NVIDIA's move to give the GeForce GTX 260 a performance boost by increasing its shader count by 24, to make 216 in all has worked in pusing the performance envelope high up. Our review of the Zotac GeForce GTX 260 Amp2 has shown that at a price range the new GPU based graphics cards fall in, they offer terrific value.

EVGA has decided to cash in on this move with their lineup of cards that sport the newer GPU. Among this, is a high-end card that comes with factory-fitted water blocks. The EVGA e-GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 HC16 comes with a full coverage water block. What's more, the other side of the PCB has been provided with cooling for vital parts of the PCB as well. What's even more surprising is that the card uses a power design similar to that of the GeForce GTX 280. It comes with 6-pin + 8-pin PCI-Express power inputs. Evidently, the enhanced power circuit keeps the card overclock-stable beyond the speeds it comes in. The GPU core is clocked at 648 MHz, with 1404 MHz for the shader domain. Memory is clocked at 1053 MHz. It comes with the usual 896 MB of memory. This card however, carries a price-tag of US $489.99, leaving the enhanced PCB and cooling to justify it.