Zotac GTX 260(2)

INTRODUCTION:

A Fallout 3 review looks like it will be a long time in coming due to the length of the game. To bridge the gap, and make up for a lack of hardware reviews, I've decided to write up a review for the new Zotac GeForce GTX 260(2) . This card is a re-release of the original GTX 260. The difference between this card and the original is the number of shader units. The original GTX 260 came with 192 shader units active, while the GTX 260(2) comes with 216. This should yield performance that comes closer to the big daddy GTX 280, which has all the 240 shader units working. The suggested American retail for the card shows $299, putting it only a couple bucks above the standard GTX 260. This was done to help the GTX 260 compete a little bit more aggressively with the 4870. My other option in this price range was another re-release of an existing card from AMD known as the 4870 1GB. The older 4870 came with only 512Megs of GPU memory. Doubling the memory doesn't really increase the overall power of the card all that much, but allows the game to maintain performance at super high resolution when 512MB of GPU memory may just not cut it. I decided to go with the GTX 260(2) because the better support for most games having the 'way it's meant to be played' certification. By all accounts the extra shader processors make the GTX 260(2) a touch more powerful at the higher resolutions, and tends to be a bit cooler in the case than the AMD offering. The 4870, and this card are very close in price, and you can find reasons to go both ways, but this is the direction I decided to go.

PACKAGE AND CONTENTS:

There is something interesting I would like to point out about the box itself. Lets take a quick look:

It's kind of hard to tell from the picture, but the box for this card is actually just a box for the regular GTX 260. The only change is that there is a sticker placed on the box at the bottom right hand corner that says 'GTX 260(2)'. This is interesting in itself, but even more interesting is the specs and details all over the box say it's only got 192 shader units. After installing it did have the 216, which means it was a cost cutting quick relabeling.

Inside the graphics crazy outer box there is a plain white box insulated with foam and containing all you see. I couldn't help but notice that I didn't get the DVI to VGA adapter. I didn't mind because I have about 20 of these, but if you have a monitor that only has VGA then you would have to locate one. This pack was supposed to include the adapter, so I have to dock Zotac marks for this one. You do get a DVI to HDMI adapter, manuals, and a drivers disk. A little bonus I wasn't expecting is that this comes with a copy of Race Driver: GRID. I already own it, so it's no value for me. For most it would be a nice perk to consider, as GRID is still a pretty new game.

As you can see this is a hell of a big, and long card. If you have a smaller than normal mid tower case, you may want to make sure it will fit. The card itself extends about 2 inches past the edge of most standard ATX motherboards. Make sure you have those 2 inches. The design on the card is the same as you see on the box art.

The dual slot cooler is pretty standard. This type of design exhausts over the GPU and out the rear of the case. The benefit of this design is the warm air being exhausted out keeps the ambient temperatures lower because the heat made by the GPU is sent outside the case.

This is not a low power draw card. It requires two 6pin PCIexpress power connectors. The card itself says it requires a lot of amps to run, but really if you have a decent reliable PSU that's over 500Watts, in most cases you will be just fine. You will see a lot of people saying you need super powered high end power supplies but this is rarely true. What is more important is the quality of the PSU.

Time to take a look at the technical side and see what sort of pressure this card is capable of handling.

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