Gigabyte GA-GF2560 SDR GeForce

The question that still looms is if Gigabyte has done too little too late. In a time where many companies are actually phasing out their SDR cards and opting for only DDR models, will Gigabyte be able to survive in a changing market. To find the answer, the abilities of the card must be examined.

Gigabyte seems to have done a good job on the GA-GF2560 card itself. While it does use the generic reference design, a few features set the GA-GF2560 apart. First is the high overclocked speed that the card is able to reach. While the fan and heatsink may seem like an old model CPU cooler, it does an excellent job at keeping the GPU at optimal temperatures and thus provides a very high overclocked speed. The extremely high memory clock speed that the card was able to reach was also exemplary. It is quite astounding to find memory that performs this well on any SDR GeForce card. Whether this is a function of a great RAM batch or of the card itself remains to be unanswered, but the card performed like a champion.

As far as drivers are concerned, the GA-GF2560's use of reference drivers may reduce cost but it brings down quality when compared to other companies that produce their own driver set. The addition of an overclocking utility is a big plus, as this is an excellent way to push the GA-GF2560 to the high speeds it can tolerate. 2D graphics and text remain sharp all the way up to 1600x1200, which means that the card will work well with 21" monitors.

The package of the GA-GF2560 includes the standard games and utilities that many companies try to tack on to make their card more attractive to the consumer. In the case of the GA-GF2560 Gigabyte includes three full game titles, Populous, Future Cop, and Superbike World Championship, all of which are mostly useless to the avid game player. Also included is a software driven DVD and VCD decoder which can come in very useful if the TV-out option is included on the card.

The question that remains is if the SDR card market is a dying breed. It seems that the answer to this is no. While the DDR market is expanding, DDR cards still cost a noticeable amount more than their SDR counterparts. For many gamers, the difference between DDR cards and SDR cards will remain small to the performance gained by upgrading to one of these cards from a TNT or comparable card. By making an SDR card, Gigabyte hopes to gain an upper hand on the lower level of high performance cards. With its high overclockablity and quality manufacturing, the Gigabyte GA-GF2560 is a strong purchase as far as SDR cards go, especially if the price is right.