GeForce GTS 250 Roundup (ASUS, Gigabyte, Sparkle, EVGA)

ASUS GTS 250 1GB Dark Knight

Manufacturer Product Page: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
Product Number: ENGTS250DK/HTDI/1GD3
Warranty: 3 Years
Price: Click here to compare prices


The Dark Knight’s box isn’t designed much differently from countless other ASUS cards we have seen in the past few months. It includes some mention of the included software as well as a small advertisement that ASUS has included a 10% off coupon for various Nvidia-sponsored games.


The card is packaged extremely well to protect it against damage with a thick foam insert as well as a cardboard divider to make sure the foam doesn’t play bumper cars with the side of the box.

Accessories-wise I would have to call this a mixed bag. While the 10% off coupon is definitely welcome, the cable and connector selection is nothing to write home about since the S/PDIF cable and DVI to HDMI cable is MIA. This card does not have a built-in S/PDIF audio header on the PCB so including the HDMI connector would be pointless anyways.


If anything, the ASUS GTS 250 Dark Knight can’t be blamed for following the rest of the card when designing a heatsink for their card. It is interesting that both Gigabyte and ASUS have gone with shroud-less heatsinks but while Gigabyte’s has sleekness typical of Zalman-designed units, ASUS went with a raw, unfinished and altogether more utilitarian look. Which one do we prefer? We’ll tell you when the cooling results are in.


The length of the Dark Knight is identical to that of the EVGA Superclocked Edition yet a bit shorter than the reference 9800 GTX+ at 9.5 inches. ASUS seems to have decided to go with a reference GTS 250 1GB board but has added a few modifications such as changing the PCB color from the typical black or green to a dark blue color. Personally, I think this card would have looked downright sexy with a black PCB (and would have fit better with the “Dark Knight” theme) but to each his own I guess.


If anything, I am interested to see how this heatsink performs against the other competitors in this roundup. It’s relatively tiny 70mm fan seems to be positioned in such a way that it blows downwards without much airflow going to either side of it. The potential problem is that the heatpipes contact the heatsink’s fins in locations which are a bit far away from the fan’s direct airflow. Either the fan will have to work at very fast speeds to compensate or ASUS has some engineering marvel on their hands. That being said, this heatsink looks extremely well fabricated with perfect spacing between the aluminum fins and nicely capped heatpipes.


ASUS didn’t cut any corners on this card and the power distribution section really shows this with solid state caps aplenty and digital chokes. As with many GTS 250 cards, this one uses a single PCI-E 6-pin connector and the backplate uses the usual two DVI connectors along with a single HDTV-Out port.