GeForce GTX 260 with 216 cores Video Card Review

nVidia is launching today a new version of GeForce GTX 260 with 216 processors instead of 192 to better compete with Radeon HD 4870. In fact nVidia is pitching to reviewing websites that this new GeForce GTX 260 is faster than Radeon HD 4870 for the top latest games released (FarCry 2, Fallout 3, Dead Space, Call of Duty World at War and Left 4 Dead). Let’s see the performance increase brought by this new model and how it is compared to other nVidia products and competitors – including Radeon HD 4870, of course.

In our Radeon HD 4870 review we saw that the original GeForce GTX 260 and this ATI video card had the same performance level on most scenarios, with an advantage to Radeon HD 4870 in the games that where a difference between the two cards (the only scenario were GeForce GTX 260 was faster was on Call of Duty 4 at 2560x1600 with image quality settings maxed out). What nVidia wants now is to move this advantage to the new GeForce GTX 260.

This new GeForce GTX 260 is identical to its older brother, with the only difference being the number of internal processors (known by several different names, such as “streaming processors”, “SP” or “cores”). Both run at the same clock rates. That is why we are not posting any pictures, as both cards are physically identical.

To make the comparison between the new GeForce GTX 260 with 216 cores and the other video cards we included in this review easier, we compiled the table below comparing the main specs from these cards. If you want to compare the specs of the reviewed video card to any other video card not included on the table below, just take a look on our nVidia Chips Comparison Table and on our AMD ATI Chips Comparison Table.

GPU	Core Clock	Shader Clock	Processors	Memory Clock	Memory Interface	Memory Transfer Rate	Memory	Price
GeForce GTX 280	602 MHz	1,296 MHz	240	1,107 MHz	512-bit	141.7 GB/s	1 GB GDDR3	USD 405 - 460
GeForce GTX 260 (192 cores)	576 MHz	1,242 MHz	192	1,000 MHz	448-bit	112 GB/s	896 MB GDDR3	USD 215 - 220
GeForce GTX 260 (216 cores)	576 MHz	1,242 MHz	216	1,000 MHz	448-bit	112 GB/s	896 MB GDDR3	USD 250 - 295
GeForce 9800 GX2	600 MHz	1,500 MHz	128	1,000 MHz	256-bit	64 GB/s	1 GB GDDR3	USD 285
GeForce 9800 GTX+	738 MHz	1,836 MHz	128	1,100 MHz	256-bit	70.4 GB/s	512 MB GDDR3	USD 175 - 210
GeForce 9800 GTX	675 MHz	1,688 MHz	128	1,100 MHz	256-bit	70.4 GB/s	512 MB GDDR3	USD 178
Palit GeForce 9800 GT 1 GB	600 MHz	1.5 GHz	112	900 MHz	256-bit	57.6 GB/s	1 GB GDDR3	N/A
Radeon HD 4870 X2	750 MHz	750 MHz	800	900 MHz	256-bit	115.2 GB/s	1 GB GDDR5	USD 480 - 530
Radeon HD 4870	750 MHz	750 MHz	800	900 MHz	256-bit	115.2 GB/s	512 MB GDDR5	USD 190 - 290
Radeon HD 4850 X2	625 MHz	625 MHz	800	993 MHz	256-bit	63.5 GB/s	1 GB GDDR3	USD 410
Radeon HD 4850	625 MHz	625 MHz	800	993 MHz	256-bit	63.5 GB/s	512 MB GDDR3	USD 150 - 200
Radeon HD 4830	575 MHz	575 MHz	640	900 MHz	256-bit	57.6 GB/s	512 MB GDDR3	USD 120 - 130
Sapphire Atomic HD 3870 X2	857 MHz	857 MHz	320	927 MHz	256-bit	59.3 GB/s	1 GB GDDR3	N/A
Radeon HD 3870	776 MHz	776 MHz	320	1,125 MHz	256-bit	72 GB/s	512 MB GDDR4	USD 95 - 200

It is important to notice that this table reflects the current prices for the listed video cards at Newegg.com, which are lower than the prices we published in other reviews, since prices tend to drop every day.

Some important observations regarding this table:

All nVidia chips are DirectX 10 (Shader 4.0), while all AMD/ATI chips are DirectX 10.1 (Shader 4.1).
The memory clocks listed are the real memory clock. Memory clocks are often advertised as double the figures presented, numbers known as “DDR clock”. Radeon HD 4870 and Radeon HD 4870 X2 use GDDR5 chips, which transfer four data per clock cycle and thus the “DDR clock” for these video cards is four times the value presented on this table (i.e. 3.6 GHz).
GeForce 9800 GX2, Radeon HD 3870 X2, Radeon HD 4850 X2 and Radeon HD 4870 X2 have two GPU’s. The numbers on the table represent only one of the chips.
All video cards included on our review were running at the chip manufacturer default clock configuration (i.e. no overclocking), except Sapphire Atomic HD 3870 X2. The official core clock for Radeon HD 3870 X2 is 825 MHz, while the official memory clock is 900 MHz. So this card was a little bit overclocked. We couldn’t reduce these clocks to their reference values and since we hadn’t any other Radeon HD 3870 X2 available we included this video card anyway.
Prices were researched at Newegg.com on the day we published this review.
We couldn’t find Sapphire Atomic HD 3870 X2 for sale. This model will be more expensive than cards from other vendors based on the same GPU because it features water cooling. Just for you to have an idea, prices on the regular Radeon 3870 X2 are quoted between USD 190 and USD 350.
We couldn’t find Palit GeForce 9800 GT 1 GB for sale. The model with 512 MB from the same manufacturer is quoted at USD 130.

Before going to our tests let’s recap the main features from GeForce GTX 260 with 216 cores.