BFGTech GeForce GTX 260 OCX MAXCORE @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

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BFGTech GeForce GTX 260 OCX MAXCORE - Today, BFGTech is launching its new and improved GeForce GTX 260 GPU based video cards. The new GeForce GTX 260 GPU benefits from 24 more stream processors, but maintains the same clock speeds. BFGTech has taken this new GPU and ramped up the clock speeds in OCX fashion. We evaluate and compare to the original GTX 260 GPU and a Radeon HD 4870.


Price and performance ultimately define the value of any video card. The BFGTech GeForce GTX 260 OCX MAXCORE has upped the ante on both actual gaming performance and frame rate compared to the 4870. It is unquestionable that the BFGTech GeForce GTX 260 OCX MAXCORE can offer you a better gaming experience than the 4870, and no doubt higher benchmark scores. When comparing the old 260 to the new 260, the lines get a bit more blurred as actual gaming experience gains are marginal at best, but no doubt that benchmark monkeys will be happy. And scaling our GPU frequency to 705MHz was a nice stock overclock as well.
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A very nice review and very enjoyable to read. Thanks!


As expected the improved GTX 260 indeed performed better (although it was overclocked)than the original. It is definitely a great card, only the price is quite high but hopefully that will change.


I'm curious if AMD is going to answer this with an improved card of their own, or just lower the prices of their 4870 accordingly, which is still a great performing card.



Perhaps I have overlooked it, (I'm at work at the moment) but isn't there an apples-to-apples comparison.
 
jh24 said:
Perhaps I have overlooked it, (I'm at work at the moment) but isn't there an apples-to-apples comparison.
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Selecting Apples to Apples on the drop down menu or reading the article from the beginning will answer your questions.


Page 1 said:
Questions


We have some burning questions to answer with this video card. First, is the new GTX 260 any better than the original GTX 260? Second, does it provide any real-world gameplay experience differences over a Radeon HD 4870? Third, is it worth it considering the original GTX 260 can be found much cheaper? (As low as $209.99 after MIR this morning. NVIDIA UMAP Pricing Applies.)


To expediently answer these questions, this evaluation will follow a slightly altered form and layout. We will first jump immediately into Apples-to-Apples comparisons. We will take the BFGTech GeForce GTX 260 OCX MAXCORE and compare it to an NVIDIA stock-speed "new" GeForce GTX 260 by downclocking the MAXCORE. We will then add an NVIDIA stock-speed "old" GeForce GTX 260. This way we can directly compare the "new" 260 to the "old" 260 and then to the MAXCORE OCX's clock speeds.


Then, we will compare the highest gameplay experience offered in Crysis, Age of Conan, Call of Duty 4, and GRID by the BFGTech GeForce GTX 260 OCX MAXCORE and the ATI Radeon HD 4870.
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^ Oops, last time I read a review in my break at work. I completely overlooked that part, as I expected it to be in the drop down menu at the end. I feel a bit stupid now. Anyway, thanks!
 
jh24 said:
^ Oops, last time I read a review in my break at work. I completely overlooked that part, as I expected it to be in the drop down menu at the end. I feel a bit stupid now. Anyway, thanks!
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We changed things up to make sure you were paying attention....and you weren't!! :eek: :p
 
jh24 said:
As expected the improved GTX 260 indeed performed better (although it was overclocked)than the original.
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That is part of the bonus of a die shrink. Not being able to use it is sorta silly. Also the same stock speed may allow nVidia higher effective yields.
 
If this review is supposed to compare NVIDIA's new 260 to the Radeon 4870, why did you only compare the 4870 to what is probably going to amount to the most highly overclocked 260 you can buy? It doesn't make any sense, especially considering the fact that you evidently had the means to compare the stock new 260 to the 4870.
 
Oberon said:
If this review is supposed to compare NVIDIA's new 260 to the Radeon 4870, why did you only compare the 4870 to what is probably going to amount to the most highly overclocked 260 you can buy? It doesn't make any sense, especially considering the fact that you evidently had the means to compare the stock new 260 to the 4870.
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No, it is supposed to compare the BFGTech GeForce GTX 260 OCX MAXCORE to the Radeon HD 4870. That is why those two video cards are represented in the gameplay pages.
 
I have to admit, when I first saw the title I thought, "Why the hell are they reviewing a Overclocked 260, they should be spending thier time getting me my SLI review damn it!" However, I was very happily suprised to find it was not an overclocked card but the new revision of the 260. Much to my shock as well because while I try to keep up with the rumors, the rumors had this pushed back a bit.

Oh, and here is a giant THANK YOU for putting clear sky in your reivew. Obviously there wasn't enough time to do much with it, however just seeing it there on the A2A page is great. Can we expect to see this in the SLI/Crossfire review?

And as long as were asking questions, Overclocking. You guys got a huge overclock out of the card vs a stock 260. How temperature limited do you think that was? If it was, with these insane heatloads coming out of GPUs now, do you think were going to see watercooling of GPUs become more mainstream as higher clock speeds are very heat/temperature limited?
 
Good read as usual, makes me a little miffed that the prices came down so fast and im normally a big Nvidia fan but after the obvious gouging that they did initially with the g200 series cards i am still a bit turned off by them.

At the same time its frustrating that they release a card they think will compete with ati and then if the ati card is perceived as being a wee bit better they die shrink it, add a few pipelines and then re-release it.....give us all that performance to begin with

I have my 4870 - might not perform as high as these but at 19x12 im happy with it over my 7900gs and i dont feel like i was quite so taken on the price either when i bought it at $300 a couple of months ago.
 
wow....just recieved my regular gtx 260 yesterday....o well I overclocks good and these will probly cost more
 
Temperature under load? Any better than the old GTX 260. Sorry if I missed that point in the review.
 
Nice writeup, folks, and thank you. The price on these 260Bs (for lack of a better phrase) has to come down PDQ, and it should, but for Refresh One it's right where it needs to be based on history...
 
I find it somewhat odd that the GTX280 received a gold award in spite of its price, but the new 260 gets a silver award because of it.
 
Scheibler1 said:
wow....just recieved my regular gtx 260 yesterday....o well I overclocks good and these will probly cost more
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Heh, yeah, me too.

Of course I guess I can find solace in the fact that it was $220 AR, EVGA, and came with Crysis. :p

Haven't been in the mood to overclock it just yet though. The fact that card is blocking two of my SATA ports and I need to either switch around for bendy cables or buy new cables doesn't help either.
 
Would be interested in seeing some numbers on power consumption and heat. That might be an additional thing to tip the scales to get me to buy one of the newer GTX260s - otherwise, I'm all for the cheap one. :)
 
Can you confirm its a 55nm part? Both Hexus and Guru3d state its a 65nm part.
 
Stoly said:
I find it somewhat odd that the GTX280 received a gold award in spite of its price, but the new 260 gets a silver award because of it.
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The 280 stomped on everything that came before it, though, until the 4870x2 came along.
 
vengence said:
I have to admit, when I first saw the title I thought, "Why the hell are they reviewing a Overclocked 260, they should be spending thier time getting me my SLI review damn it!" However, I was very happily suprised to find it was not an overclocked card but the new revision of the 260. Much to my shock as well because while I try to keep up with the rumors, the rumors had this pushed back a bit.

Oh, and here is a giant THANK YOU for putting clear sky in your reivew. Obviously there wasn't enough time to do much with it, however just seeing it there on the A2A page is great. Can we expect to see this in the SLI/Crossfire review?

And as long as were asking questions, Overclocking. You guys got a huge overclock out of the card vs a stock 260. How temperature limited do you think that was? If it was, with these insane heatloads coming out of GPUs now, do you think were going to see watercooling of GPUs become more mainstream as higher clock speeds are very heat/temperature limited?
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Mark deservers the kudos for being able to get that in there in a very short amount of time. I certainly wanted to have that in there for you guys :) We will have much more on Stalker later. The game won't make it into the big SLI/CF review, testing is almost complete for that evaluation, and the game just came out too late to include it.
 
The new 260 is not a 55nm part. Its still built on .65 process.

A new .55nm part is coming soon.
 
Hm. Okay, so: apart from John from BFG (as quoted above), has anybody else claimed this is a 55nm part?
 
*waits for 55nm*:rolleyes:

kyle, did anyone think to check GPUz???

i assume the part you reviewed is 65nm,right???

probably why the overcolcks were not higher????
 
mac292 said:
*waits for 55nm*:rolleyes:

kyle, did anyone think to check GPUz???

i assume the part you reviewed is 65nm,right???

probably why the overcolcks were not higher????
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Yes, we checked GPUz. GPUz is not always accurate. That is why we asked BFG.
 
count me in for an original gtx 260. i'm lookin at you, ncix canada. show me the stock unload pricing.
 
snaggletooth said:
count me in for an original gtx 260. i'm lookin at you, ncix canada. show me the stock unload pricing.
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I'll be looking at the new sale wednesday night aswell, kinda hopeing it will effect the 4870 pricing. Its a long shot but hope is all i have.

 
vengence said:
I was thinking of listening to the from the company who made the card they tested, but I'll trust the guy on the internet forum instead. :rolleyes:
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Well, the company that makes the cards hasn't said anything. But who knows, maybe they know better than the company that sells the cards.
 
Stoly said:
Well, the company that makes the cards hasn't said anything. But who knows, maybe they know better than the company that sells the cards.
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The partners are handling products this round. I have sent off another email to BFG to double confirm the die size.
 
Stoly said:
Well, the company that makes the cards hasn't said anything. But who knows, maybe they know better than the company that sells the cards.
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Your 100% right, they don't make the chips. They just write custom bioses (how do you pluralize bios?) for them, so why would they have a clue about the chip. :rolleyes:
 
Not at all, not with BFG (I've owned several of their cards) much less [H] who only quotes them.

Thing is that ODDs are against them. I haven't found any other review that says its a 55nm part, all of them clearly state its built on .65

It wouldn't be the first time everyone is wrong and [H] is right. But even [H] makes mistakes.
 
I'm initially inclined to believe BFG too, but I'm still plenty willing to allow for accidental misinformation. It happens. (And in this case, does it really matter?)
 
Just take off the heatsink and see if the die is smaller than the old GTX260 and you'll know if its 55nm or 65nm
 
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