Introduction

Currently, a fierce battle between the two major graphics chip specialist ATi and NVIDIA is going on. While had, planned to strengthen its dominant position in the high-end segment, the Californians with the GT200 GPU in the form of the GeForce GTX 260 and the faster GeForce GTX 280 originally ATi placed the RV770 on the Radeon HD 4850 and the flagship Radeon HD 4870 but rather in the so called “performance market” that appeals to customers who want to have much power for a relatively low amountthat annoys the competitors with the cards but still or just so not too short.

Now that this battle now has the first confrontation behind them, the partner cards is time now. And after we had already recently a first easily overclocked Radeon HD 4870 from MSI in the test lab, a representative of NVIDIA’s turn this time. If one is interested on the GeForce GTX 200-series, this but not the ordinary reference design would like to put on, the AMP are! versions of manufacturer ZOTAC has long a good choice, since the manufacturer currently with offering on the highest clocked accelerator.

We concentrate in the short test on the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 260 AMP!, entering its reference design against, the Radeon HD published fresh on the market 4870. A direct competitor to the MSI Radeon HD 4870 OC so. We will find out on the following pages, whether the price for the faster AMP! Edition is worthwhile and whether we succeeded ZOTAC to points with the product against the ATi cards.

The card

Fortunately seem not before back to scare manufacturers to bring GeForce-GTX 200 cards away from the reference designs to the market to drop off from the competition. Above all of the GeForce GTX 260, there are various offers, which fail to comply with the clock rates recommended by NVIDIA. Looking for models with a different (and quieter) cooling system but still to no avail.

The ZOTAC GeForce GTX 260 AMP! certianly a in this team of this overclocked cards, where the manufacturer still pretty young higher than many other competitors turns the screw of the clock. But this has its price: 290 euro it is necessary for the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 260 AMP! the range counter, while the traditional model from the same manufacturer for 250 euro changes hands. The most affordable GeForce GTX 260 euros currently about 235, with prices still strongly vary. To the availability of the ZOTAC cards you must currently don’t worry.

ZOTAC is no own way in board design and trusts in the GeForce GTX 260 AMP! fully on the reference design from NVIDIA. You will, where it is expected they find all components only it has decorated the logo printed on the front of the cooler with a name key. Thus, the card measures a length of 28 cm and takes the nearest PCI or PCIe slot after mounting in fitting. To the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 260 AMP! to be able to operate, it must connect two six pin power plug with the accelerator.

It has left the cooling system not only material intact, also the fan control seems to be absolutely identical. Thus the graphics card is intrusive while at any time, but neither a Lixouri. The TMU domain raises ZOTAC at the AMP! card by 576 MHz to 72 MHz on 648 MHz to. The 192 scalar shader units are controlled with 1,404 instead of 1,242 MHz, what a mean increase of 162 MHz. The 896 MB of GDDR3 memory performed his work to 54 MHz faster, so 1.053 MHz instead of 999 MHz. Windows is added down the run at 300 MHz (TMU domain) or 100 MHz (Shadereinheiten). Also, the memory will remain at 100 MHz.

On the bracket, ZOTAC built two dual-link DVI outputs, which are fully compatible to the HDCP copy protection. In addition, you can connect the graphics card on a HDTV output with a television. Praise you must ZOTAC for the facilities of the GeForce GTX 260 AMP!. The cable equipment is equipped with a DVI-to HDMI, a DVI to D-SUB, two power adapters, as well as a S-video to S-video/YUV breakout cable absolutely sufficient. The equipment of software know to please with a driver CD and the high-quality racing game “Race Driver Grid”.

Benchmarks

The following benchmarks were identified with our new test system based on an Intel Core 2 extreme QX9770. It is operated with a frequency of 4 GHz unnecessarily slow the cards. As a driver came for all measurements (including power and volume) of the ForceWare 177.39 / 177.34 or the catalyst 8.6 (special press version) used.

Da ZOTAC in the GeForce GTX 260 AMP! to a healthy amount on the shot clock screw, the performance of the graphics card for the customer goes up significantly. On average, renders the Mittring by 11 percent faster than a conventional GeForce GTX 260 and manages so, to make a Radeon HD 4870 from ATi to eight percent of the games selected by us behind. A GeForce GTX 280 comes in the GeForce GTX 260 AMP! a fair bit approached. The residue loves about nine percent.

The increase in speed is dependent on the respective application. Well, the run in Crysis scales after the addition sequencing of anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering. 18 Percent more performance is the result. You drive the weakest result, however, under the same quality settings in Unreal Tournament 3 a. There, the ZOTAC card only by lower eight percent from the reference design can break away.

Other measurements

At the volume, there are no differences between the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 260 AMP! and a normal GeForce GTX 260. Thus, the run reached a reading of 46.5 decibels, which one can distinguish the fan at exact listening from a closed case from the remaining components on Windows. For the most potential buyers, this will be but yet not annoying.

Under load, the cooling system turns on then and is significantly louder with 55 decibels. The graphics card falls on while playing, the sound level for most should be just barely tolerable. Still a good result not creates a GeForce GTX 260 and the cooling system will be too loud for some customers. The cooler on a Radeon HD 4870 provides in this respect from a better job.

Windows is the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 260 AMP! not warmer than 44 degrees Celsius and falls therefore just behind the result of reference designs – a good value. Under load, the temperature of 3D-Beschleunigers rises at 77 degrees Celsius, which is interestingly even a degrees Celsius under as a result of a normal GeForce GTX 260. A possible explanation is that the thermal compound on the ZOTAC copy simply something better has been distributed. On the far side of the chip, the GeForce GTX 260 subjects with 64 degrees or 59 degrees Celsius are only slightly apart.

The higher clock rates can be forcibly also the power consumption of the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 260 AMP! increase. As to the graphics card on Windows but on the level of any other GeForce GTX 260 download added, this is still not noticeable in 2D mode. With 155 Watts video card draws only a Watt more from performance as our offshoot of GeForce GTX 260 from point of view, which complies with the specifications of NVIDIA. Otherwise it looks, however, under load, where the AMP Edition from ZOTAC needed 13 Watts more than the POV show. With the measured 333 Watts only the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 260 AMP! with same performance such as a Radeon HD 4870.

Although the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 260 AMP! already by House with higher clock rates therefore comes, has not yet reached our copy of the end of the flagpole. We increased the TMU domain to more 81 MHz to 729 MHz, while the Shadereinheiten even with 1,512 MHz (+ 108 MHz) without difficulty performed their service. The frequency of the memory left to further 47 MHz increase to 1,100 MHz. This renders the accelerator on average once again by about nine percent faster.

Conclusion

While MSI Radeon HD 4870 OC is going a little slower way and only marginally high screws the clock rates compared to the conventional model, is ZOTAC in the GeForce GTX 260 AMP! aggressive to works. The graphics card can issue on average by good 11 per cent from a reference card, which certainly between playable and non playable can make the difference. But must the customer to pay also a supplement of almost 40 euro compared to the standard version.

Apart from this, the buyer with the GeForce GTX receives 260 AMP! an ordinary graphics card with a perfect equipment, which is very similar to the original version. The volume is the same, the power consumption under load logically but slightly higher. Quickly, the ZOTAC GeForce GTX is 260 AMP! without a doubt, even slightly faster than a Radeon HD 4870. However, both run in a different price range play which relativizes the advantage again.