After going through a stack of cards from ATI, we move on to check out NVIDIA's GT200-based GeForce GTX 260 and GTX 280. First up would be the GeForce GTX 260 by one of NVIDIA's partners, XFX.

XFX has done it again by presenting to us an eye-catching impressive-looking card.

 


The XFX GeForce GTX 260 896MB, based on NVIDIA's reference design.

 

The GeForce GTX 260 uses the same cooling design and backplate as the GeForce 9800 GTX - a cooler that exhausts air out of the casing only, a large vent, and two DVI outputs.

 


By exhausting all the hot air out, this prevents heat build-up within any system.

 

The rear of the GeForce GTX 260 has 'vents' as well for better heat dissipation, rather than a complete plastic cover which would trap heat instead. The design of the GT200 card is such that there will be memory chips on the back of the PCB, and this plastic shroud is in contact with these chips and it acts like a large heatsink.

 


Two 6-pin PCI Express power connectors - similar to the GeForce 8800 GTX/Ultra and 9800 GTX/GTX+.

 

 


The GeForce GTX 260 is NVIDIA Tri SLI-ready.

 

Just beneath the blower is where the PWM of the GeForce GTX sits. The heatsink fan unit used on the GeForce GTX 260 is identical to the one on the GeForce GTX 280. The only difference lies with the front plastic shroud only because the GTX 260 uses two 6-pin PCI-E connectors compared to the GTX 280's one 8-pin and one 6-pin configuration.

 


The GeForce GTX 260 blower, similar to the one on the GeForce GTX 280.

 

XFX gives you a card to hang at your door, probably it would be good enough to stop that annoying brother of yours from entering the room while you're gaming.

Not only that, XFX throws in one of the latest games available on the market, Assassin's Creed.

 


XFX doesn't give you a heap of software, they prefer to give you the latest games...

 

(XFX is giving up to US$ 120 cashback to US/Canada customers who bought either their GeForce GTX 260 or GeForce GTX 280 cards between 16 June 2008 to 11 July 2008, after NVIDIA officially reduced pricings of the GeForce GTX 260 and GeForce GTX 280 to US$ 299 and US$ 499 respectively.)