A few hours back I introduced the Forsa 9800GTX+ that was used in the hit article nVidia GeForce GTS 250, just another 9800GTX+? that was published just a few days go.

Now, the GTS 250! And yes, from Palit.

The Appearance

The card isn’t small, longer than the Forsa 9800GTX+ by about 1cm, comes in red PCB and sport this really nice cover.

Even the fan is a little transparent, I got hit by it a few times and it felt really light.

And as you can see from the photos so far, the case covering it is sleek and transparent.

What I like about Palit cards so far is that they seem to be the only brand I come by that actually still has a VGA output on the card. And instead of S-video like most other cards, they have HDMI. I love this combo very much, spares the hassle of converters.

The PCI-E connectors to be more easily accessible, and yeah, it’s 2x PCI-E pin.

Back portion looks like any other graphic card.

The Bundle

- 1 x DVI to D-Sub adaptor
- 1 x S-video to Composite cable
- 1 x Power cable
- Driver CD

Card Details

Here’s a summarized detail of the card.

GPU	GTS 250
GPU Code Name	G92b
Memory Type	DDR3
Memory Bandwidth	256-bit
Memory Capacity	512MB
Core Clock	745Mhz
Memory Clock	1100Mhz (2.2Ghz DDR)
Shader Clock	1848Mhz

Pardon the GPU-Z for displaying the wrong details. It’s 55nm, not 65nm. And G92b, which is an improved version of the G92 GPU.

More details at the official product page

Test Setup

The computer setup used for this review.

Processor	Intel Core™2 Duo E7200 @ 3.4ghz (8.5×400)
RAM	2x 2GB OCZ DDR2 PC2-8500 Reaper HPC Edition
Motherboard	Albatron PXP35
Cooler	Sunbeamtech Core-Contact Freezer Heatsink
Monitor	20″ Dell Ultra-sharp Wide-screen LCD
Power Supply	Gigabyte Odin 550 GT
Operating System	Windows Vista Home Basic 32bit
Driver Version	Forceware 182.08

The Performance

All tests were done with 4xAA. Alternatively you could view the stats at nVidia GeForce GTS 250, just another 9800GTX+? article as well. I’ve updated the content with Forceware 182.08 driver results.

F.E.A.R.

Graphic Detail : Maximum at 1680×1050

Card	Average
GTS 250	79
9800GTX+	82
ASUS EAH4850 TOP	83

World In Conflict

Graphic Detail : Maximum @ 1680×1050

Card	Average
GTS 250	28
9800GTX+	29
ASUS EAH4850 TOP	20

Company Of Heroes : Opposing Fronts

Graphic Detail : Maximum @ 1680×1050

Card	Average
GTS 250	40.3
9800GTX+	40.8
ASUS EAH4850 TOP	48.1

Lost Planet : Extreme Condition

Graphic Detail : Maximum at 1680 x 946

Card	Snow (Average)	Cave (Average)
GTS 250	42.3	56.5
9800GTX+	45.1	58.1
ASUS EAH4850 TOP	49.6	59.6

Crysis

Graphic Detail : Maximum @ 1680×1050

Card	Average
GTS 250	11.85
9800GTX+	10.77
ASUS EAH4850 TOP	14.11

Devil May Cry 4

Graphic Detail : Maximum @ 1680×1050

Card	Scene 1	Scene 2	Scene 3	Scene 4
GTS 250	104.05	71.24	123.40	76.62
9800GTX+	107.86	75.35	128.76	79.34
ASUS EAH4850 TOP	N/A because I didn’t test with it.

Furmark

Graphic Detail : Maximum @ 1680×1050

Card	Average
GTS 250	7
Forsa 9800GTX+	7
ASUS EAH4850 TOP	25

Operating Temperature

Furmark was used for graphic card stressing.

	Idle (°C)	Load (°C)	Stress (°C)
Temperature	50	64	74

Pretty hot but one thing good was that it’s silent. Readings were taken when ambient temperature was around 25°C.

- Load, Furmark was run for 1 minute at 1680×1050 with 4xAA.
- Stress, Furmark was run under the Stress Test mode for 5 minutes.

Power Consumption

Please note that the numbers below indicate the wattage for the entire system, not the graphic card alone.

	Idle (w)	Load (w)
System Power Consumption	81	143

Conclusion

Nice looking, nice performance. I still find it damn hard to give call these cards RECOMMENDED. It’s still a G92 from the 8800 series.

Yes, it’s the same comment from that of Forsa’s card. In my sign of disapproval of nVidia’s rebadging scheme, The only reason I’m awarding the RECOMMENDATION for this card is that it still holds well in performance and I believe offers better value than the 9800GTX+ cards.

The newer number and improvements practically made it pointless to buy 9800GTX+ cards. Blame nVidia for the stupid naming game they play.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 7th, 2009 at 8:00 pm and is filed under Graphic Cards, Hardware Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.