Item: BFG GeForce GTX 260 OCX: overclocked goodness
Author: Tarinder Sandhu

Review: BFG GeForce GTX 260 OCX: overclocked goodness

Final thoughts

After poring through 10 pages of facts and figures, the conclusion for the BFG GeForce GTX 260 OCX reduces quite nicely.

We like the fact that BFG has introduced a significantly-overclocked GTX 260 at a pricing level that isn't as exorbitant as EVGA's, and that pre-overclocking hasn't been compromised by using louder cooling.

The bundle is reasonable, as is the warranty, and performance is a touch better than the cheaper Radeon HD 4870 512, so it all seems good on first glance, especially when one factors in the burgeoning CUDA environment.

However, the biggest stumbling block in recommending the package lies with the current pricing of the faster GeForce GTX 280 card. For an extra £15 or so you can buy a fundamentally better-performing architecture, and it's almost impossible to get around that.

In essence, why would you buy a pre-overclocked GTX 260 when the GTX 280 is almost the same price - and has significantly more scope for overclocking, should you wish to do so.

It's hard to knock BFG here, but pricing of any GTX 260 needs to drop to around £200 to make it worthwhile, knowing just how quickly '280s are dropping.

Bottom line: a well-executed GeForce GTX 260 whose potential is inextricably hampered by the scythe-like cutting of GTX 280 pricing. Right now, at £200, it makes good sense. Anything above, and it becomes marginally pointless, we're afraid.

HEXUS.certification

The BFG GeForce GTX 260 OCX 896MB receives the HEXUS.labs certification for successfully completing our benchmark suite without issue. This is not an outright recommendation to buy, however.

BFG GeForce GTX 260 OCX 896MB

HEXUS Where2Buy

The card can be purchased for £225 here.

HEXUS Right2Reply

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

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I never realised how much the 260 outperformed the HD4870 in coh:of, i always thought they were pretty much the same. Interesting article, but i'm waiting for the newer 55nm/GTX260+ to be released, so it runs even cooler ^^ :D. I'm assuming this is also why they are cutting/chopping prices so much.

Yup, that's pretty much the case.

It's difficult to go wrong with any mid-to-high-end card right now. £160, the base GTX price, buys you an awful lot of tech.

Does anyone else find the use of speed-binning annoying? Effectively, if you're at all interested in overclocking your card then you'll probably have to buy a pre-pverclocked one anyway because otherwise you're likely to end up with a GPU that can't handle it. The price of this unit highlights the fact that board partners now have much more scope to inflate prices on these cards because enthusiasts have little choice but to buy a factory o/c'd card…

And while it is true that a stock-clocked 280 will out-preform this card for only a little extra cash, if you're enough of an enthusiast to be looking at a 280 then you probably want to overclock it, and you're unlikely to get great results from a stock-clocked card… So now you're looking at spending even more on a factory o/c'd 280… Infuriating!!

Not really, i propbably wouldn't OC a GTX280, for one i would have no need to. I can understand where you are coming from, but if some-one wants a good performing card, and doesn't want to spend loads to get the best out of it, a card like gainwards at £160 would be fine, but someone who wants to get the highest out of it, would buy a GTX280. They need to cover both ends of the market.

I do find it a tad perplexing why they would release an overclocked 260 that's only a bit cheaper then a stock 280.

I just couldn't bring myself to buy the OC'ed 260, seems to me that you might as well stump up the extra money and get the real performer…..especially when you consider you get extra stream processors in the 280…..clock speed is not everything.