XFX GTX260 896MB 'Black Edition'
Test Setup & Overclocking
Published: 1st November 2008 | Source: XFX | Price: £225.35 |
Test Setup
A common mistake made when benchmarking graphics cards is that the rest of the PC system isn't sufficient enough to test the GPU to its limits. This results in a bottleneck situation, where the system can only run at the speed of its slowest component. For this reason, the test configuration chosen below has been specially selected to give each of the graphics cards on test the headroom they require in order to produce the best results.
CPU
Intel Core2Quad Q6600 2.4Ghz @ 3.6 Ghz
Motherboard
Gigabyte EP45-Extreme
Memory
Cellshock DDR2 PC-2 6400 5-5-5-18 @ 800mhz
Graphics Card
XFX GTX260 'Black Edition'
CPU Cooling
Scythe Ninja
Power Supply
OCZ 780w ModXstream
Hard Disk
Hitachi 7K160 7200rpm 80Gb
Display
Dell 3007 WFP-HC 30" LCD
Graphics Drivers
NVidia Forceware 180.43
Operating System
Windows Vista 64bit SP1
A selection of games and benchmark suites has also been chosen to test each of the cards with several game engines. Each of the cards will be run at both low and high resolutions with varying levels of texture filtering to represent the use of the card with both small and large screen sizes.
3DMark06
1280x1024 / 0xAA / 0xAF
1920x1200 / 4xAA / 0xAF
3DMark Vantage
1280x1024 / Performance Mode
1900x1200 / Extreme Mode
1280x1024 / 0xAA / 0xAF
1920x1200 / 4xAA / 0xAF
3DMark Vantage
1280x1024 / Performance Mode
1900x1200 / Extreme Mode
Quake4
1280x1024 / Ultra / 4xAA / 4xAF
1920x1200 / Ultra / 4xAA / 4xAF
1920x1200 / Ultra / 4xAA / 4xAF
Unreal Tournament III
1280x1024 / DX10 / High / 0xAA / 0xAF
1920x1200 / DX10 / High / 0xAA / 0xAF
1920x1200 / DX10 / High / 0xAA / 0xAF
Call of Duty 4
1280x1024 / Max / 4xAA / 4xAF
1920x1200 / Max / 4xAA / 4xAF
1920x1200 / Max / 4xAA / 4xAF
F.E.A.R
1280x1024 / Max / 4xAA / 4xAF
1920x1200 / Max / 4xAA / 0xAF
1280x1024 / Max / 4xAA / 4xAF
1920x1200 / Max / 4xAA / 0xAF
BIOSHOCK
1280x1024 / DX10 / High / 0xAA / 0xAF
1920x1200 / DX10 / High / 0xAA / 0xAF
1280x1024 / DX10 / High / 0xAA / 0xAF
1920x1200 / DX10 / High / 0xAA / 0xAF
Crysis
1280x1024 / DX10 / High / 0xAA / 0xAF
1920x1200 / DX10 / High / 0xAA / 0xAF
1920x1200 / DX10 / High / 0xAA / 0xAF
Worthy of note is that because this card is a hot release, the latest Nvidia beta drivers (180.43) were used. This will have some bearing on the results as the older GTX260/280 were using the current official drivers. This is unavoidable as we cannot stick to the same old drivers forever, and it would be unfair to cripple a new card with incompatible drivers.
Overclocking
With the XFX GTX260 Black Edition is already clocked at a very respectable 666/2300mhz (Core/Memory) we were interested to see if XFX had maxed out the graphics card or if there was a little overclocking headroom left. To overclock the card, we used the latest version of RivaTuner (2.11) to examine the possibilities. To test for stability, we used 3DMark06. Here are the results we obtained:
We managed to overclock the core to 765mhz, the shaders to 1585mhz and the memory to 1311mhz. Pretty impressive to say the least. This gave us just short of a 1000 point increase in 3DMark06, which is nothing to be sniffed at for 30 minutes work. So, it's all good news so far - surely it has to come to an end soon? Let's take a look at how it faired against a group of other popular cards around at the moment...
Most Recent Comments
Nice one webbo, its certainly a nice looking card!
It would be an absolute steel... if ati didnt exist :SQuote
It would be an absolute steel... if ati didnt exist :SQuote
I would have liked to put the ATI 4870 1gb against the 260gtx 216 as they are both around the same price point but we didn't have any for at the time but no doubt one will arrive soon.Quote
What a cracking card, priced well too imo! Puts the 512 4870 in it's place nowQuote
That is an awesome overclock, you managed to acieve on this card. lol. Anotehr review of this card at techgage only managed 700-1475-1200 compared to your 765-1585-1311. Is this definatly correct??
Also the 512mb 4870 is still this cards main competitor as the 1gb version has slower memory.
But what i want to know is how this black edition card compares against the hd4870 512/1gb when they are both overclocked??Quote
Also the 512mb 4870 is still this cards main competitor as the 1gb version has slower memory.
But what i want to know is how this black edition card compares against the hd4870 512/1gb when they are both overclocked??Quote
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Looks like a fantastic card. If your unwilling to budge form the green camp then this looks like the price: performance card. Just shame ATI's offerings are still better value imo.Quote