XFX GeForce GTX260 XXX Edition Video Card Review :: XFX GeForce GTX260 Bundle

• XFX GTX260 XXX Edition card
• Call Of Duty 4 Modern Warfare Full Game
• Driver CD
• Manual
• Quick Install Guide
• Door Hanger
• DVI to D-sub adapter
• 6-Pin power adapter
• HDMI Audio cable
• Component Out dongle

XFX didn't skimp on the bundle in any way. They include both a Manual and a Quick Installation Guide to get you started. Their trademarked “I'm gaming Do Not Disturb” door hanger is included which has been a staple for several months on their cards. This card came with a free copy of Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare, a great game that was on the Top 10 Bestseller's list last year.

Hardware-wise, the card comes with a DVI to D-sub adapter to allow you to use an analog CRT monitor instead of a digital LCD monitor that most people use today. The omission of a single adapter is a good thing, as if you're going to buy a GTX260 you're not likely going to use the CRT monitors. Also included is a 6-pin power adapter for PSUs that only have one power cord, a HDMI Audio cable that allows you to get audio from the video card Audio port and a Component-Out Dongle.

NVIDIA has released a new driver for supporting PhysX on their GeForce GTX2xx cards and their GeForce 9800 cards. This driver increases performance in 3DMark Vantage quite dramatically on the GTX260. Some would argue that this is cheating. I would argue that enabling hardware physics on a graphics card that supports it is not cheating as it is a feature of the card and not an optimization designed to generate a higher score. Using Unreal Tournament 3 which has Hardware Physics support as a real-world benchmark shows performance increases of over 10% with the PhysX driver, in lieu of using the standard drivers. If real-world performance increases are in line with the benchmark increases that is a benefit, not a detriment.

Driver screenshots