Gigabyte's GA-GF2560 SDR GeForce
Get overclocked and ready to rock!

 

So, you are thinking, "great another GeForce SDR Graphics Card review".  On the surface, your aversion to mundane and "been there, done that" type of products and their respective reviews, could be well founded.  HOWEVER, not this time bunky.  Yes, this is another GeForce SDR Graphics Card review but things are always a little different when it comes to Gigabyte product.  This is a look at what could be the best value on the net if you are in the market for a GeForce 3D Graphics Accelerator.  Now that we've got your attention.  Let's see if Gigabyte can make good on this claim.

Specifications / Features of The Gigabyte GA-GF2560
True Blue - No surprises but quality layout and components

You've got to love the turquoise blue FR4 material that Gigabyte uses for their PCB.  It is unmistakably a Gigabyte Graphics Card, just looking at the color alone.
 

(click for a closer look)

NVIDIA Geforce256, 256-bit 2D/3D Graphics Processor

  • Ultra-fast 32MB SDRAM with 256-bit graphics architecture

  • Integrated transform and lighting

  • AGP 2X / 4X with Fast Writes

  • 32-bit color ARGB with destination alpha

  • 32-bit Z/Stencil and 8-bit stencil

  • Cube environment mapping

  • Anisotropic texture filtering

  • 350MHz Palette-DAC

  • DVD- and HDTV-ready motion compensation for MPEG-2 decoding

      

What we have here is a basic reference design.  Alright, settle down... That's where the similarities end.  The heat sink installed is a fairly solid unit with a decent fan to back it up.  I do believe Gigabyte does something special or uses top notch interface material with the combo, because the board can handle some pretty serious core clock speeds.  (more on this later).  Also, this board is equipped with Elite MT 5.5ns RAM.  This is the good stuff.  (we'll tell you why later on this as well).  We have seen memory from Samsung and Hyundai on SDR cards but the Elite MT Memory is a notch above the rest with 5.5 and 5.0 ns product.  Finally, this card has TV Out on board.  Again, not a differentiator but nice to have none the less.

 
Let's take a look at the setup and software with the GA-GF2560 
 

Setup, Software, Installation and Overclocking