XFX GTX 280

The Rest

Overclocking

Using Rivatuner to watch temperatures and control fan speeds, and NTune to adjust frequencies, I was able to ge the GTX 280 from it’s stock of 670MHZ on the core and 2500MHZ on the memory, to 800MHZ and 2650MHZ respectively.

Size

One thing that needs to be noted is the size of the GTX 280. While width wise, it shouldn’t cause too many problems (most manufacturers have taken into account wide cards when calculating the spacing between PCI sockets) the length could be an issue for some. Be aware that on a standard ATX motherboard, the GPU will protrude at least an inch out from the end of the board. Make sure your case can handle it before considering purchasing.

Noise

At idle, the GTX isn’t too bad at all which is no surprise as at that point, it shouldn’t be producing much heat and therefore the fan shouldn’t spin up too much. Once under load, the card does increase in volume quite a large amount, but doesn’t quite reach the levels that previous top end nVidia GPUs have. To put it bluntly, it’s not deafening, but don’t even consider it for a quiet PC build unless you have an aftermarket cooler for it.

Cost

This is where we can really put the results seen on previous pages into context. The Sapphire 4850 card used as a comparison costs around £110, the GTX 280 will set you back anything from £320 to £350, depending on the retailer.

Graphics Cards