Value? Final thoughts and rating
We believe that it's always worth reinvestigating older products if circumstances change to an extent where the original conclusion, if published months ago, becomes redundant. This is what's happened with NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 260, whose price has been forced down by the culling of the Radeon HD 4870's - its direct competitor.Right now, you can purchase an Inno3D GeForce GTX 260 216-core card, complete with aftermarket cooler, for £138. The card performs well at 1,680x1,050 and 1,920x1,200 resolutions, but we already knew that. The DHT heatsink sweetens the deal by improving upon the reference design in practically every way, so there's a lot of good here.
Such is the current attractiveness of GTX 260 and HD 4870 pricing, that we have a hard time recommending the more-expensive HD 4890 and GTX 275 GPUs - good as they are. You pay between 30-45 per cent more for an extra 15 per cent performance, and this is reinforced by the HEXUS.bang4buck metric on the previous page.
New architectures are around the corner - when are they not? - but now really is an opportune time to purchase high-end graphics technology at a bargain price. The Inno3D GeForce GTX 260 FreezerX2 896MB is worthy of very serious consideration if your budget is below £150. Don't like the green team? Then go for a £120 Radeon HD 4870 512MB or stretch the extra and buy a pair of Radeon HD 4770s, run in CrossFire: there's significant value to be had in this price sector.
Bottom line: Inno3D's aggressive pricing on a special-edition GeForce GTX 260 takes it from being average to very good. Recommended at sub-£140. Hurry, they may not last long at this price!
HEXUS Rating
We consider any product score above '50%' as a safe buy. The higher the score, the higher the recommendation from HEXUS to buy. Simple, straightforward buying advice.
The rating is given in relation to the category the component competes in, therefore the card is evaluated with respect to our 'high-end components' criteria.
Inno3D GeForce GTX 260 FreezerX2 896MB
HEXUS Awards
Inno3D GeForce GTX 260 FreezerX2
896MB (at £140)
HEXUS Where2Buy
The Inno3D GeForce GTX 260
FreezerX2 896MB is currently available to buy for
£137.99 from Ebuyer.co.uk
HEXUS Right2Reply
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