GeForce GTS 250 Roundup (ASUS, Gigabyte, Sparkle, EVGA) | ||
| by Michael "SKYMTL" Hoenig | May 7, 2009 | ||
| Gigabyte GTS 250 1GB OC A Closer Look at the GIGABYTE GTS 250 1GB OCManufacturer Product Page: GIGABYTE GTS 250 1GB OC Product Number: GV-N250OC-1GI Warranty: 3 Years Price: Click here to compare prices    GIGABYTE's packaging is quite a bit different from what we have seen in the past with the move being made away from anime-inspired women towards Transformer-like creatures. One way or another, the predominantly-black box looks great. Unfortunately, this box has the one thing which bothers me the most out of all the cards represented here: it claims that the memory is “overclocked to 1.1Ghz”. If you have been paying attention at all, you should know by now that 1.1Ghz (2.2Ghz DDR) is the reference memory speed on all stock GTS 250 cards. Most of GIGABYTE’s recent graphics cards have featured their Ultra Durable VGA technology which combines 2oz of copper in the PCB and other advances for decreased power consumption and heat production.  The card itself is packaged extremely well in a bed of foam which should protect it from any mishandling it could suffer on its way to you. When it comes to accessories, GIGABYTE really went to town and has included everything you could possibly want. That includes an S/PDIF cable and a HDMI to DVI dongle along with the usual Molex to 6-pin adaptor, manuals and the driver CD.   Decked out in a GIGABYTE Blue PCB and a Zalman VF1050 cooler, this GTS 250 1GB definitely has the looks of a serious performer. GIGABYTE has been using Zalman coolers on their performance cards for some time now and this one should provide excellent cooling at relatively low noise levels. It should also be noted that at the time of us writing this article, the GIGABYTE GTS 250 1GB is the least expensive of all the cards tested here.   While the cooler may be the star of the show, GIGABYTE has also taken the opportunity to completely redesign the PCB of the GTS. Not only are they using a robust 4+1 phase power distribution but they have also succeeded in substantially reducing its length when compared to the 9800 GTX+ and it proves to be even more compact than the EVGA GTS 250. According to GIGABYTE, they haven’t installed any additional heatsinks over the VRMs due to the fact that the high-end components they are using produce less heat than those installed on the reference card. All in all, it is a compact 8 ¼” in length which means it will have absolutely no problems fitting into tight HTPC cases.   Ok, back to this beast of a heatsink. This OEM Zalman VF1050 is loosely based off of their successful VF1000 series which retail for a good $50 to $60 here in Canada. It uses a quartet of independent heatpipes to move heat away from the 55nm core so it can be dispersed by the chrome plated aluminum cooling assembly. The fan is the same 80mm twin ball bearing affair that Zalman has been using on their coolers for the last few years. Additionally, Gigabyte has decided to let the air circulation from the fan to cool the memory ICs instead of using ramsinks.   Out of all the cards in this roundup, GIGABYTE’s provides one of the best selections of output connectors. Basically, they have something for everyone with DVI, VGA and a single gold-plated HDMI connector along with the possibility of using the included adaptor for an additional DVI connector. There is also an S/PDIF header on the PCB which can be used for audio pass-through for the HDMI connector and a single SLI connector. All in all, GIGABYTE seems to have made all the right decisions when it comes to output options but the use of a single SLI connector is odd to say the least. Perhaps the loss of the second SLI connector is due to the overall length of this card.         | ||
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