EVGA GTX 260 Core 216 55nm Superclocked Edition Video Card Review
January 5, 2009 by Cabro · Leave a Comment
By now we all know that Nvidia is trying to transition their graphics cards to the 55nm manufacturing process. The transition began with the 9800 GTX+ and has made its way into a few hand-picked 9800 GT models which have yet to find their way to retail. Many of us have been waiting for the shrunken-down cores to eventually trickle down into the newer cards; namely the GTX 200 series. Let’s be honest here for a second; the GTX 280 and 260 cards are power sucking monsters which are not only expensive for Nvidia to produce but also don’t fit very well with the environmentally friendly aspect of today’s marketplace. Efficiency both energy-wise and production-wise is the name of the game these days and with ATI already having 55nm parts on the shelves for the better part of a year now, it was high time Nvidia made the transition as well. The consumers and their bottom line demanded it.
Has anyone else noticed that we have been seeing a large number of GTX 200-series card on sale as of late? The reason for this is that Nvidia is trying to get rid of their 65nm cores and starting immediately, we should see 55nm GTX 260 cards make their way to retailers. Just remember, distinguishing a 55nm card from a 65nm one can be a daunting task since we have heard that some board partners will not be advertising the new core on their packaging or PR materials. Even the name hasn’t changed; this is still the GTX 260. The lack of a name change is due to a number of reasons but first and foremost among them is that the 55nm cores will not offer any performance increases over the older cores. Granted, all 55nm GTX 260 cards will feature 216 shaders but other than that, this is still the same card we have come to know and love.
While I can promise you that in the future we will see quite a few new products from Nvidia with 55nm cores, today we will be looking at a simple respin of the GTX 260. You may remember that a few months ago we took a look at the EVGA GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition card and found it to be excellent competition for the HD 4870 cards. Once again before Christmas, this same card performed extremely well in our Games of Christmas ’08 article. Why are we talking about the Core 216 Superclocked? Well, the first EVGA card out of the paddock with the 55nm core just happens to be the GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition sporting the exact same specs as the card we have been running for the past few months. While it may be a bit counter-intuitive to review a card which is nearly a mirror image of a previous one, this particular example should hopefully provide some pleasant surprises in terms of heat production and power consumption. To this end we will be seriously beefing up those two sections of the review while the comments to the general gaming benchmark results have been cut out.
As usual, EVGA offers their Lifetime Warranty and Trade Up program with the GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition but they also bundle in a full version of Far Cry 2 for a bit of added value. Pricing for this card hasn’t quite settled yet and as thus is actually slightly higher than other 216 shader GTX 260s. Is this added cost worth it? We are about to find out.
EVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 (216 SP) Superclocked Edition Review
September 15, 2008 by Cabro · Leave a Comment
I am sure that for many of you the title of this review comes as a bit of a shock since you were not expecting a revised GTX 260 for the next little while at least. Some people say that competition speeds development but in this case ATI’s introduction of their new 4800-series has prompted a lightning-quick response from Nvidia. Not only have they drastically cut the price of their GTX 280 and GTX 260 cards but it seems like they are now allowing manufacturers to release “upgraded” versions of the GTX 260. This card will be meant to shore up the GTX 260’s performance against ATI’s HD 4870 in the short term with an extra 24 Stream Processors to give it a helping hand.
Beginning today you will start seeing new GTX 260s emerge bearing some unique names but please remember that there will be plenty of regular cards at etailers. To give you some examples, all EVGA cards with the extra shaders will be using the “Core 216” name, BFG’s will be called the Max Core and Palit’s will have the SP216 moniker. Confused yet? This is what happens when a company (be it Nvidia, ATI, Intel or whomever else) uses existing technology and makes minor revisions to it instead of releasing a brand new technology so while it is confusing and somewhat frustrating, it is par for the course. Even though at first we wanted to call Nvidia out for adding yet another oddly named card to an already loaded lineup, in the end it is the customer who benefits so who are we to question anything when that happens? Lower prices suits us just fine thank you very much.
Speaking of pricing, preliminary information given to us shows that the stock GTX 260 with 216 shaders will retail for around $279 which is actually below the suggested retail price for the “old” GTX 260 and that of the ATI HD 4870. Expect prices of the older non-216 SP cards to dip slightly below the $260 mark which will make it an amazing value versus the HD 4870. We have said it once and we will say it again: competition is good.
Now that we have covered a bit of the background, let’s focus a bit on the product being reviewed today: the EVGA GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition. Even though its name is a mouthful, this card carries with it all the usual reasons to buy EVGA which includes a lifetime warranty and access to their Trade-Up Program. Since it is a pre-overclocked card it also carries with it a slightly increased price over a stock GTX 260 216 at $299. All things considered, this is the same price as some HD 4870 cards are still going for so it should be very interesting if the overclocked core and the extra Stream Processors are able to give it an edge.
