• 6-pin power adapter
• DVI to VGA adapter
• Component out
• ASUS Multi-Language Installation Manual
• CD Wallet
• DRIVER CD

ASUS ships the ENGTX260/HTDP/896M/A in a long green box with a woman archer on the right hand side, and the main features of the card on the bottom of the picture. The rear of the box has a list of the features of the GTX260, the ASUS exclusive features and the recommended system requirements. The features are written in English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Italian, and in another language I can't identify.

There are two versions of this exact card on the market, with the only difference being that the GTX260 has transitioned to the 55 nanometer process. The review card I have is based upon the 65 nanometer process that it shipped with. Functionally there should be no difference in performance as the clock speeds are the same. Realistically, the 55 nanometer version should have better thermal performance as the chip will run cooler than the 65 nanometer one.

The bundle comes with everything that you need to get started with a modern video card with two exceptions, the game and a HDMI to DVI adapter. ASUS decided to make a separate SKU with that adapter called the ENGTX260 TOP/HTDI/896M. That card also comes with higher clock speeds, Far Cry 2 but is more expensive than this one. The DVI to VGA adapter allows the user to install a CRT monitor if necessary.

NVIDIA has been releasing drivers on a monthly basis for the last 2 years. The latest drivers, the 182.06 were released just a few days ago. The 182.06 drivers were released in Feburary 18th, offering higher performance in certain applications and support for OpenGL 3.0 on all NVIDIA video cards that are of the 8, 9 and 200 series. PhysX is also turned on by default allowing the user to enjoy games like Mirror's Edge to the fullest.

When the card is idle it has a temperature of around 43C, which is pretty low compared to some cards on the market today. Under stress (3DMark Vantage run), the card reached a maximum temperature of 66C, which compares nicely to some cards, and is in line with other GTX 2xx class cards. As the clock speeds are the reference clock this is to be expected. There is some leeway for overclocking as these temperatures are much lower than 90C I've seen on some cards with other video chips.