Tom's Hardware - Benchmark Mass EffectTo say the 260 is a "failed chip" is laughable - yes it's somewhat slower than the 280 but then so is a E6600 compared to a E6700 - only the "best" chips are used for "faster" - and more expensive - components.
Moreover, the 280 has a variety of different parameters such as the bandwidth and number of pipes blah, blah, blah......and it's 50% more expensive as a result.
(See the link above to Tom's benchmarks and see how the "difference" between the 9800GTX, the GTX260 and the "amazing" 8800ULtra is less than 10%. In fact at 19x12 with high AA and AF - as I play it...it is less than 7% !)
If you know anything about statistics - I would argue that given the inherent variability of FSX in terms of frame-rates and the fact that only 1 sample is used - these (10% at best) differences, probably don't exist.
And anyway, EVEN IF the difference was statistically significant - do you really think that less than 10% warrants the 260 being branded a failure ?
And, as for the guy who wants to upgrade to a 280 from a 260 - don't - it really isn't worth the increase you will get. Spend the difference on faster RAM/SD drive/CPU...anything other than a card which will yield around a 5% improvement - at best.
If your frame-rates are less with a 260 than a 8800GT/GTS, then you are playing at a low resolution - where there is no difference between any of the cards...try cranking up to and beyond 16x10 with high levels of filtering and you will notice the difference. (Alternatively, your drivers maybe dodgy etc.) Look at the benchmarks and scroll down to see the effects of resolution and filtering. For example with a GTS 320MB....it is as good as 260 until you add high filtering at high resolutions - then the GTS drops to half the performance of the 260!
As for the "amazing" Ultra - yes...it beats (if you believe the numbers) the 200-series by 3-10%...in FSX...but in only 12 out of the other 40 tests, does it beat the others!
Not bad for a "failed" chipset ! ?
As soon as an optimised driver is released - which it will one day - the Ultra will be relegated to it's proper "prehistoric" position in the charts.
And anyway, you can't buy it anymore so it's a rather moot point...no ?
Q6600(G0) 3.4Ghz; GTX 260 (675/1275); 2GB Corsair XMS2 - DHX 850Mhz (5/5/5/15); Samsung 501, 16MB; Antec P180 & Truepower Trio 650W; P35C DS3R. XP SP3.