Testbed
Motherboard: MSI P45D3 Platinum ( Provided by: MSI );
Processor: Intel Core 2 QX9770 Extreme edition at 3.6GHz ( Provided by: Intel );
Memory: Corsair Dominator 12800 7-7-7-24 ( Provided by: Corsair);
HDD: WD VelociRaptor 300G 10,000RPM ( Provided by: SmoothCreation );
EVGA GTX 260 Core 216 is only a couple of MHz faster than XFX’s card, so you’ll often see them switch positions on the ladder. These things happen during testing and you can never be 100% sure that you’ll get identical results. Both cards are quite fast, whereas Zotac GTX 260 closely follows. The only GTX 260 with 196 shaders is marked as such, whereas the rest GTX 260 cards in our testing are the latest versions with 216 shaders. It’s interesting to see that XFX GTX 260 Black Edition’s scores sometimes put it in GTX 280’s class.
Results:
3DMark 06 results are not quite actual indicators of the true punch that these cards pack, but it’s nice to see a more expensive GTX 280 card losing to XFX GTX 260 and the rest of turbo-competition.
Vantage Mark puts things in perspective. Geforce GTX 280 is, of course, the fastest card, but scores only 2-3% better than XFX GTX 260 Black Edition. XFX’s card managed to score up to 23% better compared to the old GTX with 192 shaders and up to 16% better results than reference GTX 216 Core.
Gaming
Far Cry2
GTX 280 is just as good as the overclocked GTX 260 cards, but XFX managed to outrun it in one instance. XFX scored 18% better than the old 192 Core and 13% than 216 Core.
Call of Duty - World at War
Almost all GTX 260 cards scored similarly, and not even GTX 280 managed to leave the pack significantly behind. XFX beat the old GTX 260 by 15%. Just like we mentioned in the beginning, additional shaders and overclocking made GTX 260 an unlikely contender to GTX 280’s throne. The same scenario happens in the following games.
Dead Space
Fallout 3
Company of Heroes
Crysis Warhead
F.E.A.R.
World in Conflict
If you’re worried about consumption, XFX GTX 260 is definitely a better choice than GTX 280, as it consumes up to 34W less.
XFX GTX 260 Black Edition consumes less power than GTX 280; it nearly matches its performance and runs cooler all the time.
Conclusion
XFX really knows their stuff, and these guys overclocked the card so high that even GTX 280 can feel the ground shaking beneath its feet. Running at evil 666MHz, the card can take anything you throw at it and it beats the old GTX 260 with 192 shader processors by 20%.
The card comes with a gift game FarCry 2, a gift that anyone buying this graphics card will surely like. XFX stuck to reference cooling, but don’t worry, as the card runs quiet and cool. You’ll need two PCI Express power connectors to power this card, but that’s usual in this performance range. We’ve no other choice than to recommend this card to anyone, so that it can keep them warm through cold winter nights.
