So there are really two takes on this card today. The XFX GTX 260 216 Black Edition is the fastest available GeForce GTX 260 card on the market with a clock speed exceeding the reference clock speeds by 90 MHz. At this moment the price point on the card is $299 after a $30 Mail in Rebate from Newegg. The obvious competition at the moment is the ATI HD 4870 cards and the performance spectrum is interesting on both. The higher clock speed versus the standard GTX 260 cards allows for near GTX 280 performance levels, which is quite an achievement from a gamer's point of view.
The second take on the GeForce GTX 260 216 Black Edition is not performance on the games of yesterday but the games of today. In that respect this card really does a great job as the performance outstrips the ATI camp in virtually every way in the five games I tested that were released in the last couple of months or today with Left 4 Dead. These five games make a good starting point for our next video card test platform which may include Core i7 CPUs and an X58 motherboard to allow both SLI and Crossfire testing to be done on a single platform. But that is not for today.
Gaming on any of the video cards on the market today is simply breathtaking with visuals that make DirectX 9.0 games like Oblivion and Half Life 2 look like child's play. From top to bottom, DirectX 10.0 makes a difference whether you have a video card in the $40 price range like the GeForce 9400GS or ATI HD 4350 or a $400 GeForce GTX 280 or for that matter a $549 HD 4870 X2. Buying a card to fit your budget is hard as the market has so many cards and chips that it is confusing for the people who review a card what to buy themselves. Rebates and game bundles like Far Cry 2 make a card like the XFX GeForce GTX 260 Black Edition easy to recommend if you are buying a card in this price range. With great warranty programs and service it's easy to recommend the XFX GTX 260 216 version as a very solid gaming solution in the $300.00 price range, and with many of the latest gaming titles having the flash screen meant to be played on NVIDIA, it shows NVIDIA clearly working hand in hand with developers.
