Today we are reporting on our first graphics card that uses NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 260 Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). Actually, this particular model happens to be a minor update to the original GeForce GTX 260, as it features additional core and texture processing units. This update will provide increased performance across a variety of applications.
EVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked
The product in question is EVGA's GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked model, which has clock speeds that exceed reference specifications from NVIDIA. Although architectural updates from the original GeForce GTX 260 were minor, NVIDIA felt that a press release to announce the GPU was not warranted and "quietly" released it to market.
SPECIFICATIONS
Other than the increased core and texture filtering units, the EVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition is essentially a "souped-up" GeForce GTX 260. However, the combined upgrades will allow its performance to come closer to graphics cards that use NVIDIA's flagship GeForce GTX 280 GPU.
Specifications Comparison
* Recall that retail prices of graphics cards based on the GeForce GTX 260 and 280 fell quickly after launch as the result of an updated Radeon lineup from AMD/ATI. Early adopters of NVIDIA's latest GPU were even offered rebates from add-in partners as compensation for the price reduction.
EVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked
FEATURES
The GeForce GTX 200 Series has a number of architectural improvements over the previous generation of GPUs.
2nd Generation NVIDIA Unified Architecture: Second generation architecture delivers up to 50% more gaming performance over the first generation through 216 enhanced processing cores that provide incredible shading horsepower.
NVIDIA PhysX-Ready: GeForce GPU support for NVIDIA PhysX technology, enabling a totally new class of physical gaming interaction for a more dynamic and realistic experience with GeForce.
3-way NVIDIA SLI Technology: Industry leading 3-way NVIDIA SLI technology offers amazing performance scaling by implementing 3-way AFR (Alternate Frame Rendering) for the world’s fastest gaming solution under Windows Vista with solid, state-of-the-art drivers.
NVIDIA CUDA Technology: CUDA technology unlocks the power of the GPUs processing cores to accelerate the most demanding system tasks – such as video encoding – delivering up to 7x performance over traditional CPUs.
NVIDIA PureVideo HD Technology: The combination of high-definition video decode acceleration and post-processing that delivers unprecedented picture clarity, smooth video, accurate color, and precise image scaling for movies and video.
NVIDIA HybridPower Technology: Lets you switch from the GeForce GTX 260 graphics card to the motherboard GeForce GPU when running non graphically-intensive applications for a quiet, low power PC experience.
