nvidia 260/280 vs 9-series

[xorbe]

I've been out of the PC hardware loop for a while. I'm starting to look around again.

Are the 260/280 cards beefed up 9 series, or is it a new GPU family? If it's new, when are the 260 shrinks with less power required going to hit the market?

Aiming for mid-range system, not el-cheapo or god box. Thanks!

 

[silent-circuit]

The GTX 260 at around $200 AR is basically what you should be looking at unless that's far outside your budget. It is a great card for a 22" LCD (1680x1050) or even a 24" if you're not really demanding and don't' expect to play Crysis maxed out (1920x1200). If you've got a smaller LCD you can likely get away with something like a 9800 GTX/GTX+ at a little over $100 AR.

The GT200 series is a good bit different than the 9 series, but the 9 series are really just slightly revised 8 series GPUs with some power saving features included and a die shrink to reduce power draw and heat.

Shrinks of GT200 are going to start some time early next year, but the first available will be in the GTX 295, which is a dual GPU card that looks like it'll be priced around $500, so probably not what you're looking for. The less expensive single GPU GTX 260 level cards will come later, probably not worth waiting for if you're building soonish.

 

[trinibwoy]

It's a new GPU family but the same architecture. Just like G7x was just a refined G6x. GT2xx is just a refined G9x with more of everything. New architecture is supposed to drop late next year.

 

[Parja]

...but the 9 series are really just slightly revised 8 series...

If that, even. In some cases, it's little more than a name change (ie. 8800GS to 9600GSO, 8800GT to 9800GT, etc.).

 

[xorbe]

Ehh, bit the bullet and grabbed a GTX 260-216 55nm 675MHz tonight. There's never a "good time" to buy a video card, always something just around the corner it seems...
Thanks for the info!