Review: Gigabyte GTX 260 SOC
 

This week in preparation for my entry into the Gigabyte “Beat Me if You Dare” competition, I had the time to do some benching with one of Gigabyte’s newest graphics cards, the GTX 260 SOC.

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e1...view/009-4.jpg

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e1...view/019-4.jpg

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e1...view/006-5.jpg

Gigabyte’s new “Gauntlet” screening process is designed to ensure only the best cards get the “SOC” label.

Features of this GPU series include:
• Japanese solid capacitor’s
• The highest bin Samsung / Hynix memory chips
• A full 2oz. copper pcb

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e1...view/016-2.jpg

Other features include multiple display options, HDMI, DVI, VGA with assorted adapters included in the bundle.

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e1...view/018-4.jpg

For the purpose of this round of testing only the stock cooling setup will be used. Extreme cooling is on the schedule for the near future though. :D

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e1...Review/012.jpg

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e1...view/020-2.jpg

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e1...view/014-2.jpg



Well enough with the introductions, let’s get to some baseline performance testing with the popular Futuremark series of benchmarks. I’ll get things started with a mild overclock of the CPU and the GPU at stock clocks to check its baseline benchmark performance.

System specs:
Xeon W3570 at 4.2GHz
EVGA X58 Classifed motherboard
3x2GB Corsair Dominator GT ‘s
Corsair HX1000
Windows 7 RC7100 with no tweaks.

3DM03

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e1...03DM358637.jpg

3DM05

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e1...DM5at42Ghz.jpg

3DM06

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e1...885at42GHz.jpg

3DMVantage physX disabled

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e1...thoutphysx.jpg

3DMVantage physX enabled

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e1...GHzw-physx.jpg

Resident Evil 5 benchmark

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e1...arkat42GHz.jpg


The card performs pretty well at stock clocks and the stock cooler was very quiet, while temps were also very good in the mid 40’s. Now let’s push this system to the edge to see what it’s got. Again I’m sticking with the stock cooler for these tests, fan speed set to 100% via Rivatuner.

3DM03

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e1...03DM364459.jpg

3DM05

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e1...03DM536543.jpg

3DM06

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e1...03DM623686.jpg

3DMVantage without PhysX

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e1...03DMV14357.jpg

Resident Evil 5 Benchmark

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ytecontest.jpg









Overall impressions:

I think this is a very nice GPU for the mid to high end gamer. It is of very good quality and has good headroom to be pushed through overclocking. I would love to test this card in a Tri SLI scenario and go after the top spot for it’s category in 3DMark Vantage.

The only drawback I see, is the availability of a compatible softmod program to adjust voltages, and thus push the clocks even higher.

I'd say Gigabyte has a good program in the "Gauntlet" screening process and the SOC series of cards, and I look forward to seeing future releases from them. :thumbsup:

Nicely done review Gunny, definitely makes me wanna hit the "Buy Now" button :D

That Is a shmexy lookin' card!

Nice review gunny. I wonder why they didn't use software adjustable pwm's like HD4xxx, HD5xxx, and dual PCB GTX295? I take it this is a non-reference GPU hence the 2oz copper PCB???

After removing the cooler, it looks as though they used a similar voltage controller as the single PCB GTX 295, which means only hard mods will work. Either way, I'm still looking into it some more, because I'm planning some dice runs on the card also. :D

Oh sweet!! Did you get you some tek 9's?

I'll be using a Duniek wide mouth pot that I borrowed. My Tek9 5.0 has a very narrow mouth, which is hard to use with DICE. I'm hoping for 1000MHz on the core to give Hicookie a run for his money, as I think I have a better i7 CPU than he does.

Probably old hat to you, but if your removing the sink anyway :) Check out what voltage controller it uses. As long as it has an I2C capability, you just need to tell riva how to adjust the voltage:)

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...&postcount=103

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e1...view/008-2.jpg

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e1...view/008-2.jpg

Can't make out the code, looks like a UPI logo on it though. You can compare the model number with this page here Scroll to the right to check for I2C on that chart.