Conclusion, certification and where to buy

Performance of EVGA's GTX 260 FTW falls almost exactly between the reference GeForce GTX 260 and GTX 280 cards, and features enough of a performance boost over the stock-clocked GTX 260 to push average frame-rates over 60fps in all our benchmarks, run at a 24in LCD-friendly 1,920x1,200 resolution, together with decent eye-candy.

At a £60 premium over the cheapest reference GTX 260, however. it suffers in terms of HEXUS.bang4buck, yet still offers better marginally better value for money than the higher-priced GTX 280. The bundle is disappointing, with limited out-of-the-box connectivity options, but the 10-year warranty and 90-day step-up programme are good, very good.

The EVGA GTX 260 FTW's biggest problem comes in comparison to the far cheaper Force3D HD 4870. Whilst the GTX 260 FTW can better the HD 4870 in a number of games, the AMD card still offers good performance in all our tests and even manages to better the GTX 280 in Race Driver: GRID. From a value-for-money perspective, then, the Radeon HD 4870 is hard to beat.

If the FTW didn't command such a high premium over reference GTX 260 cards it would be easer to recommend, at, say, £230, as it does a good job of filling the gap between the GTX 260 and GTX 280 GPUs, but pricing is a little too close to the GeForce GTX 280 end of the spectrum for it to become truly interesting, and we'd rather spend the extra £20 and receive the full-fat GTX 280, really.

EVGA's GTX 260 FTW doesn't quite win then, but is a nice product nonetheless.

HEXUS.certification

The EVGA GTX 260 FTW 896MB receives the HEXUS.labs certification for successfully completing our benchmark suite without issue.

EVGA GTX 260 FTW 896MB

HEXUS Where2Buy

The card can be purchased for £258.50 here.

HEXUS Right2Reply

At HEXUS.net, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any EVGA representatives choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.

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Good to see a broader set of game benchmarks, thanks :)

Nice review altho I can't see why you wouldn't pay the £22 extra and go for the 280. You could just hold off for a week as these cards seem to be dropping in price a lot ;)

The evga warranty of 10 years sounds great, but if you're someone buying a card like this, chances are you'll change it out in a year or two for the current flavour of the month. So not really useful, but looks good on the advertising. I think XFX used to offer double lifetime (I think that's what it was called) warranty, so that the warranty would pass on to who you sold it to. Much more useful.

Rma turn around is usually between 2 and 4 weeks in Europe. Step up can be longer. I waited more than 4 months for a 680i —> 780i mobo step up. I just gave up when I was advised to send in my board cos they ran out of 780i's and I'd have to wait even longer.

The European side of EVGA isn't too good. Slow and don't answer emails. XFX on the other hand were great, always next day reply. This is, of course, all my just opinion and I don't work for either company.

Sorry to resurrect an old post, but I can buy this card off a m8 for £50.

Is it worth buying this, compared to my current graphics card, the Geforce 8800 GT 512Mb?

Thanks in advance.

Paul.

Yes well worth it mate!

Paul Iddon;2025420
Sorry to resurrect an old post, but I can buy this card off a m8 for £50.

Is it worth buying this, compared to my current graphics card, the Geforce 8800 GT 512Mb?

Thanks in advance.

Paul.

whats the power supply that you are using, if its a well known brand then go for it, however if it is one of them cheapo PSU then consider getting a new one unless of course you like your computer crispy and well done.