In the computer industry there is not any kind of rivalry like what we see on the graphics card industry market. So over the years the GPU war has been getting meaner and ugly for the too big boy's ATI and NVIDIA and as those two fight it out we consumers have benefited by getting better products at lower prices. This is a win, win situation for all gamers out there especially in the mid to low-end where you can get an awesome and powerful card for a minimum of cost. In the same sense console gaming has been holding strong, and many game developer have been staying on the console bandwagon, giving the PC gamers a primarily ported version of the console game which is less visually enhanced. - NinjaLane

Palit GeForce GTS 250 (G92b) Graphics Board Review

We will be looking at the Palit GeForce GTS 250 with 1GB of GDDR3 memory. Looking at the GeForce GTS 250 brings up the question of just how new is this card? Well it is more or less a GeForce 9800 GTX+ with a bigger frame buffer by adding 1GB of GDDR3 memory and comes with a little bit better clock speeds. The pricing for this beast is in the suggested retail price of $150. So for the mid-range budget this is not too shabby. The new name GeForce GTS 250 brings the GeForce 9800 GTX+ card out of the old naming scheme, and makes the overall product offering look much better but will it make a real difference?

The Palit GeForce GTS 250 is working off the old GeForce 9800 GTX reference design all the way down to the same green PCB color and dual cooler design. This design has been right from the get go even from the GeForce 8800 GTS days. So why mess up a good thing. On the backside of the Palit GeForce GTS 250 there is nothing out of the ordinary. We can see that all of the GDDR3 chips are on the GPU side of the card leaving the back relatively clean. The NVIDIA's green PCB seems to be doing well for Palit though we can hope for additional colors in the future, or some innovative custom cooling solutions.

The GeForce GTS 250 is going to be released in two flavors the 512MB and the 1GB versions. The 512MB version will be priced at around $129, with the 1GB version slightly higher at $149. At this price a rebadged GeForce 9800 GTX+ with better clock speeds and an extra 512MB of memory is not too bad. The Palit GeForce GTS 250 seen today also has some additional benefits. It can be put into an SLI with a GeForce 9800 GTX+ with matching memory size. Moving the naming scheme to the current GeForce GTS 250 is a great idea as that brings less confusion to the market place, which has been quite confusing lately.

The GeForce GTS 250 is able to play most games of today with high resolutions with incredible ease, and this additional 512MB allows for more room when it comes to anti-aliasing in games. NVIDIA did not just give us a one trick pony though. They are converting the GPU into a much bigger part of the computer scene. The Palit GeForce GTS 250 comes with the ability to convert video files, and even do upscaling of movies on the fly with the proper software. This is all done without the CPU taking much of a hit since the GPU is doing most of the work. PhysX has been a buzz word and a much under estimated feature.

So with NVIDIA spearheading this technology it will only be getting bigger and better. Adding a more realistic feel to games with real moving fabrics, objects moving with wind to walls breaking in a more realistic way is a step in the right direction. And PhysX is here to stay and it is only going to enrich the gaming experience down the road. The only thing that is just a sore spot for the Palit GeForce GTS 250 is that it didn't bring anything more to the table than being a slightly better version of the GeForce 9800 GTX+ edition. Not that it needs to be besting the GeForce GTX 260, but with a new card you hope to see more.

Still at the end of the day it is what the board can give the end user for gaming experience for the price that is important. The Palit GeForce GTS 250 having a price that is sometimes lower than the Radeon HD 4850 and besting the Radeon HD 4850 in most games is a great place to be.