14 DAY TRIAL // Although NVIDIA is yet to give the official word, it appears that we do have some official confirmation that the next GeForce GPU is the much rumored GTS 250. As it turns out, ASUS was really anxious in being the first to announce the new cards, which the company has just done with the introduction of its new Dark Knight series of graphics cards. Based on the same GPU, the 55nm GTS 250, ASUS has released no less than three new models, providing users with an impressive range of choices in terms of performance. As they are part of the company's Dark Knight family, the new releases have been designed with a custom cooling solution while a TOP edition even offers a slightly overclocked GPU.
NVIDIA's GeForce GTS 250 is based on a G92b GPU manufactured using 55nm technology. It boasts 128 stream processors and a 256-bit memory interface. In addition, like most GeForce graphics cards, this new GPU also offers support for DirectX 10, CUDA, SLI and dual-DVI connectivity. The reference cards will boast a 740MHz GPU and a more than decent 512MB of GDDR3 memory, clocked at 2200MHz.
With the release of the new cards, ASUS has gone a step further by choosing a custom dual-slot cooling solution, enabling users to take advantage of an improved overall performance. The Dark Knight fansink features 4 heatpipes, a large heatsink area and a relatively silent fan. ASUS' lineup includes the ENGTS250 DK/HTDI/512MD3, the ENGTS250 DK/HTDI/1GD3 and the ENGTS250 DK TOP/HTDI/512MD3.
Aside from the TOP edition, the other two models are both featured with the same reference clock speeds, while the TOP version will boast a slightly factory-overclocked GPU. The GPU clock has been raised to 775MHz, while the Shader and memory clock have been clocked to 1950MHz and 2.36GHz, respectively. According to ASUS, this will provide users with a performance increase of 20%.
Price wise, these new cards should become available in April at approximately $200 or less, depending on configuration.