Test Rig:[ad#review1068-top]
AMD Phenom II X3 720
ASRock M3A785GMH/128M AMD 785G AM3 mATX motherboard
Kingston HyperX DDR3-1600 4GB Dual Channel kit
Spire TherMax CPU Cooler
NZXT Tempest extended midtower
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit
The GTX 260 is a powerful video card. It gives high numbers indeed coupled with an i7, but I feel the magic of this card is that it will give respectable numbers with a much lesser processor, such as the Phenom II X3 processor I will be using in the test rig. Take this card, put it in a budget rig, and you will still have a formidable gaming rig.
If this is a replacement card, I highly recommend that you uninstall all current graphics drivers and utilities (such as ATI Catalyst Control Center or nVidia System Tools) prior to installation of this card. Yeah, I know, if it is replacing another geForce card, everything will probably work ok, but it is just better to start from scratch. Vista will try to load the drivers for you, as it did during this installation, but for some reason it didn’t load the latest drivers as it normally does. I later used the included driver disk.
Pop the card into your PCI-E x 16 slot and connect two 6-pin PCI-E power connectors. I have to admit the white shroud looks a little odd after being accustomed to black ones.
The stock fan speed is set at 44%. The fan was silent at this speed, and wasn’t audible until I raised the percentage to 62%. It was in no way annoying, just audible. Raising the fan speed to 100% made it very audible, but really still not annoying, I could live with it there when needed.
Normally, increasing fan speed doesn’t make a lot of difference, it may decrease the GPU temp a degree or two, but that’s about it. Raising the fan speed to 60% decreased the idle temp from 48C to 42C, and the load temp from 74C to 68C.
The real significance of increasing the fan speed was the rate of the GPU cooling down from load to idle temperature. It took 8 minutes for the temperature to get back to idle temp with the fan at 44%, about 2 minutes with the fan at 62%, and about 40 seconds with the fan at 100%.
Overclocking
As I mentioned, Vista loaded the drivers. I then downloaded and installed the latest version of “nVidia System Tools with ESA Support”. Though I was given overclocking options and fan speed control, I was unable to control the GPU voltage. My earlier experience with a GTX 260 showed that you need to bump up the GPU voltage a little to get a decent overclock. I uninstalled the drivers and System Tools, and reinstalled the drivers with the included driver disk, which happened to have the latest geForce drivers. I received the same result.
Without being able to control the GPU voltage, I was able to attain an overclock of 6.18mHz, which is just over a 7% increase. Though it did affect the Futuremark numbers some, I didn’t get a full FPS increase on any of the games I tested with. I opted not to use any third party utilities to increase the GPU voltage.
My other experience with a GTX 260, with increasing the GPU voltage I was able to attain a 20% overclock, which gave the card a very noticeable performance boost. I see no reason that this card would not do the same.
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Using skived fins in the heatisink is a nice touch.
Nice to see someone still releasing a GTX 260. A lot of other manufacturers seem to have stopped making them.
Using skived fins in the heatisink is a nice touch.
Nice to see someone still releasing a GTX 260. A lot of other manufacturers seem to have stopped making them.
What about cooling. I heard it need separate exhaust ?
IT LOOKS GREAAAAAT BOB. TOP OF THE LINE. YOU GOT IT BOY. DAD
with the cooling shell so large i wonder why they didn't make it a 2U PCI card?
What about cooling. I heard it need separate exhaust ?
What do you mean? It is a 2-slot video card…
It looks to me like the video exhausts some of the heat back into the case.
IT LOOKS GREAAAAAT BOB. TOP OF THE LINE. YOU GOT IT BOY. DAD
with the cooling shell so large i wonder why they didn't make it a 2U PCI card?
What do you mean? It is a 2-slot video card…
It looks to me like the video exhausts some of the heat back into the case.
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. https://thinkcomputers.org/reviews/asus_engt…
Good question and since technically it takes up 2-slots I wonder why Sparkle never used a traditional PCI bracket with exhaust holes.
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. https://thinkcomputers.org/reviews/asus_engt…
Good question and since technically it takes up 2-slots I wonder why Sparkle never used a traditional PCI bracket with exhaust holes.
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
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
True dat buts its too bad the GT200 and GT200b stocks are quite low.
True dat buts its too bad the GT200 and GT200b stocks are quite low.
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.
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.
You are entitled to your opinion but whining like a little baby doesn't help.
You are entitled to your opinion but whining like a little baby doesn't help.
You are entitled to your opinion but whining like a little baby doesn't help.
IMO 1792MB of memory is bit much.
IMO 1792MB of memory is bit much.
good for higher resolutions
Yea, it's a pretty good card, and sad to see it go.
i agree, that testing on a larger resolution should have been included. Perhaps, you could have not been so harsh in your comments though.
good for higher resolutions
Yea, it's a pretty good card, and sad to see it go.
i agree, that testing on a larger resolution should have been included. Perhaps, you could have not been so harsh in your comments though.
IMO 1792MB of memory is bit much.
good for higher resolutions
Yea, it's a pretty good card, and sad to see it go.
i agree, that testing on a larger resolution should have been included. Perhaps, you could have not been so harsh in your comments though.