ZOTAC GTX 280 AMP! Edition

I want to begin this article by expressing that like many of you reading this article, I spent money on 9800-series GeForce products thinking that my choice would be free of buyers remorse for at least a year. After all, it wasn't all that long ago that the GeForce 8800 series landed itself atop the competition and reigned supreme for well over a year. So it seemed logical that when NVIDIA launched their 9800 series, that things would somehow remain the same. So this is where I break some painful news to owners of premium top-end GeForce products: there's a new king named GTX 280 and he's not just a bigger, better, version of something we've already seen. The new GeForce GTX 280 presents a completely new core design, and introduces NVIDIA's 2nd-generation DirectX 10 architecture as opens up a new dimension of heterogeneous computing.

Hot on the heels of a rapid-succession GeForce 9800 GX2 and GeForce 9800 GTX launch only two short months ago, NVIDIA has recently launched the GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 video cards. Both the GTX 280 and GTX 260 products position themselves at the most elite segment of the GeForce product line, so just imagine how much more powerful the GeForce GTX 280 could become after ZOTAC give it their special AMP! Edition treatment. The recent Radeon HD 4870 launch may have shown how close ATI/AMD can get to NVIDIA's bar of performance, but the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 280 AMP! Edition graphics card has just raised that bar much higher. Benchmark Reviews tests the ZOTAC ZT-X28E3LA-FCP against the GeForce 9800 GX2 and 9800 GTX, as well as the new Radeon HD 4850 in CrossFireX configuration.

Now would also be a good time to explain why the new GTX 280 and GTX 260 product launch had to occur just nine weeks after the last GeForce 9-series launch. We offer a full explanation in the following section, but the short explanation is that the GT200 GPU isn't just another GPU with a few extra cores and speed increases; this is a whole new creature that does more than just render graphics.

Sure, you can realistically expect phenomenal frame rate results out of this video card, but you can also expect that real-world applications such as Adobe's upcoming CS4 software suite can actually perform every manner of tasks faster with this new GPU than any multi-core CPU ever could (which I witnessed first-hand at the NVIDIA Editors Day 2008 event). Finally, graphical demands of every imaginable level are handled by a GPU that out-paces the ability of a CPU, making it a lot more than just another video card. It's going to be tough to contain my enthusiasm since I've been testing this card for almost two weeks now; but I assure you that while the performance is every bit as real as I say it is.

As sure as our name is Benchmark Reviews, this article will be report every GTX 280 benchmark result we've collected; but please, for the sake of missing out on something very big, don't skip all of the information we offer here just to see video game performance charts and glimpse at our conclusion. This isn't just another article about the latest and greatest video card or how well it handles the latest game titles, this article is also meant to explain why the GTX 200 graphics processor is going to change the way we all use computer hardware now and into the future.

Even before the GeForce GT200 GPU, NVIDIA has been consistently overwhelming the graphics card industry. Anymore it seems like the only products that manage to outperform their video cards are other GeForce graphic cards. Industry competitors have been very unsuccessful at beating NVIDIA, and very recently their biggest rival waved a white flag in surrender and relegated themselves to feeding off a low-end market segment just to maintain an identity. Sometimes though, I think that you become so good at what you do that you begin to compete with yourself. Not surprisingly NVIDIA has already anticipated this problem and planned for a solution, which is why this article will introduce a lot more than just video game frame rates for the new compute-ready GT200 graphics processor.

In the next section, Benchmark Reviews takes the time to give a full explanation as to why the GTX 200 graphics processor arrived so quickly after the last product launch, and begin to point out why it deserves some special attention.

About the Company: ZOTAC International (MCO) Limited

ZOTAC International (MCO) Limited was established in 2006 with a mission to deliver superb quality of NVIDIA graphic solutions to the industry. It has strong backup from parent group, PC Partner Ltd. Headquartered in Hong Kong, factory in mainland China and regional sales offices in Europe, Asia Pacific and North America. The support ZOTAC provides is currently the largest of its kind around the world.

With 40 SMT lines, 6,000 workers and 100,000 square-feet meter, ZOTAC features a full array of state-of-the-art facilities and machinery. In addition, ZOTAC has over 130 R&D professionals in Hong Kong, China and warranty and service center in strategic countries to enable effective and efficient worldwide as well as localized sales and marketing supports.

ZOTAC with NVIDIA not only means superb quality, it also means high performance, absolute reliability and great value. In the past year, ZOTAC was compared and tested by several influential members in the media and have proven its products are good quality, worth-to-buy graphic cards in the market. With the product features of overclocked performance, excellent cooling properties and unique packaging ZOTAC products definitely exceed users' expectations.

ZOTAC's commitment to our user is to bring the latest products quickly to the market with the best value. Doubtless to say ZOTAC is the right choice for those who require high-quality graphic solutions. For additional information please visit the ZOTAC website.

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