NVIDIA debuts GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 graphics card

NVIDIA has already slashed the price of its GeForce GTX 260 and GTX 280 graphics cards in order to better compete with AMD's bang-for-the-buck-beating ATI Radeon HD 4850 and 4870 cards, and it's now taken things one step further by introducing a new, slightly improved model. While it likely won't cause anyone to ditch their existing GTX 260, NVIDIA is betting that the 216 stream processors of its new GTX 260 Core 216 (up from 192 before) will be enough to win over at least a few new performance-happy gamers. Apart from that upgrade, it seems the only other real improvement you can expect is a boost to 72 texture filtering units (up from 64), but HotHardware found that those tweaks were just enough to deliver some fairly substantial performance gains, with the GTX 260 Core 216 outpacing the Radeon HD 4870 in the "vast majority" of its tests. Best of all, the Core 216 will also apparently work just fine in an SLI configuration with an original GTX 260 and, at an MSRP of $279, it doesn't demand too much of a premium either.

[fieldcar @ Sep 16th 2008 3:37PM]

Where is everyone?
A political firestorm is going on in another story.

Whats with the odd steps in memory? 896? What the....???

[bobartig @ Sep 16th 2008 4:27PM]

896
= 512+384
= 512 + 256 + 128
= 7 x 128
so maybe its just a 128 module short of a GB. Probably just shaved off that RAM chip to save some cost in a place where its not likely to be a big performance difference. Isn't somewhere between 512 and 1024 supposed to be as much as is needed for most games?

What really confuses me is the 216 cores, which is 128+64+16+8. How do they make these things? Is it 23 sets of 8 core "somethings" built onto the same die? I mean 23? That's a frikkin prime number.

[nak @ Sep 16th 2008 4:55PM]

It could be they couldn't a yield of 24 out of these, similar to how the PS3 has 7 cores. Maybe some chips yield 24 cores so they disable one, but most only yield 23.

[OneLove @ Sep 16th 2008 5:09PM]

...do you two guys want to be alone?

[Kukawaki @ Sep 16th 2008 5:40PM]

Funny how both of you have plausible explanations while still being wrong :)

896MB because the card has a 448 bit memory bus (down from 280's 512 bit bus and 1GB mem) - 2MB per bit of bus

now, cores - as this is not a new chip but all GTX's are based on the target of 240 cores per chip design adding an intermediate sku between the 240 core GTX 280 and the 196 core GTX 260 is not really tied to yields but more so to marketing - at 216 cores the new 260 is faster than the old 260 but not fast enough as to challenge the 280.

The texture unit increase is likewise, incremental.

If you are interested how exactly these stack up Anand has a comprehensive article about them.

As a side note: they should have named it the GTX 270 to keep it clear and simple.

[Kaibutsu @ Sep 16th 2008 5:48PM]

Ok, edit that.

Not wrong, just not fully right.

Peace.

[Blake Dayton @ Sep 16th 2008 3:38PM]

I stopped paying attention to nVidia after the 8800gt. They blew their load too soon and messed up their product naming scheme.

[maveric101 @ Sep 16th 2008 3:44PM]

not exactly. after the 9 series, they just ran out of room and had to change the naming scheme. otherwise these would be called the 10800 GTX...

[fieldcar @ Sep 16th 2008 3:48PM]

I bought the 8800 GTS G92 512MB
which is better than the 8800 GTS 640MB, the 640MB only had the G90 core.
But I don't mind... It just took a couple hours of research.

[1234321 @ Sep 16th 2008 4:39PM]

after the whole 8800gts 320/640 < 8800gt < 8800gts 512mb < 8800gtx fiasco and not to mention the random letters manufacturers were adding they wanted to simply the line and went with this weird GTX 260 deal, still it was simplier, but now they are adding junk to the name again

if they ran out after 9800 they coulda done what ati did and swtich the 10 to a roman X

[Flashpoint @ Sep 16th 2008 3:41PM]

Why is it video cards always have silly pictures on the box showing lizards or people with their mouths wide open so food can fall out?

I would settle for a stick that says [runs Crysis in Very High *]

* = requires dual core CPU + 3GB RAM

[philxbefore @ Sep 16th 2008 4:23PM]

What they are depicting on the box is that this card is so good even a dragon would hump it.

[Eli Gundry @ Sep 16th 2008 4:18PM]

I was just about to ask why a dragon is necessary in this situation. It's a graphics card, not a poster for a LARP'ing club.....

[OneLove @ Sep 16th 2008 5:14PM]

The dragon is a symbol of all the heat it will generate

[TareX @ Sep 16th 2008 5:30PM]

I agree with Flashpoint.

Instead of all the labels, numbers, and name, they should just have a "Runs Crysis on very high, with a framerate of XX on max resolution and processing power" label on the box.

[maveric101 @ Sep 16th 2008 3:42PM]

hurray for competition! glad AMD's got their game back.

[Chad @ Sep 16th 2008 3:46PM]

Even if it outperforms the Radeon, I would still probably buy ATI simply for the fact that they are the sole reason NVIDIA has lowered their prices so much. NVIDIA is good at getting benchmarks but they don't seem to have any problems sticking it to the consumer whenever they can get away with it.

[DiGiC @ Sep 16th 2008 3:58PM]

Bastards! I just bought 2 EVGA GTX 260's a few days ago!

[Lowest Ranked @ Sep 16th 2008 4:25PM]

Then they should still be covered by the return policy.

[OneLove @ Sep 16th 2008 5:15PM]

that's what you get for being greedy.

[Vanillacide @ Sep 16th 2008 6:53PM]

These upgrades have been on the rumor sites for weeks, which is why I waited and DIDN'T buy a couple of the old GTX 280 and am waiting for a pair of high-clocked / factory overclocked new GTX 280.

Yes, nVidia should give them a new code number ... two cards with different performance with the same name is stupid.

[y3k.nik @ Sep 16th 2008 3:59PM]

There are two PC vs Mac adds on this page! Not one?

Does this card run on a mac? :P

[Lowest Ranked @ Sep 16th 2008 4:26PM]

They are essentially one big joined add as they 'play' along with eachother. There was one similiar to it a few months ago.

[216 @ Sep 16th 2008 3:59PM]

umm...I think due to my name I have to own this graphics card

[Didou @ Sep 16th 2008 4:03PM]

Will it be obvious to tell the difference between this new 216 version & the old one ? There isn't much on the packaging.

[Jeremy Gray @ Sep 16th 2008 4:07PM]

Queue reports of hardware failures in 3... 2... 1...

I used to love nvidia, but these days I won't go near their products with a 10 foot pole. It'll take a more than a few rampant-failure-free product revisions on the part of nvidia before I'll be willing to consider buying their products again.

[tekdroid @ Sep 16th 2008 4:11PM]

So much for simplifying product names, then...
Good what a bit of competition does to product offerings.

[morfinx @ Sep 16th 2008 4:16PM]

Keep in mind they are comparing two OVERCLOCKED GTX 260 Core 216 cards vs a stock 4870.

Anandtech has a bit more balanced review:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3408

[MojoKid @ Sep 16th 2008 4:26PM]

Umm... hello? You mean to say you can't buy that card they tested, with full warranty? Board partners have been overclocking from the reference designs with full warranty for a LONG time now and so haven't AMD-ATI partners. Get with the times...

[morfinx @ Sep 16th 2008 7:49PM]

What I mean is that they should pit stock cards against stock cards. But if they want to use factory overclocked cards, they should do it with factory overclocked cards from both sides.

[Tubalcain @ Sep 16th 2008 4:59PM]

The fact is that Nvidia's bigger hammer approach is getting old. ATI developed a leaner card for a better price, period.

[1234321 @ Sep 16th 2008 4:44PM]

I think you mean a GB module short of 128mb which doesn't work
and shaving some ram off doesn't save any money, it adds cost cause you gotta use more chips
not to mention adding ram is easy compared to the other stuff, you do you think you see so many 512mb low end cards
896mb was just a bad move

you also got the part about the core wrong, they call it a core 216, it doesnt have 216 cores, they are stream processors
the 4870 has 800 stream processors but other things account for what makes the card faster or not

[rickjamess @ Sep 16th 2008 4:45PM]

Is this better than my nVidia riva TNT card? I've been meaning to upgrade for awhile--thinking about the Voodoo 5 though if it ever comes out...

[rickjamess @ Sep 17th 2008 11:42PM]

Also thinking about getting 2 Voodoo 2 cards and running them SLI since I hear it'll give 60 fps on Quake 2 at 1024x720...Any suggestions?

[Walsh @ Sep 16th 2008 5:15PM]

And the fact NVIDIA has been dropping the ball on decent drivers for older cards now.

[Shade @ Sep 17th 2008 9:28AM]

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean, I invested in a GeForce 7900 GT/GTO (256 MB) about maybe 2 years ago, and it is useless in Vista, the drivers don't work at all unless I downclock the gpu speed every time I reboot. Vista is crap and so is driver support. And I have to use Vista since D-Link won't release drivers for XP x64 since they are in bed with M$ who is hellbent on screwing Windows XP x64 Edition over.

And the fact that Windows 7 is already being developed and is going to be released in 2 years leaves a bad feeling in my wallet. Windows Vista had even longer development time and look how much it sucked.

Might I add that M$ is already planning the successor OS to Windows 7 (Currently codenamed Midori, but we all know that will change) gives my bank accounts nightmares.

This is why I love Linux.

[TareX @ Sep 16th 2008 5:33PM]

NVidia is expensive because the have a serious R&D department. ATI just copy the technology and sell it for cheap.

Anyway I don't care much for R&D, if nVidia has a problem with ATI they should settle it in court. Meanwhile, I'll stick to the cheap and capable Radeons.... if the reviews recommend them.

[Scabrous Vermicelli @ Sep 16th 2008 5:40PM]

It has a dragon on the box. I'll buy two!

[Kizul Emeraldfire @ Sep 16th 2008 8:23PM]

…why would you buy two? So that you could mate them?

[Heineken77 @ Sep 16th 2008 7:55PM]

But can it play crisis?

[ezekielthirty5 @ Sep 17th 2008 4:37AM]

/\ Vote down. I swear one more comment "can it play c%$#s!!" I mean your still on that game I beat it lik three times already...
ll

[brendan @ Sep 16th 2008 10:11PM]

I LIKE MEN.

[riggs @ Sep 17th 2008 9:01AM]

*walks away*

[ac14 @ Sep 16th 2008 11:13PM]

anyone else feel like its 2001 again?

[will @ Sep 17th 2008 2:26AM]

The GTX 260-216? Looks like nVidia finally got their naming scheme to make sense... Oh wait...

[balveda @ Sep 17th 2008 6:20AM]

Does this card have also the failing chipset of previous cards