Gigabyte GA-GF2560 SDR GeForce

Recently, companies have enjoyed huge success by expanding their product base using NVIDIA graphics card chips. ASUS started this expansion with their TNT based V3400, a transition which effectively allowed them to target not only the motherboard market but also the avid gamer. Around the same time that ASUS made its transition, another motherboard manufacturer that is well known for quality and performance entered the video card market: Gigabyte. Regarded around the lab as one of the top performers in terms of quality, Gigabyte has consistently produced solid products on both the motherboard and video card front. Gigabyte attempts to continue this tradition, once again using an NVIDIA processor, with the GeForce based GA-GF2560.

Some may question the decision to bring an SDR card into the market at such a late date, claiming that the SDR market is a dying breed. Gigabyte hopes to use their late entrance to their advantage by producing a more solid and lower priced card. The GA-GF2560, with a few surprises up its sleeve, could very well provide the push that Gigabyte needs to get its place in a shrinking market.

Specifications (courtesy of Gigabyte)

Key Features

• NVIDIA GeForce256, 256-bit 2D/3D graphics processor
• Ultra-fast 32MB SDRAM with 256-bit graphics architecture
• Integrated transform and lighting
• AGP 4X with Fast Writes
• 32-bit color ARGB with destination alpha
• 32-bit Z/Stencil and 8-bit stencil
• Cube environment mapping
• Anisotropic texture filtering
• 350MHz Palette-DAC
• DVD and HDTV ready motion compensation for MPEG-2 decoding
• Industry's first 5-tap horizontal by 3-tap vertical video filtering
• 8:1 up and down scaling on video overlay
• Separate hue, saturation, and brightness controls for the video overlay
• Complete VIP 2.0 video implementation (1x-8x Host, 75 MHz, 16-bit video port)
• Video DMA for efficient VIP Host operations
• WHQL-qualified drivers for Windows 2000, Windows NT 4.0, Windows NT 3.5, Windows 98, Windows 95, and Windows 3.1
• OpenGL ICD for full OpenGL support
• Fully PC99 and PC99a compliant
• Optional TV out and Flat Panel display support
  
  

  	Max Refresh Table
  Resolution	Color Depth (BITS)	Max Refresh Rate (Hz)
  640 x 480	8/16/32	240/240/240
  800 x 600	8/16/32	240/240/240
  1024 x 768	8/16/32	240/240/200
  1152 x 864	8/16/32	200/200/170
  1280 x 960	8/16/32	170/170/150
  1280 x 1024	8/16/32	170/170/170
  1600 x 900	8/16/32	150/150/120
  1600 x 1200	8/16/32	120/120/100
  1920 x 1080	8/16/32	100/100/85
  1920 x 1200	8/16/32	100/100/85
  1920 x 1440	8/16/32	85/85/75
  2048 x 1536	8/16/32	75/75/60