The interesting thing is that we didn't have up to now any GeForce GTX 260 graphics card on test, probably because majority is already more interested for more affordable products from latest NVIDIA generation of graphics cards even though it is consisted, for now, from two products in total. Anyway, we got one GeForce GTX 260 for testing and it is signed by manufacturer that is worldwide known, namely MSI. This version we got from MSI is their standard one, as they also released as usual an overclocked edition. This means also that it follows the reference design as it came from NVIDIA with of course the MSI branding and colors. How it does perform we will check out by comparison. - InsideHW

MSI GeForce GTX 260 896MB Graphics Board Review

The package for this MSI product is as usual colorful and rather large with lot of stickers. In package with the card itself we found necessary cables which are reduced one molex to 6-pin, video cable and DVI convertor. Drivers are also present and also two of old well known games. Situation with MSI graphics card is, as expected, identical to situation with all the rest manufacturers. Namely, like the other manufacturers and MSI applied solution of sticking over the sticker on cooler. So, design of that sticker has the same theme as the box, and all together it fits nicely with the box design and color scheme.

When it comes to the cooling solution, the GeForce GTX 280 shares the same cooling solution with its younger brother and keeping that in mind, it will be clear even to the common user, that this cooler will have better efficiency for the GeForce GTX 260 which generates less heat than advanced model. If you don't have some uber power supply instead of yours mid class category with one 8-pin and one 6-pin connector, you shouldn't despair. You will still be able to get GeForce GTX 260 to do the work that requires only one 6-pin molex connector or in case you don't have it, you could improvise by using two 4-pin connectors.

Under the hood is placed weakened GT200 chip in comparison to the GeForce GTX 280. Of course the manufacturing process still didn't change a bit, which means that chip is made in 65nm process. The clocks of this card follow the standard that NVIDIA set, which actually means 576MHz for core, 1242MHz for shaders and 1998MHz for memory. And there we come to yet another reduction in comparison to GeForce GTX 280, we have 896MB of memory, but even more important is narrower bus which is 448-bit wide. This is far from big difference in reality, but NVIDIA still had to clearly differentiate its products.

If you are interested in the overclocking of graphics cards, than you are already familiar with fact that these derivates overclock possibilities are on higher level than for their stronger role models. And the similar case is also with the MSI GeForce GTX 260 which hit its limits at 690MHz for core, mighty 1500MHz for stream processors and a solid 2370MHz for memory. It's clear that positive context drags through biggest part of this article, but it's not all smooth sailing for the GeForce GTX 260 in general. Firstly, there is Radeon HD 4870 that is a better graphics card and also cheaper for several dozens of euros.

Also NVIDIA from the very same reason reacted with GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 that is ready and officially launched on the market for price that will be similar to the original GeForce GTX 260. This clearly means that the GeForce GTX 260 will be eliminated from the market and that only tells us how cruel the market is, when competition dictates the rules because of which certain models are made redundant to soon.