GeForce GTS 250: the characteristics of the video card

By the standards of 2011, the accelerator of the average level was the adapter model GeForce GTS 250. The characteristics of it were typical for this class of devices and allowed to solve most problems at that time. The only caveat - in the most resource-intensive programs, you had to forcefully lower the quality of the output image. It is this discrete graphic solution that will be discussed later.

Equipment. Positioning

As it was mentioned earlier, the GeForce GTS 250 belonged to mid-range video cards by the standards of 2011. Its characteristics in this case were an additional argument in its similarity. Below it there were GT 220, GT 230 and GT 240. Above it was GTS 260, GTS 275 and GTS 280. The equipment of this device included the following:

• Graphical accelerator.
• Disk with software and documentation.
• User guide.
• Certificate of conformity of the product.
• Warranty card.

As the owners say, there is nothing superfluous in the complete set, but it is enough to launch the accelerator.

Processor parameters. Memory subsystem

Even by today's standards, the GeForce GTS 250 boasts good technical specifications. The characteristics of its chip indicated the presence of 754 million transistor elements, and they were manufactured according to the standards of 55nm technical process. The clock frequency of the accelerator core was 738 MHz, and the code symbol for the graphics chip according to the manufacturer's nomenclature is G92b.

It consisted of 128 shader processing units (their frequency was 1836 MHz), 16 rasterization modules and 64 TMUs. GDDR3 is the primary and only memory type for GeForce GTS 250. Technical specifications of the graphics adapter indicated that the connection used a bus with a bit width of 256 bits. The recommended clock frequency of memory chips is 2200 MHz. The bandwidth was established by developers at the level of 70.4 Gb / sec. The amount of RAM could be 512 MB, 1 GB or even 2 GB.

The cost. Thermal package and communication kit

105W - it was this value of the thermal package that the GeForce GTS 250 could boast. The characteristics of the PCI E rev. 16X (it was in this expansion slot that this solution could be installed) allowed to issue only 75W. Therefore, to provide power supply for this solution, it was necessary to add additional connectors from the PC power supply. Also, such a board could work stably only in combination with an active cooling system.

To output information, this accelerator was equipped with three ports. One of them transmitted information in analog format - it's VGA. The other two are in digital. One is DVI, and the other is HDMI. The key drawback of this adapter is high power consumption. Its pluses include acceptable speed, universal parameters and affordable cost, which is currently 3 000-3 500 rubles in a new version from stock. Used boards are even cheaper - 1,000-1,500 rubles.

Results

A balanced mid-level adapter at the time of release was the GeForce GTS 250. The characteristics of it really were competitive and allowed to solve most problems. Now the decision is outdated, and a new generation of discrete accelerators has replaced it.