Gainward GeForce GTX280 1024MB: Package and Accessories

We have several times criticized Gainward for using the same design almost for all of their packaging. Luckily, they changed it completely for the accelerators on the new Nvidia chips.

Gainward designers did a great job: new package is very bright, attractive, but at the same time is laconically strict, which suits solutions from the highest price segment best of all. The package is pretty informative, although it is technically wrong to say “1GB DDR3”, because GDDR3 memory used in most graphics cards these days is a sub-type of DDR2 and has nothing to do with JEDEC DDR3 standard. However, this mistake is very widely spread among graphics card manufacturers and suppliers.

The package is very secure and will protect the graphics card inside the same way as before: the card is bubble-wrapped and placed in a small box. Cardboard corners hold this box inside the main box. There is enough room on the sides of the box for accessories. The bundle includes the following items:

• DVI-I → D-Sub adapter
• DVI-I → HDMI adapter
• Internal S/PDIF cable
• Universal YPbPr/Composite splitter
• Brief installation guide
• CD disk with drivers and full users manual
• DVD disk with Tomb Raider: Anniversary game.

If the package design and its protective functionality receive our most positive response, then the accessories bundle of Gainward GeForce GTX280 1024MB seems to be pretty modest. For example, there are no power adapters, such as 8-pin PCI Express, although there are a lot of power supply units out there even among the most powerful ones that still have only 6-pin graphics adapter connector. Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 will not work if you connect a 6-pin PSU connector to the 8-pin connector on the graphics card that is why the absence of the corresponding adapter is considered a serious drawback.

Another serious drawback is the absence of any software for HD video playback. It could be absolutely justified if we were talking about an inexpensive solution like ATI Radeon HD 3850, because bundling software like that could have a significant effect on the pricing and competitiveness of the product. However, for the graphics card from the highest price segment this sort of economical approach is unacceptable. The manufacturers who offer high-end graphics solutions usually try to ensure that there is some pleasant surprise awaiting the customer inside the box that is why we didn’t quite understand Gainward’s view on the accessories bundle. The full version of Tomb Raider: Anniversary game could be considered this “surprise”, but the game is not that new any more and doesn’t really reveal the potential of the new GeForce GTX 280.

Gainward GeForce GTX280 1024MB makes a very favorable overall impression due to new stylish packaging. However, a $499+ graphics card definitely doesn’t deserve a poor accessories bundle like that. We could have closed our eyes to that, if it hadn’t been for the missing power adapters. We hope that Gainward fixes this omission ASAP, which will certainly make this solution a much ore attractive buy for the end-user.