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It's getting warm and nice outside these days -- but at the same time, a bunch of new games are coming out, and are on the verge of coming out, such as Terminator: Salvation, Battlestations: Pacific, Zeno Clash, and even The Sims 3 for you truly hardcore out there. What is a gamer to do? 

Play games of course. At least during the night.

If you are looking forward something to add a little kick to your gaming experience then you might be shopping for a video card. Right now, in the big scheme of things, we have arrived at the end of this generation for both ATI and NVIDIA graphics cards. Both companies are at work on the next bigger and badder generation -- but they are both keeping plans tight to their chest. For now, hardware-heads can count on the stores being packed with fine cards -- still sufficiently bad and big -- to get the gaming done. 

Today we are looking at a GTX 260 from Asus. This is of course, a 216 shader core GTX 260, not the first version of the GTX 260, which was slightly underpowered with only 192 shader cores. 

When comes down to video cards, you can classify three different basic types of models. First off, you have the reference design cards, that only differ from one another by a sticker; second, you have cards that have different, non-standard design coolers on them; and third, you have the overclocked, custom-cooler cards aimed towards the enthusiasts. Today's GTX 260 definitely falls in the last category. 

The Asus ENGTX260 Matrix has an impressive looking cooler on it, an above-average tuning program with the ability to even change voltages, and the ability to save overclocking profiles. Sound interesting? Keep reading.