GeForce GTS 250 1024MB review

Product:	GeForce GTS 250 1024MB
Manufacturer:	ECS Elitegroup
SKU code:	-
Information:	ECS
Street price:	159 USD

A couple of weeks ago NVIDIA made some small modification to it's mid-range line-up, in specific their GeForce 9800 GTX+ product. These design changes are related to PCB board design, power efficiency and bringing the overall cost of the product down. As a result the GeForce 9800 GTX+ had what you can call an extreme makeover. Same features, same performance .. yet less power consumption and NVIDIA was able to shave off roughly 25%~35% of the sales price, bringing the GeForce 9800 GTX+ from just over 200 USD, towards sub 150 USD. And that's not all, as at 150 USD you can even purchase models with 1024MB of videocard memory. Combined with proper, raw graphics power this will help you a little in the higher resolutions, DirectX 10 games and performance wise with higher anti-aliasing selections. All that is now labeled under the new product name, GeForce GTS 250.

This is already our 3rd or 4th GeForceGTS 250 review, and though most of you are shouting, 'dude, this is a respin product!' .. I can merely do anything else than confirm that, yes it's a tranny GeForce 9800 GTX+,  but that product all by itself under 150 USD is offering fine performance for the money you need to put down on that counter. As such we try to bring you at the very least a couple of reviews on the GTS 250 product as it really is an interesting positioned and performing graphics card.

Today the turn goes to the folks at ECS. Ever since the last year or two, they have been trying hard to get a grip in the e-tail and retail channel, and as a brand they are certainly growing. With a creative product design and marketing team they present us some fairly special designs and concepts. Today's product tested is not at all different. Though we'll stumble into a reference clocked product, there is very little little reference otherwise.

Inno3D GTS 250 TwinTurbo Pro

Inno3D has an iChill line of products for enthusiasts and gamers who want top-notch performance and better cooling solutions. As such they are  incorporating aftermarket coolers from the likes of Arctic Cooling, Zalman and Zerotherm. Today's tested product is a good example of that, the iChill GeForce GTS 250 that uses an all new Arctic Cooling Twin Turbo Pro cooler to provide excellent cooling at reduced sound levels.

So a little while ago, roughly end of March, NVIDIA made some small modification to it's mid-range line-up, in specific their GeForce 9800 GTX+ product was repositioned. The design changes NVIDIA enforced where related to PCB board design, overall power efficiency and bringing the overall cost of the product down. As a result the GeForce 9800 GTX+ had what you can call an extreme makeover. Same features, same performance .. yet less power consumption and NVIDIA was able to shave off roughly 25%~35% of the sales price, bringing the GeForce 9800 GTX+ from just over 200 USD, towards sub 150 USD. The good thing is that memory prices went down as well, for 150 USD you can even purchase models with 1024MB of videocard memory. Combined with proper, raw graphics power this could help you a little in the higher resolutions, DirectX 10 games and performance wise with higher anti-aliasing selections. But sure, the GeForce 9800 GTX+ was relabeled under the new product name, GeForce GTS 250.

The Inno3D iChill card we test today has that G92 GPU clocked at 756 MHz, and GDDR3 memory clocked at 2200 MHz. Next to that the card is packed with 1 GB of memory, a tiny bit pre-overclocked and comes with a wicked cooler from Arctic Cooling as it comes with twin 92mm low-noise fans on the four-heatpipe cooler which offers over 80 percent greater cooling surface area when compared to the stock cooler. The advanced cooling solution on the iChill Accelero brings down temperatures 23C and reduces noise levels from 3.4 Sone to 0.4 Sone.

The reduced temperatures also result in more stable performance and should give you more headroom when overclocking the card.

But will the product be able to keep up with Guru3D's pace in testing? Let's find out and startup a review on the Inno3D GeForce GTS 250 TwinTurbo Pro edition graphics card. Have a peek at the photo