NVIDIA has updated its GTX series with a new card called GeForce GTX 260 Core 216. A long albeit, logical name (although we don’t even dare to think what partners might do to it). As you might have guessed this models sports an additional 24 shaders, 216 instead of the 192 the original GeForce GTX 260 has. Why NVIDIA chose to call it GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 instead of GeForce GTX 270 is beyond me though. Maybe because the card has the exact same core and memory frequencies, 576MHz core clock and 999MHz memory clock.
You might wonder why NVIDIA has launched this card and the reason is actually quite simple, to counter the wave of success that is the Radeon HD 4800 series. AMD managed to hit the sweetspot with its new cards, while NVIDIA found itself with cards that did perform better, but was also a lot more expensive. The cards remained on the shelves in favor of AMD’s selection.
NVIDIA hopes to redeem itself to the value-concerned gamers with this new card by pricing it at $279, pretty much the same as Radeon HD 4870. Unfortunately store price don’t quite reflect the recommended price, but they are bound to come down soon because right now as the cards are neck and neck performance wise.
Interesting point brought up by Derek Wilson at Anandtech:
“But what none of us benefit from is an over abundance of parts released at nearly the same price point with nearly the same name and nearly the same specs. NVIDIA really needs to stop this trend. ATI tried this a few generations ago, but thankfully (at least since the AMD merger) they seem to have cleaned up their act a bit. There is no reason to have a continuum of hardware with increasingly complex naming as the gaps between parts are filled in.”
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 performs on par with Radeon HD 4870 and which of the two is right for you will have to be your decision based on the games you play. You can find out more by checking out the reviews below.
:: Anandtech :: HotHardware :: FiringSquad :: HardwareCanucks :: TechPowerUp :: Hexus :: PCGamesHardware :: HardOCP :: Guru3D ::
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