We considered that the new version GeForce GTX 260 with 216 stream processors was released as a potential enemy for the Radeon HD 4870.
NVIDIA Partners added for this new card suffixes like Gold, AMP2, MaxCore. However, officially this video card is called simply: GeForce GTX 260 Core 216.
NVIDIA recommends selling the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 for $279. Note this is more expensive than the Radeon HD 4870 ($249). Furthermore, the old GeForce GTX 260 version with 192 stream processors cost now from $209 to $239. If we considers that the difference in speed between the old and new GeForce GTX 260 version rarely exceeds 5-7%, it is extremely complicated to justify this prices deference.
Let us recall that all new video card on base of 65 nm GT200 chip obtained 216 stream processors, 72 textural blocks, and the quantity of ROP blocks remained equal to 28 pieces. This video card is equipped with 896 MB GDDR- 3 memory , it has 448- bit bus, it works at previous default frequencies 576/1242/1998 MHz.
According to the test results : The GeForce GTX 260 Core 216, is faster than the old version GeForce GTX 260 by 5-10%. This new card actually competes with the Radeon HD 4870, in this sense its mission succeeded, but it is more expensive . The most interesting, that a small overclock allows the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 to literally reach the GeForce GTX 280 performance level.
Since the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 uses the old 65 nm chip GT200, changes in the overclocking potential was not noted. Situation can be improved nearer to the end of year, when NVIDIA will release new product on base of 55 nm GT206 chip .