Introduction
01
NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 260 GPU was launched in June 2008. A direct
derivation of the range-topping GeForce GTX 285, the '260 packed in 192
stream processors and a 448-bit memory-bus to provide around 80 per
cent of the performance of the faster card yet at a significantly lower
price, etailing at £200.
The GPU was updated in September 2008 with the introduction of a 216
stream-processor model, providing around 10 per cent more performance
for the same kind of money. Finally, December 2008 brought in another
update, as manufacturing was moved, wholesale, from 65nm to 55nm.
The majority of boards in 2008 were manufactured on behalf of NVIDIA,
looked identical, and sold to partners who put on their own special
sauce with fancy bundles or pre-overclocking. The first few months of
2009 have seen a greater number of cheaper-to-produce PCBs and
aftermarket cooling used by most of NVIDIA's friends.
Why the history lesson on GeForce GTX 260? It's been knocked down a
rung by
GeForce
GTX 275,
but such is the competition from ATI - in the form of Radeon HD 4870
and HD 4890 - that GTX 260 has become cheap enough to make other
GeForces GTXs look positively expensive.
A case in point is the Inno3D GeForce GTX 260 FreezerX2, which ships
with a pre-attached aftermarket cooler and is available for...wait for
it....
well under
£150.
We're going to examine the value proposition afforded by recent
price-savaging to GTX 260, and then determine whether it's a better buy
than
also-price-reduced Radeon HD 4870. Got between
£100-£150 to
spend on a graphics-card update? Read this.
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