Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Actually I do not agree with the other review about this is not a gaming card, on contrary, to say quickly: this card will run most games at 1680x1050 with ALL at max, so if you want a card to play on a 22" monitor with low power consumption, low temperatures and also cheap ... this is the card you are looking for.
Note, I said most of the games, but not all. Games like Crysis run to the aforementioned resolution, not Very High but High, at least not with 16xQ AA. To run on Very High must go down to about 4x AA. The card isn't bad, but games with extreme graphics effects will put to suffer the card if they carry the AA to the max.
Remember that this card is an old chip with a new name. At first was called GeForce 8800 GT, Nvidia then rose slightly more speed, and it call it GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB. Then, when came the 9 series Nvidia took the 8800 GT and called it 9800 GT, then took the 8800 GTS and rose a little more speed and called it 9800 GTX. With the release of the ATI Radeon HD 4850, Nvidia took the 9800 GTX and shrank the die size to 55nm, achieving higher speeds and call it 9800 GTX+. Which brings us to this card. With the release of the 200 Series Nvidia has been criticized for costs in relation to their previous series and in comparison with its all time rival (ATI), because Nvidia can't lower (and perhaps never will) the cost of a GTX 280, decided to retake it's most successful chip and rename it again, so they take the old 9800 GTX+ and now calls it GTS 250, this very card if you don't understand it.
Yes, basically we are talking about the same 8800 GT chip in its newest version and with more memory. There are 2 versions of the GTS 250, one at 512 MB which makes it smaller in terms of physical size of the card compared to its predecessor (the 9800 GTX+), and another in a 1 GB (this one).
How performs the GTS 250 against their previous versions?, much better. While the 9800 GTX+ can consume 168 watts at intensive work, the GTS 250 can consume 162.2 Watts in the same conditions, even less than a 9800 GTX (172 Watts) or a GTX 260 (164.4 Watts), but not as well as a 8800 GT (123.1 Watts for the 512 MB version) or an 8800 GTS 512 MB (147.6 Watts). Even in temperature GTS 250 is a bit better than previous models. The GTS 250 is maintained at 45o C idle and can reach about 77o C (with a bad ventilated case and a warm room can reach 80o C) while the 9800 GTX+, doing nothing rise the thermometer at 65o C iddle and 85o C workload. So, the GTS 250 consumes less power and generates less heat.
I can't say how it behaves with very new games since most of my games are pre 2010, but I can say that in Crysis at 1280x1024 with AA 4x in High I have at least (and only during very, very intense gun fights) 30 FPS, most of the time stays at 65 FPS. Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box in 1680x1050 at 60 FPS (with SSAO off, the effect is actually very rare to keep it on.) The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion at the same resolution with ALL at max at 74 FPS. Batman Arkham Asylum in the same resolution and everything at max stays at 45 FPS (at 4x AA and PhysX off). Fallout 3 at same resolution with all maxed out range from 35 FPS to 55 FPS. Even badly optimized games like Need for Speed Pro Street keep at 30 FPS at the same resolution with all at max.
Note that I have a Q6700 stock, an Intel D975XBX2, with 8 GB Corsair XMS2 800 MHz and a hard drive Western Digital Caviar Blue 500 GB SATA 3 Gb/s, running Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit SP 2. The performance of the card should increase with newer processors (like the Core i7) or Windows 7.
The GTS 250 can buy a $ 150 with free shipping, more than that is a bad investment. I buy it here at $159.45, just because Amazon had sold out and the order was fulfilled by [...]. If you're going to buy it and Amazon have it again sold out, wait for Amazon to restock it and you'll save $15.
Should you buy it?, YES, if you want a good card to run games at 1680x1050. If you want to run games at 24" resolutions or higher then this isn't your card. Note that this card is $50 or $60 cheaper than the GTX 260 tough...
The TR means that this card only have 2 years warranty from eVGA, but, seriusly, who will stick to this card for more than 5 years?. By the time this card fails you probably will have a new PC, and even then, it's really hard that a good quality vendor like eVGA manufacture a product to fail so easily.
Oh and, by all means, avoid the eVGA 01G-P3-1145-TR, it's a complete piece of garbage, depise the HDMI connector.
BTW, eVGA it's probably the only vendor of this model that includes the PCIe power cable. The cable itself cost 5 bucks...
So, I gave the eVGA GTS 250 5/5 in general performance, a 4/5 in silentness (unless you put the fan to 100%, and even then with a good case you probably won't notice the noise. I got a generic case right beside my left ear and I don't notice it while playing), a 4/5 in temperature (while it stays cold... it would be really nice if it where even more cooler) and a 3/5 in power consumption (168 Watts it's still too much, maybe you will give it a 4 or a 5, but for me it's too much).
Click Here to see more reviews about: EVGA nVidia GeForce GTS 250 1 GB DDR3 2DVI/HDTV PCI-Express Video Card 01G-P3-1158-TR
The features of the GTS 250 01G-P3-1158-TR include the GeForce GTS 250 (738 MHz core clock) chipset, 1024 MB of DDR3 memory with a 2200 MHz memory clock, 256 bit memory width, 1.0 ns speed and 70.4 GB per second memory bandwidth, 1782 MHz shader clock, PCI-Express 2.0 compatibility, dual DVI-I connectors and HDTV-7 connector. Additional performance-enhancing features include the GDDR3 high speed memory interface, Unified Driver (UDA) Architecture and second generation Unified Shader Architecture, dual slot design, DVI-I outputs, NVIDIA PureVideo HD technology, NVIDIA PhysX ready, Support for Full Microsoft DirectX 10 Shader Model 4.0, NVIDEA CUDAand Open GL 3.0 support, support for 2-way and 3-way NVIDIA SLI, and NVIDIA Essential Vista. This product comes with a one year warranty with an additional year free if registered at within 30 days of purchase.
Get 19% OFF
0 comments:
Post a Comment