The GeForce GTX 260 graphics processing unit is the less powerful sibling of the flagship GTX 280. While essentially the same silicone, the GTX 260 cuts down
on some of the 280's specifications in order to be more affordable. The GTX
260's core is clocked at 576 MHz and contains 192 stream processors (which Nvidia likens to CPU cores), as against 240 in the GTX 280. It also uses 896 MB of GDDR3 RAM running at 999 MHz on a 448-bit bus. These are slightly unusual figures, but they add up to an impressive memory bandwidth figure of 111.9 Gb/s.

It's nice to see a high-end GPU that isn't throttled by a 256-bit bus in order to keep performance lower than that of its more expensive counterparts. GeForce GTX
260 cards require two 6-pin PCle power connectors, and can consume up to 182 Watts of power One of the advantages of the GTX 260 is its support for Nvidia's CUDA architecture which can accelerate ordinarily CPU-intensive tasks such as video transcoding, file compression, and physics processing in 3D games Nvidia's acquisition of Ageia means it now owns the acceleration technology called PhysX,
which will be able to run on all 8800-series cards and above using CUDA.



We received an XFX-branded GTX 260 card, which runs at stock speeds and doesn't deviate from Nvidia's reference design at all. The cooler is of the dual-slot variety. The card has the standard two DVI and one analog HD output on the rear, although HDMI is supported through an adapter. An S/PDIF connection allows you to route audio through the graphics card, and HDCP (High-definition Digital Content Protection) is supported too.

The package includes a component video dongle, PCle power adapter and most interestingly, a full version of the highly acclaimed game 3DMark Vantage Performance (GPUI:High (GPUI: PERFORMANCE: We found the GTX
260's performance exceeded that of the previous generation dual-GPU 9800 GX2 by a healthy margin in all our tests, even though the latter is only a few months old. Games were playable at high resolutions with effects turned on, no doubt boosted by the high amount of memory bandwidth. VERDICT: With a price much lower than the GTX 280 and performance higher than the previous generation anyway, this card is sure to be popular.

FOR: Excellent performance, good value. AGAINST: None

Crysis