Palit GTX 260 Sonic 216SP

The video card industry is hurting as bad as anyone is during this economic recession, and nobody is walking around happy about PC graphics these days. They can't, really, not when many of the latest video game titles for the personal computer are released only after console versions have been made available first. Even once you get past that burn, you're greeted by yet another. In 2008 there were dozens of great video games released on the PC platform, but very few of them demanded any more graphical processing power than most games demanded back in 2006. Of the recent PC video games released, Far Cry 2 is one of the very few which demand modern graphics to enjoy decent performance, which older games such as Crysis and Battlefield 2 are also guilty of. Yet, somehow the need for better PC graphics hasn't become a prerequisite for new games, because when Battlefield 2042 and Crysis 2 came out they both required less graphical processing power than the former versions. I discussed this topic at-length in my Year In Review: 2008 Computer Hardware Industry Failure article, and it seems that all of the key players are comfortable with more of the same.

Because of the various factors working against desktop graphics, I'd say that now is the time for manufacturers to stop building a bigger mousetrap, and instead build it better. That's what Palit does, and their approach to discrete graphics products usually follows the rule of function before fashion. In this case, it's function and realistic performance needs before fashion and marketing hype. Sure, NVIDIA would love for you to believe that SLI is necessary to play the newest video games, but oddly enough the nearly all new games still work fairly well with a single three-generation old video card. So where's the sweet spot? Benchmark Reviews tests the Palit GeForce GTX 260 Sonic 216SP model NE3X262SFT394-PM8026 video card to see just how much money you need to spend to enjoy fast frame rates at high resolution.

NVIDIA Continues to refine (and redefine) the GT200 GPU, and the latest 55nm version offers better efficiency and higher performance. In this article, Benchmark Reviews will test performance of the Palit GTX 260 Sonic 216SP (SP stands for Shader Processors) against a wide range of video cards from the GeForce 8800 GT to the GeForce GTX 285 and Radeon HD 4870 X2. With 896MB of GDDR3 video memory clocked to 1100MHz, and 216 shader cores working at 1348MHz, the NE3X262SFT394-PM8026 part will hope to push frame rates into a new high for the GeForce GTX 260 name. Benchmarks will help set these video cards apart, but price will ultimately decide the products fate.

It's not easy for consumers to understand the NVIDIA GeForce roadmap, at least not with routine name changes and re-labeling of series names. The more recent changes are the GeForce GTS 250, which is a re-labeled GeForce 9800 GTX+, which was itself a re-launched 55nm version of the 9800 GTX. The GeForce GTX 285 is a 55nm re-launch of the GTX 280, and the GeForce GTX 260 ²¹⁶ is a confusing re-launch of the same-named GeForce GTX 260, only with a 55nm process and more shader cores. Got all that? If not, here's the table:

About Palit Multimedia, Inc.

Palit Multimedia Inc. provides a wide range of industry-leading graphics cards to North and Latin America with a focus on service, support and innovative products. Palit Multimedia is affiliated with Palit Microsystems, a world-leading supplier in the design, manufacture, and distribution of PC graphics accelerators which was established in 1988. Palit is well positioned to maintain an industry leadership due to the vast array of NVIDIA and AMD's ATi VGA products and on-going development efforts.

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