| XFX Geforce GTX 260 640M at 640MHz out of the box | | |
| Written by Sanjin Radoš | ||||
| Saturday, 19 July 2008 11:25 | ||||
  Review: Overclocked core + Assassin's Creed Our today’s menu features XFX Geforce GTX 260 640M, an overclocked GTX 260 card based on the same GT200 core like the rest of the GTX 200 series. 640M in the name stands for 640MHz and XFX made sure to point that out. The company overclocked the core by 64MHz (reference speed is 576MHz) and boosted the stream processors from 1242MHz to 1363MHz.  Geforce GTX 260 card uses the same dual slot cooler we’ve already seen on GTX 280 (the stronger card in GTX 200 series), so telling the cards just from looks is not an easy task. We’ve already tested XFX GTX 280 670M here, and the only visible difference on the two following photos is the 8 pin connector; GTX260 uses two 6pin connectors whereas GTX 280 uses one 6pin and one 8pin connectors. Both coolers run silently when graphics card is idle, but they get quite audible under a workload. XFX painted their GT200 based cards nicely, and the first one is GTX 260 640M. Underneath it you’ll find a photo of XFX GTX 280 670M running at 670MHz.   In case you’re not familiar with it, Geforce GTX 260 is a weaker version of the current single GPU champ known as GT200. Full versions of GT200 are found on Geforce GTX 280, and we’ve already mentioned XFX GTX 280 670M as one of the fastest ones around.  GT200 is a powerful graphics processor with 1.4 billion transistors and 240 stream processors. The last G92 generation (that brought Geforce 9800 GTX) had 128 stream processor, which further paints the picture of just how powerful GTX 280 is. The weaker version, GTX 260, has a bit less - 192 stream processors, which is a result of a one disabled ROP channel and two shader clusters, each packing 24 stream processors. By crippling the card, the production costs get cheaper so GTX 260 is a wise choice for many that can’t afford GTX 280. One thing we have to mention is the goodwill of XFX and the respect for their North American customers. Apparently, some faithful enthusiasts paid an arm and a leg for GT200 cards right after they were announced, only to be shocked by recent sudden price drops. Fortunately for their customers, XFX has a program where they’ll rebate 120 USD per a card.  You are eligible for this rebate if you bought your XFX GTX200 card between the 16th of June and 11th of July 2008, and the amount of cash you’ll get back depends on the model, the date, as well as the price paid for the card, where $120 is the most XFX will rebate. You can find out more about this program here.  XFX GTX 640M has a frame buffer of 896MB GDDR memory with 448bit memory interface. Thanks to the overclocked memory, bandwidth is now up from reference 111.8GB/s to 128.8GB/s. For these additional 17GB/s of bandwidth, XFX had to increase memory speeds from reference 999MHz to 1150MHz (2300MHz effectively). At the same time, they’ve outdone their HD 4870 competition that has a bandwidth of 115.2GB/s. However, GTX 280 is still undefeated with a bandwidth of 141GB/s (XFX’s overclocked card, XFX GTX 280 670M, packs 160GB/s). Less memory bandwidth on GTX 260 is a result of crippling the chip. In case you don’t know, each of the 8 ROP partitions on GTX 280 is connected to a 64bit memory controller. From there, it’s easy to conclude that this card has a 512bit memory interface, whereas GTX 260 with 7 ROP partitions totals to a 448bit memory interface – and therefore less bandwidth. Although it’s not as fast as GTX 280, GTX 260 is quite an appealing GPU. It packs 192 stream processors, 28 ROPs, 64 texture units, 448bit memory interface and 896MB of GDDR3.  GTX 260 packs 896MB of GDDR3 evenly spaced across both sides of the card. Each side features 7 memory chips, each with 64MB, whereas GTX 280 has 8 chips per side. The following photo shows one vacant spot where a memory chip was supposed to go (vertical column on the right, first one next to the PCIe connector).  If one GTX 260 card doesn’t strike your chord then don’t worry as GTX 260 supports TriSLI. For that purpose, two SLI connectors are provided but we can leave them hidden until the need arises.  The card is powered through two 6pin power connectors, unlike GTX 280 which needs a 6pin and an 8pin connector. Maximum consumption is 182W, but it’s unlikely that this will be the case as this card supports HybridPower technology. This technology (coupled with an appropriate chipset) enables the GPU to power down thus leaving non-demanding tasks to be rendered by the motherboard’s integrated graphics. GT200 can also power down certain unused parts of the chip as well as dynamically regulate frequencies and voltages.  You can use GTX 260 for 3D “Graphics Processing Mod” or for “Parallel Compute Mode”, meaning processing data on the GPU using CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture). This is where Nvidia’s marketing really shines and they’re selling GT200 series with a slogan “Beyond Gaming”. For those of us that still use the GPU exclusively for gaming, XFX went that extra mile and included Assassin’s Creed with their card. The packaging is nicely assembled and painted, so walking by without noticing it on the shelf will be difficult.  | ||||
原帖由 Gfreeman 于 2008-7-19 21:49 发表
中低端3870,3850降价后横扫!!!!{closedeyes:]
中高端从目前看还是拼不过4870,4850系列!!!!{titter:]
高端就不用说了,我就不信NV牛一样大的核心能搞出第二个9800GX2!!{lol:]
希望能如思考所说来个圣诞节攻 ...
原帖由 醉猫 于 2008-7-19 22:10 发表
想当年，
中低端市场9550不用降价也横扫，
中高端5700、5900也拼不过9600、9800，
谁知道两年后就要卖身了。
SO。。。做人还是低调点吧。
原帖由 gfboy02 于 2008-7-19 22:28 发表
不要仓皇下结论，intel也被amd压了几年，现在呢？ 而amd也说不定马上也要上演一次绝地反攻了！
ATI以前用9800也打败过Nvidia，可是几个月前的情况呢？ 38xx当时的定价也不见得有任何性价比....
所以说，没有永远的 ...
原帖由 天下18 于 2008-7-20 15:07 发表
还真有人敢把4800拿来和GT200比，泛A果然大胆{closedeyes:]
原帖由 天下18 于 2008-7-20 14:40 发表
只有4870 4850赢了9800GTX和8800GT而已，AMD什么时候开始有的机会？
原帖由 Gfreeman 于 2008-7-19 22:15 发表
我只是实事求是而已,没看我最后那段话嘛,别什么都往A/N饭上扯行不{closedeyes:]
| 欢迎光临 POPPUR爱换 (https://we.poppur.com/) | Powered by Discuz! X3.4 |
