NVIDIA has been on a bit of a warpath with graphics card releases over the past few months. We’re seeing new models almost monthly, it seems. The main problem with these new releases is that they’ve been nothing more than a rehash of current models. Move forward to today and we have the new GT200-based GeForce GTX 280 which is to be a truly next generation graphics card offering.

When it comes to comparing the new GT200-based GTX 280 against the last generation G92-based 9800 GX2 and 9800 GTX, the main things we look at are clock rates. Generally with a new model we tend to find higher clocks, not only in the core and shader department but also in the memory. What’s surprising is that compared to the last generation cards there isn’t too much of a difference. The new GTX 280 core comes clocked at 600MHz, which while the same as the 9800 GX2 is 75MHz lower than the 9800 GTX. The shader is also lower at 1,300MHz; the 9800 GX2 came in at 1,500MHz while the 9800 GTX was at 1,688MHz. The 2,200MHz DDR memory clock, while being 200MHz higher than the 9800 GX2 is the same as the 9800 GTX which also carries with it a 2,200MHz DDR clock. What the GTX 280 does have over the 9800 GTX is an extra 512MB of GDDR3 memory, bringing the total memory count up to 1GB.

When you look at this, your hopes for the GTX 280 begin to dwindle. Fortunately, it’s not all bad news and deep within the core we do have some major improvements. The memory interface has moved from an aging 256-bit to a wider 512-bit design. Stream processors are also up; the G92 had 128 while the new GT200 carries a whopping 240.

We recently saw NVIDIA purchase AGEIA PhysX and they have implemented the technology into their new GT200 line-up of cards. While this doesn’t benefit us at the moment, as NVIDIA continue to work with games under the “Way it’s meant to be played” umbrella, we should see more realistic physics and performance gains in the future with a GT200-based graphics card.

Come the launch of a new graphics card, what everyone really cares about is performance. The results are certainly interesting, and depending on which way you look at it, could be considered good or bad. Compared against the 9800 GX2, the new GTX 280 performs similarly. In the newer 3DMark Vantage we see good gains from the GTX 280 when compared to the 9800 GX2, but being a synthetic benchmark it’s not the most important test. World in Conflict sees both cards score very similarly at all resolutions. When looking at the more intensive Crysis, while 1,280 x 1,024 and 1,920 x 1,200 performance is the same, the GTX 280 has fixed the 2,560 x 1,600 issues. Unfortunately though, performance is still at a very unplayable level.

When you look at it, you can’t help but be impressed that NVIDA has been able to get the performance of two GPUs into one card and then improve upon it in some areas. With that said though, the cards' launch price is the same as a 9800 GX2, so the main benefit is you don’t have the hassle of two GPUs; nice. Unfortunately, it’s just not all that revolutionary. However, it’s not all bad news; the addition of PhysX and CUDA do make the chip a next generation card, but unfortunately we’re probably still a few months away from really seeing the GTX 280s true power.

Feature wise, the new GTX 280 is next generation with new technology being implemented that we haven’t seen before. But what it comes down to is that ultimately, performance talks. The GTX 280 isn’t a 9800 GX2 killer or anything like that, and while the card is no doubt good, it has the potential to be great when the new technology is put to use. The problem, however, is that the card should have been great at launch. In a market that’s extremely competitive, NVIDIA was probably forced to release a product earlier then it should’ve. While you do get a very capable card that is able to play most games at 2,560 x 1,600 with some decent detail levels, which is no doubt excellent news for high resolution gamers, the card clearly just isn’t the huge performance jump that we expected to see over the last generation 9800 series of cards.