Legit Reviews

XFX GeForce GTX 260 Black Edition Video Card Review

The XFX GeForce GTX 260 Black Edition video card is one sexy looking card, but how does it perform against the Radeon HD 4870? That is what we look at today with the latest and greatest video card from the gang over at XFX. With the latest GTX 260 Core 216 GPU this card is sure to give any graphics card a run for the money! Read on to see how it performs and overclocks!



Article Title: XFX GeForce GTX 260 Black Edition Video Card Review
Article URL: http://legitreviews.com/article/830/1/
Pricing At Time of Print: $329.99 plus shipping

At the price range, the 4870 gives it a run for the money. I have nothing against ATi, but I prefer nVidia somehow. Maybe they already brainwashed me. Or maybe because my first graphics accelerator after 3Dfx's/voodoo's was an nVidia.

mmmmm I wish it was cheaper. I need a video card with more juice =)

The price is a slight downer but this card does included a free commercial game(Assassin's Creed on this one bu Far Cry 2 in the US) which can sort of count for $40 or so. I'm kicking myself for not borrowing a GTX280 from someone as it'd be interesting to see how the two cards match up. I figure the GTX260 would put up a good fight, especially at those overclocked settings.

Definitely getting this card in a couple of weeks. will be a nice upgrade from a 9600 gt. I always love the XFX styling of their cards.

Apoptosis , one thing .... noise .... is this card more noisy than a normal GTX260 216SP ?

I ask this because in your review there is nothing about the cooler noise and in the OverclockersClub review by ccokeman, the conclusion page has this :

Cons:
Fan on high is loud

Thanks,
J

well these cards don't have a fan speed switch, so not sure what 'high' would be. If you manually set the fan to 100% of course it's loud, but the default settings don't go to 100%, which is what I consider loud.

My GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 runs at 40% fan speed and I can't hear it 24/7. If I manually set the fan speed to 100% with Precision software then sure it's loud. In my COSMOS case I idle at 52C at 40% fan speed (default), which is fine with me.

Is your video card the xfx gtx 260 BE ?

The point is if the gtx260 black edition hasn't got a more agressive fan % to compensate the OC than the "normal" gtx 260

jVIDIA wrote:Is your video card the xfx gtx 260 BE ?

The point is if the gtx260 black edition hasn't got a more agressive fan % to compensate the OC than the "normal" gtx 260

Not sure, chris would have to answer that one since he has the card and did the review.

The XFX GTX 260 Black Edition does not have a more aggressive fan profile from what I can tell in daily use. It has replaced the HD4870 I had in my 24/7 rig and I never hear the fan whine like I did with the HD4870. Of course the fan at 100% utilization("high") will be loud, it's a beefy fan. Stating that the fan on high is loud is like stating "the card consumes lots of power at full load". I skimmed the OCC review by ccokeman and his single con looks like it was put there just to have a con

What's the fan spin at when at idle?

It's currently at 40%, 1375RPM with a GPU temp of 37C and a core clock of 300MHz. Can't hear the fan over the hard drive noise from my array(4 Seagate 7200.10s RAID0) until I crank it up to around 60%.

I'm running 40% on auto fan speed and according to GPU-Z 0.2.8 the fan is running at 1454RPM on my EVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216, so I don't think the Black Edition is any louder than any other GeForce GTX 260 Core 216.

This is while GPU folding with a core clock of 705MHz and a temps of 69C.