With twelve months old the GeForce GTX 260 name would have to be one of the longest lasting models we have seen from NVIDIA in a long time. And a company that has a tendency to release new models almost quarterly kept the GeForce GTX 260 around for a long time and while it's known as the GeForce GTX 260+ these days due to the improvements we saw on these models a bit back, it still follows the same principal. The model was really designed to offer some serious bang for buck and it did that twelve months ago. But even today it still does that, continuing to offer serious performance. What we also see with models that have been around for a while is that companies are able to mix these up. - TweakTown

Galaxy GeForce GTX 260+ Oc Tri-Fan Version Review

Looking at the overall box design there isn't really anything that we haven't seen before from the company. Starting from the top we can see the Galaxy logo while to the right we have mention that the board is overclocked. Just below this we have a sticker that lists some of the main features like CUDA and DirectX 10. From the middle we have the Xtreme Tuner logo which is Galaxy's overclocking software. Next to that we can see a spider and its web which is something that we see on a few Galaxy boxes. Across the bottom we have the model, which is the GeForce GTX 260+ along with some of the main features.

Turning the box over, we have just got a standard run down on what the GeForce GTX 200 series of graphics card offers along with a bit of a blurb. To the right we have a bit of information on SLI and 3-way SLI along with what's needed to take advantage of the technology. Having a look at the card now and the first thing you have to notice is the massive heatsink that Galaxy just has implemented which manages to cover just about every speck of PCB. What's worth noting is that this particular Tri-Fan cooler isn't the same one we've seen from the company in the past, though it's a bit smaller as far as fans go and taking up just two slots.

If we look closely at the front we can see their aluminum fins in the background along with a bunch of copper that helps move the heat away from their core as quick as possible. Looking across the top of the card we can also see the six heat pipes exiting and entering the card. Closer to the front of the card we have our two SLI connectors. We can also see a black bar, designed to prevent their PCB from bending. It does a good job of making the card look a bit meaner as well. As we've mentioned Galaxy has chosen to overclock the card, and we can see that the core has moved from the stock 576MHz to 625MHz clock speed.

This GeForce GTX 260+ continues to be a great performing board and it's clear that performance compared to the GeForce GTX 275 is quite similar even though the graphics card is newer and more expensive. The thing worth noting however, is that the GeForce GTX 275 wasn't overclocked which meant in an all overclock comparison the GeForce GTX 275 would have a greater lead. That doesn't take anything away from the GeForce GTX 260+ version from Galaxy though, as an overclocked GeForce GTX 275 would cost more money again. This cooler might not be as mean as the other Tri-Fan ones, but it's perfectly suited for this card.

But it doesn't take up that extra slot like the other Tri-Fan coolers we've seen the company use and manages to still do an very good job of keeping temps down without a whole lot of noise. And even after twelve months you can't write the GeForce GTX 260 off and while the new 55nm version has got improvements over the original part, it's still very much based on the original model offering similar performance. All in all we have got a nice card from Galaxy and if you are after something that looks good and is still able to pack quite a punch this incarnation of the GeForce GTX 260+ edition is one worth looking at.