GeForce in 2009 released its new GTS 250 card. However, many people remember that in fact it was far from some breakthrough of technology and not at all a new device in the series of video cards, it was just a renamed 9800 GTX + video card that did not have almost no differences.
What are their differences?
In fact, the GTS 250 has practically no differences from its predecessor, and the only difference between them is only that in this case the length of the board itself is less. Even the video chip has not undergone any changes.
G92 story
The video chip itself, called G92, used in this video card, was released back in 2007 together with the 8800 GT graphics card, the GPU of which was carried out in accordance with the 65 nm technological process, and it included 112 shader processors, 16 rasterization units, 56 texture units, as well as a 256-bit memory bus. This video card is firmly entrenched in history, as a real breakthrough in its field, since the Radeon HD 3870, which for it at that time was a direct competitor, could not even be compared approximately by technical characteristics.
After a couple of months, the company issued another card called 8800 GTS 512 Mb, which was based on this chip, but at the same time it was distinguished by a smaller width of memory and rasterization blocks, as well as a large number of texture blocks, shader processes, core frequency, and shader domain. Due to the large number of specialized functional units, as well as a higher operating frequency, the new card completely surpassed its predecessor. Thanks to these advantages, as well as a much lower price, this card has become a real hit among most gamers of its time.
9800 GT Edition
In the spring of 2008, the aforementioned GTX 9800 GT appears (which eventually became the GTS 250). The difference between this device and the 8800 was that there was a longer printed circuit board, as well as a large number of power connectors and higher core frequencies. Thanks to higher frequencies, this device has become on par with the company's flagship at that time, called the GeForce 8800 Ultra 768 Mb.
Flip for NVIDIA
At that time, the company, having not yet released the GTS 250, was dominant in any of the sectors of the video card market, and there were no prerequisites for this situation to somehow change in the near future. AMD did not endure the best of times, as its processors significantly lost to Intel's solutions, and these video cards overshadowed its solutions in the current market. Devices of the HD4xxx line, which used the RV770 chip, were already produced, but no one believed in the new cards.
However, it so happened that the RV770 video chip ultimately proved to be very, very successful, as a result of which it became next to the 9800 GTX, and the senior “Radeon” of the HD 4870 model significantly outperformed the GTX 260. And all this against the background of the cost of new the cards were almost two times lower than their competitors, presenting a very, very serious video chip to the world. The most striking impression of such cards was the forcing of full-screen anti-aliasing in various games. These impressions were especially emphasized by the fact that the previous series of video cards of the manufacturer, to put it mildly, were a failure.
It was at that moment that the GTS 250 was released, which in fact was already the fourth name for the same video card.
9800 GTX
The fate of this card can hardly be called happy. Model 9800 GTX was designed to bring serious profit to the company, conquering heights in the price range from $ 349, however, in fact, almost immediately this card had to compete with a serious opponent in the form of HD 4850, which initially was a much cheaper solution. Thus, a tremendous amount of unnecessary elements appeared in the map, which eventually turned into flaws.
Before the NVIDIA GTS 250 was released, the company initially decided to simply significantly reduce the cost of its card, despite the fact that it was at a loss, but in fact the cost of the reference device was already quite high from the beginning, and this didn’t allowed to solve the issue with performance. Despite the price parity, the HD4850 looked much more attractive compared to its competitor in the eyes of modern users.
Reply from NVIDIA
It is for this reason that the only thing NVIDIA could do was squeeze the most out of its chip, as a result of which the 9800 GTX +, and then the NVIDIA GTS 250, which we are considering today, appeared. Compared to its predecessor, these devices are characterized by higher frequencies of the graphics core. It should be noted that when comparing the 9800 GTX and GeForce GTS 250 models, ATI provided another present here - this is a much lower cost for the new card, as their competitors simply had to switch completely to a more subtle technological process, which reduces total cost.
Despite all its advantages, the very first drawback that will immediately catch the eye of any modern user is that the NVIDIA device does not have a programmable tessellation unit, and also there is no DirectX 10.1 support
Equipment
Given the cost of new cards, the kit along with them was provided extremely modest (the company already lost a lot of money), however, it contains absolutely everything in order to fully use the device in your computer, while providing it with appropriate control.
The presence of an adapter that allows you to switch from a standard 8-pin to a 6-pin connector in the power system may seem strange at first glance, since the connectors themselves are mechanically incompatible, but if your unit has an exclusively monolithic 8-pin connector, then it will be useful to you.
In general, the GTS 250 package includes a driver, an adapter, the necessary cables, a small manual and a disk with auxiliary utility. Thus, this set is consistent with the tasks, because initially the G92 did not represent flagship chips, not to mention how they look today. The only unpleasant moment is that they included the GTS 250 driver, but did not add a utility in the form of a software video player. On the other hand, such a modest configuration, again, had a positive effect on the total cost of this device.
Board design
An absolutely unique design was developed for this family, which went over to the GTS 250. The price of this device has not changed much compared to the previous model, but the board installed in it is much shorter than the original 8800 GTX, which makes the problem with the installation of devices in small cases was completely resolved. In this regard, it became possible to form fairly compact gaming systems, which in their performance were not inferior to platforms located in full-size ATX cases. In particular, this was achieved due to the fact that the 384-bit memory bus was completely eliminated, which significantly complicates the wiring of the GTS 250 board. The price and compactness are also ensured by the use of the new chip, which is much more economical compared to its predecessor.
Does the board stay big?
Surprisingly, the developers nevertheless decided to use a sufficiently large board, despite the significantly larger compactness of the new solutions. Given the modest configuration, in which only the NVIDIA GTS 250 driver and all the other necessary components, at a lower cost, the board could be expanded.
There are a huge number of examples of other video cards, which in their characteristics fully corresponded to this model, and at the same time they worked productively and stably even in the most severe conditions, but at the same time their board was an order of magnitude shorter. The device GeForce 8800 GTS 512 Mb can also be given as an example from this manufacturer.
Cooling system
The GTS 250 video card is characterized by a unique cooling system, however, in fact, it is only conditional, because this design is typical of many modern graphic coolers.
In fact, there was an additional variation on the topic of the reference cooling system, and the only difference here is that the radiator assembled from thin aluminum plates differs by an order of magnitude smaller dimensions and, therefore, does not abut the mounting bracket. The radiator is combined with a copper base with the help of specialized heat pipes, due to which its maximum uniform heating is achieved. There is also a standard axial fan, blowing not only down, but also in different directions. Most likely, the developers tried to make sure that a certain part of the heated air was completely ejected outside the case through the holes in the mounting plate, but due to the fact that the radiator fins simply do not reach these holes, and in the device itself there is no profiling casing of the desired configuration, In fact, hot air will constantly circulate inside your system unit.
In general, this design of the cooling system does not differ in any visible advantages compared to the standard, but even the initial version is considered one of the most effective cooling systems for cards of its time. To fully determine the advantages and disadvantages of this device, you will need to check what temperature conditions in your device can be stably maintained. In particular, this allows the driver provided for the GeForce GTS 250 to be made.
Energy consumption
Since the devices began to use the new core, the degree of energy consumption is quite interesting for most users, because it makes it possible to understand how beneficial the transition to such a delicate technological process was. In order to obtain this information, experts conducted a standard measuring procedure at a specialized test bench.
In this case, the difference between the GeForce GTS 250 and the old version is quite significant, and is almost 34 watts. This is a clear demonstration of how practical it is to implement a more advanced process for each user.
Special attention should be paid to the fact that the NVIDIA GTS 250 video card works almost silently, however, under standard conditions, we can safely say that it will not be heard at all.