At first I want to thank Gainward for providing me their Gainward GTS250 512MB "Deep Green" video card for testing and reviewing.

About Gainward :

(from Wikipedia)

"Gainward is a computer hardware company which produces video cards. Their graphic cards used to be exclusively based on NVIDIA chipsets. However, they also announced ATI-based graphics solutions after the successful launch of ATI 4800-series hardware.[1] Gainward products are famous for their overclockability. The company has also recently released cards that deviate from the reference specifications set forth by NVIDIA.[citation needed] They have released a 20 pixel pipeline 7800GS AGPs with 512 MB of memory (based on the G70 core), and a 24 pixel pipeline 7800GS+ AGP video card with 512 MB of memory (based on the G71 7900gt core).

Gainward is well-known for their famous 'Golden Sample' range of graphics cards. These cards are overclocked past their stock speeds and tested before they are sold, to ensure quality for their customers. Current examples of 'Golden Sample' cards are; nVidia 7900GS, 7900GT, 7950GT and 8800GT and most recently ATI's HD 4850, HD 4870, and HD 4870x2. At one stage 'Golden Sample' cards came with a "Free 2 Choose" game voucher which could be redeemed for a downloaded game from www.gainwardgamingzone.com . The 'Golden Sample' cards now come packaged with a free game.

Gainward had a gap in which they did not produce anything new but they started producing again with the nVidia 8800 GTS series which has brought them back up to date with other companies such as Gigabyte and PNY Technologies.”

Superior Hardware Design

Gainward’s award winning High-Performance/ Wide-BandwidthTM hardware design powered by NVIDIA’s GeForceTM GTS 250 GPU integrating 512MB/256bits highspeed GDDR3 memory which offers enhanced, leading-edge performance for the 3D enthusiasts.

675MHz core clock, 900MHz (DDR 1800) memory clock.

High performance 2-slot Fan Cooling

DVI (with Dual-link DVI, support up to 2560x1600), HDMI and Analog VGA connector support.

Provides HDMI functionality up to 1080p resolution.

Supports two monitors simultaneously, enabled by the NVIDIA nView™ Multi-Display Technology for office applications, 3D gaming and professional applications such as CAD, DTP, animation or video editing. NVIDIA nView™ allows end-users to select any combination of multiple displays, including a DVI, CRT and HDMI.

Includes Gainward’s award winning EXPERTool™ tuning utility for customized performance enhancements and efficient desktop management.

Easy Plug-and-Play AUTORUN installation from CD-ROM.

NVIDIA ForceWare Unified Driver Architecture (UDA): Delivers a proven record of compatibility, reliability, and stability with the widest range of games and applications. ForceWare provides the best out-of-box experience and delivers continuous performance and feature updates over the life of NVIDIA GeForce GPU.

PCI Express 2.0 Support: Designed to run perfectly with the new PCI Express 2.0 bus architecture, offering a future-proofing bridge to tomorrow’s most bandwidth hungry games and 3D applications by maximizing the 16 GB/s PCI Express 2.0 bandwidth(twice that of first generation PCI Express).

Chipset Specifications:

NVIDIA GeForceTM GTS 250: NVIDIA’s fourth-generation GPU architecture built for Windows Vista.

NVIDIA unified architecture: Fully unified shader core dynamically allocates processing power to geometry, vertex, physics, or pixel shading operations, delivering up to 2x the gaming performance of prior generation GPUs.

NVIDIA PhysXTM-Ready: GeForce GPU support for NVIDIA PhysX technology, enabling a totally new class of physical gaming interaction for a more dynamic and realistic experience with GeForce.

NVIDIA CUDATM Technology: CUDA technology unlocks the power of the GPU’s processor cores to accelerate the most demanding system tasks – such as video transcoding – delivering up to 7x of performance over traditional CPUs.

GigaThread Technology: Massively multithreaded architecture supports thousands of independent, simultaneous threads, providing extreme processing efficiency in advanced, next generation shader programs.

Full Microsoft DirectX 10 Support: World’s first DirectX 10 with full Shader Model 4.0 support delivers unparalleled levels of graphics realism and film-quality effects. It provides reference GPU for industry’s DirectX 10 API development and certification.

NVIDIA Lumenex Engine: Delivers stunning image quality and floating point accuracy at ultra-fast frame rates: 16x Anti-aliasing: Lightning fast, high-quality anti-aliasing at up to 16x sample rates obliterates jagged edges.

128-bit floating point High Dynamic- Range (HDR) Lighting: Twice the precision of prior generations for incredibly realistic lighting effects – now with support for antialiasing.

NVIDIA Quantum Effects Technology: Advanced shader processors architected for physics computation enable a new level of physics effects to be simulated and rendered on the GPU – all while freeing the CPU to run the game engine and AI..

OpenGL 3.2 Optimizations and Support: Ensures top-notch compatibility and performance for OpenGL application.

PureVideoTM HD technology: The combination of high-definition video decode acceleration and post-processing that delivers unprecedented picture clarity, smooth video, accurate color, and precise image scaling for movies and video. It provides ultra-smooth playback of H.264, VC- 1, WMV, MPEG-2 HD and SD movies.

HDCP Capable Designed to meet the output protection management (HDCP) and security specifications of the Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD formats, allowing the playback of encrypted movie content on PCs when connected to HDCP-compliant displays.

About Nvidia PhysX

Delivering physics in games is no easy task. It's an extremely compute-intensive environment based on a unique set of physics algorithms that require tremendous amounts of simultaneous mathematical and logical calculations.

This is where NVIDIA® PhysX™ Technology and GeForce® processors come in. NVIDIA PhysX is a powerful physics engine which enables real-time physics in leading edge PC and console games. PhysX software is widely adopted by over 150 games, is used by more than 10,000 registered users and is supported on Sony Playstation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and PC.

In addition, PhysX is designed specifically for hardware acceleration by powerful processors with hundreds of cores. Combined with the tremendous parallel processing capability of the GPU, PhysX will provide an exponential increase in physics processing power and will take gaming to a new level delivering rich, immersive physical gaming environments with features such as:

* Explosions that cause dust and collateral debris
* Characters with complex, jointed geometries for more life-like motion and interaction
* Spectacular new weapons with incredible effects
* Cloth that drapes and tears naturally
* Dense smoke & fog that billow around objects in motion

The only way to get real physics with the scale, sophistication, fidelity and level of interactivity that dramatically alters your entertainment experience will be with one of the millions of NVIDIA PhysX-ready GeForce processors.

Here are some PhysX demos from Youtube :

Nvidia CUDA :

NVIDIA® CUDA™ is a general purpose parallel computing architecture that leverages the parallel compute engine in NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs) to solve many complex computational problems in a fraction of the time required on a CPU. It includes the CUDA Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) and the parallel compute engine in the GPU. To program to the CUDATM architecture, developers can, today, use C, one of the most widely used high-level programming languages, which can then be run at great performance on a CUDATM enabled processor. Other languages will be supported in the future, including FORTRAN and C++.

With over 100 million CUDA-enabled GPUs sold to date, thousands of software developers are already using the free CUDA software development tools to solve problems in a variety of professional and home applications – from video and audio processing and physics simulations, to oil and gas exploration, product design, medical imaging, and scientific research.

Technology features :

* Standard C language for parallel application development on the GPU
* Standard numerical libraries for FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) and BLAS (Basic Linear Algebra Subroutines)
* Dedicated CUDA driver for computing with fast data transfer path between GPU and CPU
* CUDA driver interoperates with OpenGL and DirectX graphics drivers
* Support for Linux 32/64-bit and Windows XP 32/64-bit operating systems

On one of the package laterals, we can see the technologies supported, along with the EXPERTool software provided free by Gainward:

On the opposite side of the box, we can find a little sticker, which tells us the full video card name and some serial numbers:

On the back of the box, we get to see some Nvidia technologies explanations, the recommended system requirements; on the right part we can see what do we need to build a SLI setup:

When we first open up the box, we can see that its insides are split in two, one which holds the accessories and the other one with the card:

Besides the card which is wrapped in a red plastic protective bag with bubbles, in the package we can also see a Quick Start Manual, a PCI-E power adapter, a HDMI audio adapter and CD with drivers along with the EXPERTool utility:

The quick start manual tells us exactly how to install the board in the computer and install the drivers:

The video card has a plastic frame that covers most of the PCB and holds the fan in place:

The fan has a Gainward logo on it, the same color as the plastic frame and blows cool air onto the GPU heatsink:

The GPU heatsink not only cools the graphics chip, but also the onboard DDR3 memory, which has thermal pads applied on it:

On the other side of the card, we can see, near the PCI-Express power connector, the 2-wire fan power plug:

On the same side, we can find the Audio In header;

This card has a HDMI, D-SUB and DVI external connectors; here we can also see some ventilation holes and 2 of the 4 screws that keep the plastic frame into place:

On the back of the card, we can find multiple stickers and the screws that keep in place the GPU heatsink on the other place of the PCB:

We are warned not to remove the heatsink screws, otherwise we will void the warranty:

On the left edges of the video card, we can see the rest of the 2 screws that help the plastic frame to be kept fixed on the cards' PCB:

Like the previous sticker, this one will void the warranty if removed and has some serial codes that will help Gainward get information regarding the card, if it comes back to them via a RMA process:

Finally, we can also find another sticker near the PCI-E connector, which has a serial number and video card specifications:

CPU : Intel I7 920 Retail @ 3.2GHz
Motherboard : Asrock X58 Extreme
RAM : G.Skill F3-12800CL8T-6GBPI PI Series
Video : GeForce GTS 250 Deep Green
Power Supply : Antec True Power New 750W
HDD : Seagate Barracuda 320GB 7200.10

With the latest version of the TechPowerUp GPU-Z, 0.4.0, we can get more information regarding the clocks of the video card, its technology process and more:

With the Everest Ultimate Edition 5.30 software, we can extract even more information, like the difference between the 2D and 3D clocks of the video card:

Also, here is some information regarding the CUDA capabilities of this video card:

The video card does also come with EXPERTool, a powerful utility from Gainward that I am using since GeForce 6800 days, since it was working with most of the GeForce video cards since then, no matter the brand:

To find out which is the maximum card temperature, in Full Load, I have used the Furmark Xtreme Burning mode, for about 15 minutes:

* The Vantage score was calculated by making a sum between the CPU Score and the GPU score, not the total score Vantage displays in the end. In the Performance tests, the CPU score was 22050 and in the Extreme tests, the CPU score was 19950.

At 1600x1200 and 1920x1200 resolutions, with AA 4x on and very high game details, I had problems in some games, mostly because the card does not have enough onboard memory; this is being explained because the previous GTS250 I have tested, succeeded to perform much better at those resolutions, even if it had lower clock speeds, but 1GB onboard.

The card does not heat up a lot even in the most stressful tests, which tells us that there is a little room even for overclocking, with the stock cooling.

I would like to thank again to Gainward for offering me this product sample for review!