This afternoon, Twintech revealed its GTS 250 line of graphics cards, featuring on-board HDMI in 512 MB and 1 GB flavors.
However, what struck out most was the company's claim that the GTS 250 series is ready for Windows 7 and, according to Twintech, one of the first to support DirectX 11. There's some skepticism in that aspect, as anything Vista-capable seems to default as Windows 7 compliant even though the operating system is still in its beta stage. Any recent GPU in fact, will be able to support Windows 7 no problem. Those of you running the Windows 7 beta can attest to this already.
The new GeFprce GTS 250 is nothing more than a rebranded GTX 9800+, to fit more in line with current Nvidia naming conventions. We're told that the new cards however, will receive a price reduction, making them more affordable than current GTX 9800+ boards.
Both the 1 GB and 512 MB versions of the GTS 250 feature 128 stream processing, a core clock of 738 MHz, a processor clock of 1836 MHz and a texture fill rate of 47.2 billion/sec. Each card utilizes DDR3 256bit memory with memory clock of 2000 MHz (1 GB card) and 2200 MHz (512MB card). With on-board HDMI, users will benefit from digital transfer speeds up to 10.2 gigabytes per second, offering double the bandwidth needed to transmit a 1080p signal; the card also provides a DVI max resolution of 2560x1600. To keep things cool, the cards sport dual fans in an equally cool blue color as well as a heat pipe mounted somewhere under the shell.
Note: Because there's not much to bring to the table, we're expecting most if not all board manufacturers to offer overclocked GTS 250 cards straight from the factory.
Additionally, Twintech also announced its overclocked version of the GTS250: the GeForce GTS 250 HDMI XT OC Edition, with the core clock increased from 738M Hz to 750 MHz. The memory clock of this edition also increases from 2000MHz to 2250MHz (1 GB card) whereas the 512MB version memory clock increase from 2200 MHz to 2300 MHz. The specs also show that these cards use DDR3-0.8ns 256bit memory, however other than these three differentiating factors, the XT OC Edition cards offer the same design as the regular "vanilla" GTS 250.
On top of a reference GTS 250, and the XT OC Editions, Twintech also revealed another set, the AC Twin Turbo Cooler and Heatpipe Dual Silent Fan Edition, bearing an extremely long name, building upon its overclocked XT OC siblings. Each card sports the AC Twin Turbo cooling system featuring four heat pipes and two "ultra-quiet" 80mm fans with neon orange blades that gives each card an uncanny catty look.
Look for all six to become available online and offline soon, however pricing and availability will not be announced until Nvidia officially reveals the GTS 250 tomorrow. To get a better understand of the difference between the GTS 250 and the 9800 GTX+. Check out the table below:
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | GTS 250 | 9800 GTX+ |
| Processor Cores | 128 | 128 |
| Graphics Clock | 738 MHz | 738 MHz |
| Processor Clock (MHz) | 1836MHz | 1836MHz |
| Texture Fill Rate | 47.2 billion/sec | 47.2 billion/sec |
| Memory Clock | 1100 MHz | 1100 MHz |
| Memory Interface Width | 256-bit | 256-bit |
