NVIDIA GTX 280 Performance Revealed – MSI N280GTX

 

Crysis is without doubt one of the most visually stunning and hardware-challenging games to date. By using CrysisBench – a tool developed independently of Crysis – we performed a total of 5 timedemo benchmarks using a GPU-intensive pre-recorded demo. To ensure the most accurate results, the highest and lowest benchmark scores were then removed and an average calculated from the remaining three.

 

 

 

Sitting just 5FPS behind the 9800GX2 at 1280×1024 and just over 10FPS behind at 1900×1200, the performance of the GTX 280 really shines through in this extremely tough benchmark. Once again, we need to remember that the GTX 280 is a single GPU, and therefore beating cards such as the 3870×2 and competing with the GX2 is an excellent achievement. As a side note, this is probably the first time we’ve ever been able to play Crysis with any reasonable level of detail and resolution on a single GPU configuration without experiencing a slideshow.

 

 

 

F.E.A.R. is a game based on the Lithtech Jupiter EX engine. It has volumetric lighting, soft shadows, parallax mapping and particle effects. All results were recorded using F.R.A.P.S, with a total of 5 identical runs through the same area of the game. The highest and lowest results were then removed, with an average being calculated from the remaining 3 results.

 

 

 

Just when we thought that a pattern was emerging between the GTX 280 and the 9800GX2, the GTX 280 goes and shows us that it IS capable of beating every other card currently on the market. Even the dual-GPU 9800GX2 gets left behind with the GTX 280 almost managing to pull 200FPS at 1280×1024 with 4xAA.

 

These excellent results also have an interesting effect on the CPF chart, with the GTX 280 only costing £0.12 more per frame than the 9800GX2 and £0.24 more than the 9800GTX.