Geforce
GTX 260 / GTX Core 216
Features
Power Requirements
nVidia's website state the power requirements for the Geforce GTX 260 as 182W at maximum load, they then recommend a minimum of a 500W power supply to run a system with this graphics card inside. This can only be based on a standard system however, so when deciding the power supply you may require you of course have to take into account all the other components inside your PC that will be draining power from your PC. Extra hard drives, DVD drives and other extra cards inside your PC all require power as well as your CPU and fans. As you can see a lot of variables are present.
One important selling feature of the Geforce GTX 260 is the fact that it can be used in an SLI system to make a very powerful system. Up to 3 GTX 260's can be put into a system. So one thing to be wary of is to remember that if you start with one Geforce GTX 260 like most SLI systems start out as, and you upgrade the power requirements will increase hugely as the graphics card is likely to be the most power hungry component inside your PC.
Cooling
The
Geforce GTX 260 comes
with a decent stock fan
already built on, and
can handle the heat
pretty well. The Geforce
GTX 260 is a two berth
card like most of the
power graphics cards
these days. The stock
fan blows the hot air
from the GPU core
directly out of the
case. The key to keeping
a powerful graphics card
cool is to keep the case
temperature down and
having a good airflow
through your PC casing.
For those with a little technical know how, you may be thinking of overclocking the Geforce 260 GTX. If this is the case then remember that overclocking produces more heat than the original design was meant to handle. You may find that the stick fan can still cope with a little extra heat, especially if your system has a decent all round cooling solution. It may wise however to up RPM on the GPU fan to get that little bit extra out of it. This may increase the noise output from the fan but it will be worth it if it keeps the system running stable.
Conclusion
The Geforce GTX 260 and core 216 graphics cards are probably the most affordable top end cards you are likely to find. They are not however cheap, the GTX 260 is still aimed at the power gaming market and will still set you back a pretty penny. The benefits here are the use of SLI. One Geforce GTX 260 will handle the toughest tasks that you can throw at it, then as the games require more power the option to upgrade with another and probably cheaper GTX 260 is a viable option to keep your gaming rig with enough power.
The other thing that the GTX 260 has got going for it is that it has a high level of overclocking potential. With the right cooling, you can get a lot more speed out of this graphics card. This has been proved by the number of third party manufacturers already having made factory overclocked version of the Geforce GTX 260 available on the market.