Despite hardly being a massive player on the North American computer circuit, Sparkle has managed to spread their affairs out well around the world. Between their product page and the correspondence with Sparkle representatives, we've gained the impression that these are people who care about their product. They'd rather try to just send one of their own along to explain a customer through their purchase, rather than shaving a few dollars off the sale. We suppose then, it is this feeling of care that put us at ease when working on this Sparkle product, since we knew that if anything went wrong, we'd have some very talented support staff there to back us up. Does the product match the service? - Virtual-Hideout

Sparkle GeForce GTS 250 512MB Cool Design Review

Shipped in a near retail configuration, Sparkle has chosen to ship their product in the same style that Sapphire does, not necessarily the sort that dominate a shelf but rather the sort that allow just an entire product display to be fit to one rack, instead of one wall. On the front of the package, a metallic tribal logo sits front and center surrounded by the product's badging, as well as information about it. In terms of packaging in general this is fairly remarkable, but in terms of graphics card packaging it's fairly common. And across the other sides of the box are the system requirements, a few awards and a blurb of other information.

This GeForce GTS 250 is a bit of a strange product, in any way that you look at it. Effectively speaking, it's just a rebranded GeForce 9800 GTX+ with a few small tweaks made, and the assurance of G92b silicon under the hood. Now, while this rendition of last generations champion may very well run much cooler and clock much better, it doesn't change the fact that it comes in at a strange price point. Wedged unhealthily between the Radeon HD 4830 and the Radeon HD 4850, this lovely little graphics card could prove a difficult purchase for users in quite a few circumstances. However, there should be no regrets upon purchase.

Sparkle has competently and pleasantly delivered with this card. It fits the speed mold well, the cooling is quiet and the installation is quite simple. While it may be a little bit of a no-frills unit, the fact that things went so smoothly and their promise of support to come makes it more than just a little bit of a winner. In any regard, should you be looking at a GeForce GTS 250, you should look no further than Sparkle's rendition, especially considering it's inclusion of an HDMI output makes it ideal for any home theater PC as such.