It really is a good time to be looking for a new graphics card, isn't it? Prices are falling, with them overall performance per dollar is increasing and many holdouts out there are gradually being swayed into either ATI's or NVIDIA's camp. Whether some people realize it or not, competition is a good thing and no matter which manufacturer you support it is their competitor who contributes on keeping their prices within reason. There was a time within the last two years when we saw high performance products from team red trail off into the distance and because of this, prices for high-end cards stagnated near and above the $500 range and very little forward development progress was made. - Hardware Canucks

BFG GeForce GTX 260 896MB Graphics Card Review

Both the GeForce GTX 260 and the GTX 280 were launched a little over a month ago and while the higher-end GeForce GTX 280 was available immediately at launch, the less expensive GeForce GTX 260 was greeted with a paper launch. Since that time, NVIDIA seemed to have been surprised by ATI's launch of the Radeon HD 4800 series of cards which turned out to be extremely successful and performed above what many expected them to. In order to combat these lower priced cards, NVIDIA has sent the prices of the GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 into freefall. The GeForce GTX 260 cards can now be had for under $300.

The GeForce GTX 260 card resides in the lower-end of the GT200 series but is nonetheless pegged to go head to head against ATI's Radeon HD 4870. It has all the features of its big brother but has a cut down amount of memory, slightly lower clock speeds and less stream processors. All of these changes contribute to make this a much more affordable card while offering performance that was unheard of less than a year ago. Unfortunately, up until now we have not been able to get our hands on one of these cards but BFG has finally stepped up to the plate and have provided us with one of their stock clocked cards.

The packaging for this BFG card is no different than any other we have seen with the usual stylized character on the front with additional information on the back. Unlike some cards we have encountered in the past, this box also contains specification information which is great for those of you buying it from a brick and mortar retailer. When looking at the GeForce GTX 260 the first time you will probably be stunned by its resemblance to the more powerful GeForce GTX 280. It has the same heatsink and in this case is clad in BFG's usual kickass color scheme. We must say that BFG really knows how to keep things simple.

This conclusion can't come to pass without us making reference to the ATI Radeon HD 4870 since it is this card that seems to be everyone's darling right now. But all in all, our first experience with a GeForce GTX 260 has been an extremely enjoyable one as we have seen that it can compete on many levels with the best ATI has to offer right now. At the same time, it is quite obvious that the largest hurdle the GeForce GTX 260 has to overcome is the presence of ATI's Radeon HD 4870 on the market since the two perform very close to one another. Though NVIDIA still has the bigger brother which takes performance crown.

We really have to be amazed that a card of this pedigree can be had for less than $350 in many cases which would have been unheard of less than three months ago. When we take a step back and look at this whole review from a purely performance perspective, it seems like the 896MB of memory on the GeForce GTX 260 is able to pay for itself in spades when gaming at ultra high resolutions. You may have also noticed that power consumption is severely cut from the GeForce GTX 280 card and this suits us just fine since with this power consumption comes decreased heat as well.

This recent price war must be playing havoc with NVIDIA since for all intents and purposes, the 65nm GT200 core is anything but cheap to produce. It seems the last thing they expected was a war with ATI in the high performance category but that is exactly what they have on their hands right now and they are fighting against a less expensive product. This battle in the trenches between NVIDIA and ATI benefits the consumer in more ways than one and these new lower prices for the GeForce GTX 260 are a byproduct of the competition we were all hoping to see. And again we have to say that competition is good.

So, when push comes to shove can we really recommend this card? Absolutely. The lifetime warranty and trade-up program included with the BFG GeForce GTX 260 version will usually be more than enough to sway many over into the green camp since both of these things are something ATI's partners just don't have right now. Unfortunately, it seems that its price will have to be reduced a bit more if it hopes to truly compete with the Radeon HD 4870 card on a solely price to performance level.