Here's how this Gigabyte videocard stacks up in
real life against a couple different cards for power draw. PCSTATS measures
total system power draw and compares that in 3D loaded (max value recorded in
3DMark06) and idle states (at Windows desktop). The power supply used in each
test is an A-PFC compliant PC Power and
Cooling 750W model.
 Videocard Power Consumption (Total System
Power Draw) |
| Idle at Desktop |
Watts |
Ranking |
| Palit HD4870 X2 2GB |
177 |
   |
| Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A |
153 |
|
| Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A (Crossfire) |
222 |
|
| MSI R3870X2-T2D1G-OC |
165 |
|
| Asus EAH4890 HTDI/1GD5/A (rev.A) |
138 |
|
| Asus EAH4890 HTDI/1GD5/A |
137 |
|
| Asus EAH4850 HTDI/512M |
120 |
|
| MSI R4830 T2D512-OC (Radeon 4830) |
108 |
|
| Gigabyte GV-R477D5-512HB |
135 |
|
| Gigabyte GV-R477D5-512HB Crossfire |
180 |
|
| Asus EAH4770 FML/DI/512MD5/A |
105 |
|
| Asus EAH4770 HTDI/512MD5/A |
101 |
|
| Gigabyte GV-R435OC-512I |
79 |
|
| Diamond Viper Radeon HD 2900XT CrossFire |
195 |
|
| Asus EAX1900XTX 2DHTV/512M/A |
160 |
|
| Asus EAX1950PRO/HTDP/256M/A |
150 |
|
| Gigabyte GV-N285OC-2G1 |
113 |
   |
 Gigabyte GV-N26SO-896I |
105 |
   |
| ASUS ENGTX260 MT/HTDI/896MD3-A |
135 |
|
| Gigabyte GV-N26OC896H-GA |
112 |
|
| Sparkle GTX260 Core 216 |
140 |
|
| ASUS ENGTS250 DK |
120 |
|
| ASUS ENGTS250 DK in SLI |
170 |
|
| ASUS EN9600GT DI/512MD3/A |
86 |
|
| Gigabyte GV-N96TSL-1GI |
96 |
|
| nVidia Geforce 9600GTs in SLI |
166 |
|
| Asus EN9600GT Top/HTDI/512M |
152 |
|
| Palit Geforce 9600GT 512 |
151 |
|
| ASUS EN9400GT DI/1GLP |
85 |
|
| MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E |
196 |
|
| MSI NX7950GX2-T2D1GE |
183 |
|
| MSI NX7900GTX-T2D512E |
165 |
|
| Gigabyte GV-NX76T256D-RH |
140 |
|
| 3D Loaded: |
Watts |
Ranking |
| Palit HD4870 X2 2GB |
421 |
|
| Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A |
390 |
|
| Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A (Crossfire) |
610 |
|
| MSI R3870X2-T2D1G-OC |
330 |
|
| Asus EAH4890 HTDI/1GD5/A (rev.A) |
244 |
|
| Asus EAH4890 HTDI/1GD5/A |
225 |
|
| Asus EAH4850 HTDI/512M |
202 |
|
| MSI R4830 T2D512-OC (Radeon 4830) |
177 |
|
| Gigabyte GV-R477D5-512HB |
186 |
|
| Gigabyte GV-R477D5-512HB Crossfire |
279 |
|
| Asus EAH4770 FML/DI/512MD5/A |
158 |
|
| Asus EAH4770 HTDI/512MD5/A |
153.3 |
|
| Gigabyte GV-R435OC-512I |
109 |
|
| Diamond Viper Radeon HD 2900XT CrossFire |
549 |
|
| Asus EAX1900XTX 2DHTV/512M/A |
333 |
|
| Asus EAX1950PRO/HTDP/256M/A |
252 |
|
| Gigabyte GV-N285OC-2G1 |
277 |
|
| Gigabyte GV-N26SO-896I |
230 |
|
| ASUS ENGTX260 MT/HTDI/896MD3-A |
277 |
|
| Gigabyte GV-N26OC896H-GA |
215 |
|
| Sparkle GTX260 Core 216 |
262 |
|
| ASUS ENGTS250 DK |
214 |
|
| ASUS ENGTS250 DK in SLI |
316 |
|
| ASUS EN9600GT DI/512MD3/A |
148 |
|
| Gigabyte GV-N96TSL-1GI |
160 |
|
| nVidia Geforce 9600GTs in SLI |
313 |
|
| Asus EN9600GT Top/HTDI/512M |
220 |
|
| Palit Geforce 9600GT 512 |
221 |
|
| ASUS EN9400GT DI/1GLP |
109 |
|
| MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E |
345 |
|
| MSI NX7950GX2-T2D1GE |
315 |
|
| MSI NX7900GTX-T2D512E |
277 |
|
| Gigabyte GV-NX76T256D-RH |
213 |
| |
The GV-N26SO-896I videocard has excellent power
efficiency, which may be partly due to its Gigabyte Ultra Durable VGA
manufacturing. When placed under load the GV-N26SO-896I also does quite well
considering its aggressive factory overclocking, although it does draw a little
bit more power than the Radeon HD 4890 videocard.
The
Gigabyte GV-N26SO-896I videocard runs off a GPU fabricated on the 55nm process
and requires two 6-pin auxiliary PCI Express power connectors. It's time to
overclock the overclocked, and see just how far Gigabyte's cherry-picked Geforce
GTX 260 GPUs will really go...
Overclocking past 700MHz
GPU?
 |
| Overclocking Results: |
|
|
Gigabyte's GV-N26SO-896I videocard ships from the
factory with its nVidia GT200b GPU pre-overclocked from the default 576MHz to
680MHz - that's an impressive 104MHz overclock already. The videocard's GDDR3
memory gets the same treatment, being overclocked from 999MHz up to 1175MHz
(which is then dual-pumped to 2350MHz). With some pretty extreme overclocking
already done in the factory, is it possible to get even more overclocking?
Overclocking was done through nVidia's nTune utility
which unlocks GPU and memory clock speeds. PCSTATS starts with the GPU first,
pausing to test the results with a quick 3D benchmark before continuing.
The GeForce GTX285
GPU clock speed was increased in 25MHz increments from its default of 680MHz,
and it didn't take much to get it running at 705MHz. Under default voltages it
was possible to push things up to 715MHz, and then up to 725Mhz without any
errors. Anything beyond that would require more voltage.
Next came the 896MB of GDDR3 memory. This memory already
has some pretty high overclocks, but Gigabyte has apparently heaped on some very
special sauce for the GV-N26SO-896I. PCSTATS was able to turn the memory from
its 1175MHz up to an incredible 1680MHz. When dual-pumped that results in speeds
of GDDR3 3360MHz, an amazing gain over the 1998MHz memory you'd find on a stock
Geforce GTX 260!
Prelude to
Benchmarks:
The details of how the Gigabyte GV-N26SO-896I videocard
test system was configured for benchmarking; the specific hardware, software
drivers, operating system and benchmark versions are indicated below.
In the second column are the general specs for the
reference platforms this nVidia GeForce GTX260 based videocard is to be compared
against. Please take a moment to look over PCSTATS test system configurations
before moving on to the individual benchmark results on the next page.
|
| PCSTATS Test System Configurations |
|
|
Benchmark
results are organized by GPU manufacturer first (AMD/ATI or nVidia), then by GPU
generation, and then by GPU class (high end, mainstream, value). This approach
provides a clearer view of how performance can differ from generation to
generation, and class to previous generation. The product being tested is marked
with the red colour bar.
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