eVGA GeForce GTS 250 SC 1GB
The introduction of the GeForce GTS 250 1GB also heralds a spate of partner-overclocked cards off the bat, and there are no frequency restrictions that plagued the erstwhile mid-range contender, GeForce 9800 GTX.
The eVGA GeForce GTS 250 1GB Superclocked is the first of such a line and beats the reference model, on which the entire card is based, by pre-overclocking from the default 738/1,836/2,200MHz to 770/1,890/2,246MHz. There's not a great deal in the shaders and memory, clearly. Expect it to be a few per cent faster than default. As a comparison, XFX's 9800 GTX+ XXX ships with similar frequencies (775/1,890/2,250MHz) and is currently available for £126, albeit with a 512MB frame-buffer.
Two SLI fingers remain in the branding transition, of course, opening up the way for three-way SLI.
1.5in shorter than the present model, who says size doesn't matter? On a more pragmatic note, it should, obviously, fit into smaller chassis.
The GPU throttles down to 300MHz for the core and 100MHz for the memory when idling, just like the GeForce GTX 260 and 280 - something the 9800 GTX+ doesn't do. Should bode well for power consumption.
Speaking of which, a single 6-pin connector infers that NVIDIA has brought it down a touch when under load, quoting 150W in the documentation.
Interestingly, the card drops the archaic mini-DIN for TV-out - no more native analogue connections from now on in from NVIDIA?