MSI N260GTX Lightning Black Edition Video Card Review

**Hardware Secrets Team** · 05-18-2009, 09:15 AM

There has been a new article posted.

Title: MSI N260GTX Lightning Black Edition Video Card Review
URL: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/719

Here is a snippet:
"It's been hard to evaluate video cards these days as there is no difference between a model from one manufacturer and a model from another one based on the same graphics chip, since they are all ident..."

Comments on this article are welcome.

Best regards,
Hardware Secrets Team
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com

Olle P · 05-18-2009, 03:19 PM

I have a hard time figuring out what to think about this card.

- It's pretty expensive.
- What you get is a very high quality card and some "bling bling" in the form of a flashy remote.
- For the same amount of money you can get a much more powerful card.

Regarding the review as such:
- Good choice of cards for comparison.
- Test system running 32-bit OS is good.
- "Only" 2GB RAM is both good and bad. Good because it takes the system RAM out of the equation for comparing raw graphics power. Bad since a lot of users have 4GB nowadays, which in combination with 32-bit OS makes increased graphics RAM reduce the available system RAM. That speaks in favour of the standard version of GTX 260.
- The 3ft USB-cable may or may not be good. It all depends on where the case is placed. 6ft is probably overkill while 4ft seems just right.

Now to the cooler comparison:
- This lightning cooler does seem to make a better job cooling the card with standard settings.
- Questions that go unanswered are: 1) What's the noise level, by comparison? 2) Can the fan speed be adjusted? 3) How does the Lightning's cooler affect the NB and CPU temperatures?
The standard cooler usually leave the temps highish to keep the noise down. With the fan at higher speed the cooling performance is very good, but the noise level is also quite high.

I can't figure out why anybody would buy the Lightning unless the person has lots of money and bling is considered more important than performance.
If quality is top priority the MSI N260GTX-OCv3 seems like a much better deal.
If performance is king a GTX 285 at the same price is better.

Cheers
Olle

05-18-2009, 09:15 AM	#1
Hardware Secrets Team Administrator Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 2,952	MSI N260GTX Lightning Black Edition Video Card Review There has been a new article posted. Title: MSI N260GTX Lightning Black Edition Video Card Review URL: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/719 Here is a snippet: "It's been hard to evaluate video cards these days as there is no difference between a model from one manufacturer and a model from another one based on the same graphics chip, since they are all ident..." Comments on this article are welcome. Best regards, Hardware Secrets Team http://www.hardwaresecrets.com

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05-18-2009, 03:19 PM	#2
Olle P Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Sweden Posts: 576	I have a hard time figuring out what to think about this card. - It's pretty expensive. - What you get is a very high quality card and some "bling bling" in the form of a flashy remote. - For the same amount of money you can get a much more powerful card. Regarding the review as such: - Good choice of cards for comparison. - Test system running 32-bit OS is good. - "Only" 2GB RAM is both good and bad. Good because it takes the system RAM out of the equation for comparing raw graphics power. Bad since a lot of users have 4GB nowadays, which in combination with 32-bit OS makes increased graphics RAM reduce the available system RAM. That speaks in favour of the standard version of GTX 260. - The 3ft USB-cable may or may not be good. It all depends on where the case is placed. 6ft is probably overkill while 4ft seems just right. Now to the cooler comparison: - This lightning cooler does seem to make a better job cooling the card with standard settings. - Questions that go unanswered are: 1) What's the noise level, by comparison? 2) Can the fan speed be adjusted? 3) How does the Lightning's cooler affect the NB and CPU temperatures? The standard cooler usually leave the temps highish to keep the noise down. With the fan at higher speed the cooling performance is very good, but the noise level is also quite high. I can't figure out why anybody would buy the Lightning unless the person has lots of money and bling is considered more important than performance. If quality is top priority the MSI N260GTX-OCv3 seems like a much better deal. If performance is king a GTX 285 at the same price is better. Cheers Olle