Sparkle GeForce GTX 260 Plus 1792MB Video Card Review

A Closer Look
The white theme of the box is carried on with the card itself. The fan shroud is white, I guess the first white video card I’ve seen. It does look pretty sharp and will definitely stand out in a rig.

There is also a continuation of the graphics that are located on the box, an “S” shaped sword with etchings of creatures. It is very detailed and makes the card stand out even more.




Sparkle geForce GTX 260 Plus 1792MB Video Card Sparkle geForce GTX 260 Plus 1792MB Video Card

There is one intake fan that blows air through the cooler and out of the rear of the shroud below the PCI bracket. The fan is an 80mm “hamster cage” type fan.

There are two 6-pin PCI-E power connectors on the side of the card. There is also a connector to connect a 2-pin wire from the card to your motherboard’s internal S/PDIF connector to accommodate HD Audio via HDMI cable. Neither the wire nor a DVI to HDMI adapter is included.


Sparkle geForce GTX 260 Plus 1792MB Video Card Sparkle geForce GTX 260 Plus 1792MB Video Card

The GTX 260 Plus sports dual DVI connectors.


Sparkle geForce GTX 260 Plus 1792MB Video Card

I was able to remove the cooler from the card, but I wasn’t able to remove the fan from the fan shroud, which prevented me from showing an overhead of the cooler. My extra small screwdriver was distorted a bit and I just couldn’t get a grip on the screws.

The card has a massive aluminum cooler that is “skived”. Skiving is a particular machining process that allows the fins to be much thinner than the normal milling process. It is much more time consuming and therefore more expensive, but makes a more efficient cooler, as thinner fins dissipate heat much more efficiently. The power supply cooler on the end is massive itself, having to cool 15 large MOSFETs. There is thermal padding on the cooler to accommodate the memory and the power supply.

The GPU die is HUGE, but I dunno.if it was small it would get lost in all those memory chips, 14 in all.


Sparkle geForce GTX 260 Plus 1792MB Video Card Sparkle geForce GTX 260 Plus 1792MB Video Card

Included with the card is a pair of Molex/PCI-E adapters and a DVI/Sub-15 adapter.


Sparkle geForce GTX 260 Plus 1792MB Video Card

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  • http://twitter.com/werty316 Peter
    Using skived fins in the heatisink is a nice touch.
  • http://twitter.com/slugbug55 G Smith
    Nice to see someone still releasing a GTX 260. A lot of other manufacturers seem to have stopped making them.
  • http://twitter.com/werty316 Peter
    Using skived fins in the heatisink is a nice touch.
  • http://twitter.com/slugbug55 G Smith
    Nice to see someone still releasing a GTX 260. A lot of other manufacturers seem to have stopped making them.
  • http://www.unichost.com/ Powerful Servers
    What about cooling. I heard it need separate exhaust ?
  • F. Buskirk
    IT LOOKS GREAAAAAT BOB. TOP OF THE LINE. YOU GOT IT BOY. DAD
  • http://www.facebook.com/saberwolf666 Nik Parenti
    with the cooling shell so large i wonder why they didn't make it a 2U PCI card?
  • http://www.unichost.com/ Powerful Servers
    What about cooling. I heard it need separate exhaust ?
  • http://twitter.com/werty316 Peter
    What do you mean? It is a 2-slot video card…
  • http://twitter.com/werty316 Peter
    It looks to me like the video exhausts some of the heat back into the case.
  • F. Buskirk
    IT LOOKS GREAAAAAT BOB. TOP OF THE LINE. YOU GOT IT BOY. DAD
  • http://www.facebook.com/saberwolf666 Nik Parenti
    with the cooling shell so large i wonder why they didn't make it a 2U PCI card?
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  • http://twitter.com/werty316 Peter
    What do you mean? It is a 2-slot video card…
  • http://twitter.com/werty316 Peter
    It looks to me like the video exhausts some of the heat back into the case.
  • http://www.facebook.com/saberwolf666 Nik Parenti
    2U as in it takes up two slots. Not internally, but externally. All mobo's are spaced differently so the internals don't matter. But, slot spacing on the back of a case is always the same. SO i was wondering why the mounting bracket on the card wasn't a 2U since the cooling shield was so big?

    i.e. http://www.thinkcomputers.org/reviews/asus_engt

  • http://twitter.com/werty316 Peter
    Good question and since technically it takes up 2-slots I wonder why Sparkle never used a traditional PCI bracket with exhaust holes.
  • http://www.facebook.com/saberwolf666 Nik Parenti
    2U as in it takes up two slots. Not internally, but externally. All mobo's are spaced differently so the internals don't matter. But, slot spacing on the back of a case is always the same. SO i was wondering why the mounting bracket on the card wasn't a 2U since the cooling shield was so big?

    i.e. http://www.thinkcomputers.org/reviews/asus_engt

  • http://twitter.com/werty316 Peter
    Good question and since technically it takes up 2-slots I wonder why Sparkle never used a traditional PCI bracket with exhaust holes.
  • lewislau
    This is a pretty good graphics card for the price you're paying, plus i've always been a fan of nvidia =D. top notch
  • lewislau
    This is a pretty good graphics card for the price you're paying, plus i've always been a fan of nvidia =D. top notch
  • http://twitter.com/werty316 Peter
    True dat buts its too bad the GT200 and GT200b stocks are quite low.
  • http://twitter.com/werty316 Peter
    True dat buts its too bad the GT200 and GT200b stocks are quite low.
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  • www.hardocp.com
    Why would you benchmark that card in only 1280×1024?

    Do you think that an additional 896 megs of GDDR3 (on top of the 260GTX's original 896mb) is going to make any appearance at resolution that low? Why would you even bother doing a benchmarking review if you weren't going to test this thing on more than 3 benchmarking utilities and on such a low resolution? You aren't going to need a card with more than 512mb of GDDR3 at that resolution. (Are we in 1998?) I know! How about 1680×1050 or 1920×1200, because we all know in 2009 everyone uses CRT monitors only capable of 1280×1024 resolution! How long did it take you to run these tests? 15 minutes? 20 minutes? Man, put a little effort into the next review. ThinkComputers… I don't see a lot of work or think going on here.

  • www.hardocp.com
    Why would you benchmark that card in only 1280×1024?

    Do you think that an additional 896 megs of GDDR3 (on top of the 260GTX's original 896mb) is going to make any appearance at resolution that low? Why would you even bother doing a benchmarking review if you weren't going to test this thing on more than 3 benchmarking utilities and on such a low resolution? You aren't going to need a card with more than 512mb of GDDR3 at that resolution. (Are we in 1998?) I know! How about 1680×1050 or 1920×1200, because we all know in 2009 everyone uses CRT monitors only capable of 1280×1024 resolution! How long did it take you to run these tests? 15 minutes? 20 minutes? Man, put a little effort into the next review. ThinkComputers… I don't see a lot of work or think going on here.

  • http://twitter.com/werty316 Peter
    You are entitled to your opinion but whining like a little baby doesn't help.
  • http://twitter.com/werty316 Peter
    You are entitled to your opinion but whining like a little baby doesn't help.
  • http://twitter.com/werty316 Peter
    You are entitled to your opinion but whining like a little baby doesn't help.
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  • http://twitter.com/werty316 Peter
    IMO 1792MB of memory is bit much.
  • http://twitter.com/werty316 Peter
    IMO 1792MB of memory is bit much.
  • lewislau
    good for higher resolutions
  • lewislau
    Yea, it's a pretty good card, and sad to see it go.
  • lewislau
    i agree, that testing on a larger resolution should have been included. Perhaps, you could have not been so harsh in your comments though.
  • lewislau
    good for higher resolutions
  • lewislau
    Yea, it's a pretty good card, and sad to see it go.
  • lewislau
    i agree, that testing on a larger resolution should have been included. Perhaps, you could have not been so harsh in your comments though.
  • http://twitter.com/werty316 Peter
    IMO 1792MB of memory is bit much.
  • lewislau
    good for higher resolutions
  • lewislau
    Yea, it's a pretty good card, and sad to see it go.
  • lewislau
    i agree, that testing on a larger resolution should have been included. Perhaps, you could have not been so harsh in your comments though.