Sparkle GeForce GTX 260 Plus 1792MB Video Card Review

Conclusions
In each case the Sparkle GTX 260 Plus with its massive 1792MB of memory outshone the 896MB card. Again, the Asus card when overclocked did not quite make up the performance difference shown by the extra memory, but it was close on the latter two tests. It wasn’t even close on Crysis, just as it wasn’t close on 3DMark Vantage.

So I suppose the question is more than clock rate vs memory size. I suppose you could overclock the GPU more, but 20% is a healthy overclock, and not attained by all video cards. Many cards I have overclocked showed no performance gains at all over the stock clock. And I have said here in the past, I don’t care for overclocking video cards in the first place, at least not for other than academic reasons. I’ve even had factory overclocked video cards that weren’t as stable as they would have been at the reference clock.

I consider the Sparkle GTX 260 Plus a nice video card. The white fan shroud definitely gives it a different look. The skrived heatsink is very effective, though I think it needs a little more fan speed than the stock setting. The fan is silent up to about 65%, which is plenty of wind to keep the GPU cool.

The Sparkle GTX 260 Plus sells for $219 at my favorite online retailer. That does take it out of the “bang-for-the-buck pricing that I feel the 896MB GTX 260s are in, but it does outperform them. Is paying an extra $20-$45 worth it, which is what the Sparkle GTX 260 Plus costs over the 896MB crowd? I’ve seen people spend over $100 to get a few extra FPS, the choice is up to you.

ThinkComputers gives the Sparkle GTX 260 Plus 1792MB video card a 9 out of 10 score.

rating9 10 small

Pros:
– Unique looks
– Extra memory gives significance performance over reference GTX 260
– Effective skrived heatsink
– Silent fan

Cons:
– Some may not like the white fan shroud
– Price takes it out of the under $200 category, but still priced well below the Radeon HD 5850
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