00 and picked up a single 260gtx 216 for 259.00 shipped with a free version of Farcry 2. I sold the two 4850 because I wanted a single card solution. I was looking at a 4870 1 gb but the 260gtx with 216 shaders when oced will kill a oced 4870 1 gb. If my old 280gtx is anything to go on. Is my thinking wrong here? I will sell the farcry2 game and the 260gtx will cost about 239.00 dollars. The 4850's were very powerful but I like a single card solution better.

 

[Kursah]

I agree with you there, I think you did a good thing. The 280's are good, but the GTX260-216 is a great card. I love mine, personally it games great, I don't care if it's better or worse than an hd48xx series card...when I purchased the 192sp, for me it was a clear winner, cooler running VRMs (mine generally run at the same temps or cooler than the gpu, which runs cooler than most hd48xx series), found fewer failures, the drivers seem to be better, the stock cooling is damn good, and the card works great out of the box.

The 216p is a good card, it's not a huge diff from the 192sp, though mine uses less voltage, still OC's decently, runs cooler, and I've yet to find a game that stomps it at 1680x1050 on my 22". It folds like a champ, I'm happy. Plus overclocked they'll keep up with a 280, won't ever beat one, but why pay so much more when for quite a bit less you can have a card that's close to the performance, runs cooler, and does a great job?

For that price I think it's a good deal, I personally believe in one more powerful card than SLI or CF, less hassle, less used up space, more airflow, less heat buildup, did I mention less hassle? When new games come out, there's no profile issues, the games just work, no messing with configs, etc.

Plus bios modding the GTX's is a cakewalk...fastest bios flash I've ever seen...less than 10 seconds to flash these cards...hell maybe less than 5 seconds. I just mod the fan speed anymore...but clocks, voltages, mem timings are all in Nibitor for those that want more and are willing to take the risk.

I think you'll be happy trt, if not...well you can always get a 4870X2, or maybe the future GTX2xx X2 supposedly coming out possibly before the end of the year! (or is it GTX3xx?) Depends on what you want vs what you need in the end.

 

[Fitseries3]

im looking for another gtx260-216 if anyone can make me a deal on one.

 

[Kursah]

im looking for another gtx260-216 if anyone can make me a deal on one.

Nice! Gonna start off with SLI then maybe some TRI-SLi action?

Can't wait to see what you pull off! Lookin forward to your donations to this thread!