Installation
Test Rig:
Intel i7 920
Gigabyte EX58-UD4P X58 motherboard
OCZ Blade DDR3-2000 6GB Triple Channel Memory Kit
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 Toxic VaporX Video Card (for comparison purposes)
OCZ EliteXStream 800 Watt PSU
Zalman CNPS 9900LED CPU Cooler
NZXT Tempest Extended Midtower
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit
As always, installation is very simple, just pop the card into your primary PCI-E x 16 slot, connect the PCI-E power cables, connect the monitor, and install drivers. As this is a 10.5″ video card, I highly recommend measuring before purchase if installation is into a midtower.there are some mids that won’t accommodate a 10.5″ video card.
Asus video cards that use Gamer OSD will require installation of that utility to control the GPU cooler fans, so use of the driver disk is necessary. geForce drivers 181.20 are on the driver disk.
Lately, I have had some problems installing geForce drivers from the downloaded file, so if this is a new build or changing from an ATI card, I’d recommend using the driver disk and update later.
Just to mention, I already had the latest drivers installed on the rig, and Vista recognized the ENGTX260 immediately, didn’t even require a reboot, though I did have to reboot for Gamer OSD.
Overclocking
I used iTracker for overclocking the Asus ENGTX260 Matrix. To keep it simple, I used a User Defined Profile. After bumping up the GPU voltage a little, I got a very stable 688mHz overclock. I bumped the shader clock up to 1376 and the memory up to 2026 just for good measure. The Matrix was far from done overclocking, but I was very happy with a 20% overclock.
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Great review, the super hybrid engine is pretty good, saves you power when you're idling and overclocks itself when under stress
Great review, the super hybrid engine is pretty good, saves you power when you're idling and overclocks itself when under stress
The Hybrid heatsink is sweet and it puts a stock GTX260 cooler to shame.
YEa, this additon was pretty sweet.
The Hybrid heatsink is sweet and it puts a stock GTX260 cooler to shame.
YEa, this additon was pretty sweet.
The Hybrid heatsink is sweet and it puts a stock GTX260 cooler to shame.
YEa, this additon was pretty sweet.
The EVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked is the most power-efficient card in its category; $40 less than its primary competition.
The EVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked is the most power-efficient card in its category; $40 less than its primary competition.
True but its starting to show it age.
True but its starting to show it age.
Yea it's quite a good card
Yep, and most manufacturers are starting to stop producing this line
Yea it's quite a good card
Yep, and most manufacturers are starting to stop producing this line
I'm holding off for a Fermi 🙂
I'm holding off for a Fermi 🙂
I'm holding off for a Fermi 🙂
Graphics cards comming out now cost more than my computer x2. I wonder when they are just going to make them have a CPU and RAM slot built in so you can upgrade to keep up with games. And if your video card fails, just reuse the CPU and RAM on your next card. Don't steal my idea nVidia!!