Epic test notes.

When I asked Gigabyte why, the answer was: because this is an overclocked card.
I think that's BS on their part. My non-overclocked Sapphire 4850 which also comes with a non-stock fan doesn't have any dynamic fan control either. Maybe the card can't handle controlling anything other than the reference fan, or maybe they're just too lazy to create a new profile for it.

"On the other hand, although its memory size is doubled, this card's GDDR3 runs at 993MHz, down slightly from the 4850's stock speed."

I'm pretty sure 993 MHz is the 4850's stock memory speed...

I don't think nVidia should ever invent another GPU, they should just keep re-naming the G92.

Somehow, the numbers don't look genuine....Here are some points that i would like to get responses to, from the reviewer.

-Why to use 8.12 drivers for the Radeon cards when the 9.2 driver has been posted for almost 2 weeks now.

-According to anandtech, xbitlabs, and PCGH, the 4870 1G beats the 216 core in L.4.D, Crysis Warhead, and Fallout 3. Here, the 4870 loses...

http://www.xbitlabs.com/images/video/gainward-hd4850-1024mb-gs/crys...

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/mutligpuupdate2gpufeb09_02120915...

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/mutligpuupdate2gpufeb09_02120915...

-The option of the games is extremely rediciulous.where's Stalker clear sky which is a great looking DX10.1 game, and where ATI cards do extremely well against Nvidia's?

http://www.xbitlabs.com/images/video/gainward-hd4850-1024mb-gs/stal...

Why to use Dead Space...? It's a badly coded, console game.

I hope Techreport didn't become another Hardocp....

Damage, awesome job!

Are you planning to get rid of your readers by making them die of laughter? I laughed through most of it.

Ok, let's see if I got this right...? Next week, 2 cards will come out, the GTS 250+ (1 Gb version) and GTS 250- (512 Mb version), am I right?? Then 2 months later nVidia will see the GTS 250- as a negative statement and rename them both to GTS 250 +/- then another 2 months goes by and they will renamed then to GTS 250 like they originally thought last week? Am I right, wrong or just plain confused?

Hey, you started it with And thus things remained for nearly ten weeks. Hehe. I laughed at every mention of the rebranding... Poor cows!

On a more serious test note: I will get one of these for the low end system in my home, sounds perfect of basic Windows stuff for the next 3-4 years. So again, thanks for the review and the laughs.

Nice power consumption numbers,guess the makers are finally getting the message on quieter,less power hungry cards.
With ATI HD4870 now in the $149 price bracket it's going to be a fierce contender for this new green card to deal with.
For $19 more the Radeon is far superior.

Hey Damage, can you provide a clear front shot of the card straight on (not angled)?

(non-cosmetic) Differences between the GTS250 and the 9800GTX+ ??

NONE with just 2 exceptions!!

* The GTS250 1Gbyte memory option.
* The GTS250 is missing the analog (DIN) HDTV connector.

I have a eVGA 9800GTX+ "Superclocked" , purchased towards the end of January (2009) from Newegg $157 less $20 rebate. 512Mbytes memory, 756MHz clock. single 6-pin power connector, 9 inches long from rear-plate to end of circuit-board (9.25 inches from rear-plate to tip of fan shroud), dual SLI-conectors, SPDIF pass through (if you have a DVI -HDMI adapter).

wow Nvidia has to restort to renaming almost 2 year old tech to get people to buy it...........

Thing's a POS and no one should even consider it.........

For a rebrand this is a pretty good card. Lower power draw, slightly better performance. I don't think I mind any of those things.

If only MS would adopt OpenCL, this whole CUDA/Stream crap would finally be over and we would see more useful programs come out that would use the GPU power when needed. Alas, knowing MS, they will prolly come out with their own "standard" just to try and force the hand of the industry once again.

Adi

I liked the review, thanks.
Someone please tell me why some of the new series Nvidia cards have the prefix GTS, and others are GTX? Does it just refer to low-end vs high-end? Thanks.

"Jerry Jerry"

I guess the 'omg rebadge' pre-release ranting should be tempered at least a little bit. This card is smaller and more efficient which is good. If NV allowed non-reference designs more readily this probably would have happened earlier.

After reading over the article a second time I couldn't help but notice something. This new GTS 250 has some similarities to my "old" 8800GTS 512MB. They are both roughly the same size and use a 6 pin power connector. SO, it seems things are coming full circle.

The more things change the more they stay the same?

My 8800GTS is clocked at 745MHZ, so even that part is pretty similar.

On a random, and not really important note, under "Our Testing Methods", in the "Memory Type" row, the link pointing to the exact modules being used appears to be broken. Either that or my internets are being stupid.

Edit, the link to the OS being used also appears to be borked.

Test notes

Hehe, I love TR. :)

How is it, that TR is unreachable from time to time (as was the case during the last 45 minutes)? Is there some maintenance going on on a regular basis or is it a routing problem?

Is there any guarentee that if you get a 512MB version that you are getting the lower power usage of the 1GB (does not make sense) version?

The 8800GTS 512 9800GTX 9800GTX+ GTS250 looks like a decent card. If I were buying it would be a hard choice up against the 4850. I'd toss a coin, or just say screw it a pay a few more dollars for a 4870 or a GTX260. Or I'd save a few dollars and get a 4830 and buy a game (Fallout 3) with the saved cash.

Difference between GTS 250 and 9800GTX+

-GTS 250 is shorter than 9800GTX+ (9inch vs 10.5inch)
-GTS 250 use only one 6-pin connector, and it has lower power consumption than 9800GTX+ and even HD4850 at both idle and full load
-GTS 250 has 1GB memory

So, GTS 250 is not exactly the same thing as 9800GTX+ as some people had claimed, and it is not a bad video card

This is going to be deja vu, but why would anyone upgrade from an 8800gt? (If they are not at > 1920x1080, and only use one monitor)

Still looking forward to the next best thing. No one impresses me :(. The GT300 better not be the lovechild of two G92's making bunnies in the dumpster out back behind Nvidia's fabs.

First----MAN is my timing good.

/goes to read article.

Edit: HAHAHA! Your Test Notes this time are HILARIOUS!

Head to head at the same price it does look like the GTS 250 is an overall buy over the 4850 1GB. But the question is will AMD counter by lowering 4870 1GB prices within reach. If you can snag one for just $20-30 more it looks mighty tempting.

Glad to see there is still plenty of active competition in the market. A $150 video card really is high end performance wise on its own, even on 24" monitors. Unless you're a hardcore Crysis 1 fan or have a 30" display anything in this price bracket will perform superbly.

GTS 250 is a good match for 4850. You cannot go wrong with either choice. The next tier (260/4870) is still more than sufficient provided that you do not have feed a 30"+ monster at native resolution.

First paragraph - 88000 GT. 10 times better mystery card?

Wow, the test notes page which I usually skim right through is worth a read. Sarcasm meter off the charts.

I agree with your humorous remarks regarding testing conditions, but it's still important to note that by using the latest nVidia drivers on the cards that were tested without it (can't speak for AMD), you can see a performance increase anywhere from 5 to 15% in general - usually closer to the former.

This of course doesn't change the results at all, but if anything, it helps illuminate how slight (if not nonexistent) the advantage of the tested cards is, barring memory shortage issues.

The GTS 250 has surprisingly good power draw and performance potential and personally I liked the shorter PCB length as well. G92-based cards will invariably remain the "good enough" choice for the foreseeable future. If I didn't already own an 8800 GT, I'd get this sometime soon.

Gotcha! (page 6)

Call of Duty 4: World at War

CoD4: Modern Warfare
CoD5: WaW

IF they don't rename it. ;)