System Setup and Notes
| Graphics Cards | Inno3D GeForce GTX 260 OC 896 MB | PowerColor HD 4870 1GB PCS+ |
|---|---|---|
| Current pricing, including VAT | £199.99 | £172.49 |
| Stream processors | 216 | 800 |
| GPU clock speed (MHz) | 620 | 800 |
| Shader clock speed (MHz) | 1,242 | 800 |
| Memory clock speed (MHz) | 2,100 | 3,700 |
| Memory bus width (Bits) | 448 | 256 |
| CPU | Intel Core i7 920 LGA1366 (2.8 GHz, 8MB L3 cache, quad-core plus hyperthreading) | |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 (X58+ICH10R) | |
| Motherboard BIOS | F5 | |
| Memory | 6GB Kingston ValueRAM (3 x 2GB) DDR3-1,066 | |
| Memory timings and speed | 7-7-7-20 1T @ DDR3-1,066 | |
| PSU | Zalman ZM850-HP | |
| Monitor | Dell 27in 2709W - 1,920x1,200px | |
| Disk drive(s) | Samsung 1TB F1 | |
| Graphics driver | NVIDIA 180.37 | Catalyst 9.4 pre-release (8.600) |
| Operating system | Ubuntu Linux 8.10 AMD64 | |
Software
| 3D Benchmarks | Enemy Territory: Quake Wars v1.5, HEXUS custom-recorded
benchmark. OpenGL - very high quality Unigine Tropics Demo 1.1, high-detail presets Unigine Sanctuary Demo 2.1, high-detail presets Lightsmark 2008 |
|---|---|
| Video Benchmarks | Mplayer SVN r29053 (default compiler optimizations) A Scanner Darkly (HD VC-1 playback sample) Dawn of the Dead (HD H.264 playback sample) |
Notes
The price gap between these cards is pretty big - partly because the pre-clocked Inno3D card - which is pre-overclocked, however - is so expensive. Other 216-core GTX 260 cards with different clock speeds may be up to about £50 cheaper.
Compiz (3D desktop effects) was disabled completely for testing, to ensure possible interference between desktop 3D and app 3D didn't occur. I also disabled CPU frequency scaling, and locked the CPU at its stock top speed (2.8GHz)
For those wanting to use these newer drivers easily on their Ubuntu 8.10 systems, they should try adding the line "deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/directhex/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main" under System/Administration/Software Sources/Third Party Software. You may need to manually install the package nvidia-180-modaliases for the 180.xx driver to be offered to you.