Zotac GeForce GTX 260²

Verdict:

[+] SQUARED

Great overclocking headroom; loves Crysis

[-] SQUARE

Still can't beat Radeon HD 4870 in most games; £40 more expensive than this card

It comes as no surprise that Nvidia has decided to release a new, updated GeForce GTX 260. In most tests, the old GTX 260 card falls behind the cheaper ATI Radeon HD4870, with only Crysis providing justification for the more expensive GTX 260. Not content with this, Nvidia has revised the GTX 260 GPU, adding another Texture Processing Cluster (TPC), bringing the total number of stream processors to 216, rather than the 192 of the original GTX 260.

SPECIFICATIONS

This 216-stream processor card runs at standard clock frequencies, meaning that those stream processors operate at 1.242GHz while the rest of the GPU runs at 576MHz. The Zotac GeForce GTX 260² has the same 896MB of GDDR3 memory of old GTX 260 cards, running at the same 999MHz (1.998GHz effective). Just as the old card needed two 6-pin PCI-E power connectors, so does the new one.

Zotac GeForce GTX 260 costs £190.35 inc VAT while the new card costs £210.32 inc VAT.

PERFORMANCE

Click here to open the benchmark results (opens in new window)

The extra stream processors of the new GTX 260² should result in a small performance improvement over the original card. An average frame rate of 64fps in Race Driver: GRID at 1,920 x 1,200 is just 1fps faster than 63fps achieved by the original GTX 260.

Staying at 1,920 x 1,200, the 53fps minimum frame rate is an equally small gain over the older card, and the same is true at 1,680 x 1,050, with an average score of 83fps, just 2fps faster than the old GTX 260 achieved.

These scores still can’t touch an ATI Radeon HD 4870, which manages a minimum of 63fps and an average of 78fps at 1,920 x 1,200 rather than just 53fps. This is a story that’s repeated with Call of Duty 4. At 1,920 x 1,200, the HD 4870 manages an average of 64fps, while the Zotac GTX 260² falls short with 57fps.>

Crysis is the only game test where GTX 260 cards typically shine in comparison to the HD 4870, and the same was true of the Zotac GTX 260². It managed a minimum of 21fps and an average of 24fps at 1,920 x 1,200, whiel the HD 4870 struggles to make the game playable at this resolution with a minimum of 17fps and an average of 21fps.>

The Zotax GTX 260² again scores slightly better than an older GTX 260 at Crysis, with its 28fps minimum at 1,680 x 1,050 compared to just 26fps from the older card.

OVERCLOCKING

The best aspect of the Zotac GeForce GTX 260² is how well we managed to overclock the card. We could bump the core frequency from 576MHz to 670MHz and the stream processors from 1.242GHz to 1.35GHz. The memory was happy to run at 1.125GHz (2.25GHz effective), a decent boost from its stock 999MHz (1.998GHz effective). At this speed, we managed an average frame rate of 65fps in Call of Duty 4 at 1,920 x 1,200, and a 39fps minimum. This is an extra 4fps for the minimum frame rate and an 8fps increase in the average frame rate.

POWER CONSUMPTION AND FOLDING PERFORMANCE

Our test system drew a peak 370W of power with the Zotac GTX 260² installed and running the Canyon Flight test of 3DMark06. This is 20W less than when we performed the same test with a HD 4870 installed.

The Zotac GeForce GTX 260² generated 6,350ppd when running the Folding@home GPU client, which is far more than ATI cards are currently capable of. The HD 4870 generated only 2,134ppd for example.

CONCLUSION

The Zotac GeForce GTX 260² is faster than an original GTX 260 card, but in nearly every test the performance improvements are marginal. The best aspect of the card is the hefty overclock we managed, which helped close the gap between it and the ATI Radeon HD 4870.

However, as stock-speed Radeon HD 4870 cards can be had for as little as £172.71 inc VAT, the Zotac GTX 260² is £40 more expensive and slower in tow of our three test games. The HD 4870 is therefore much better value for money, and the Zotac GTX 260² is only really worth considering if you’re a massive Crysis fan. For the new 216 stream processor GTX 260 to compete with the HD 4870, it needs to be at least a comparable price.

You can buy the Zotac GeForce GTX 260² from Novatech for £210.32 inc VAT (price correct at time of review)

For more information on the GeForce GTX 260², visit Zotac’s website

ATI Radeon HD 4670	79%
BFG GeForce GTX 260 OCX MaxCore	79%
Asus EAH4870 TOP	83%
Zotac GeForce GTX 260²	81%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2	82%
Asus EN9800GTX+ TOP	76%
ATI Radeon HD 4830	79%

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