- Overclocking

When we had tried to overclock the Gainward GT 240 GS graphics card things were easy. However, we had a hard time to overclock our the Inno3D GT 240 iChill XS3 sample. The system halted after any slight change (boost) of the core/memory/shader clocks. The cause of this behavior could be either the Nvidia 195.62 WHQL or the Nvidia Performance utility we used for overclocking. For the record, we had used the 195.62 beta drivers when we had overclocked the Gainward GT 240 GS series. We should also note that the card's cooling fan could not be controlled via the performance monitor. We should probably wait for a newer version of the RivaTuner software.

- Summary

The Inno3D GT 240 iChill XS3 graphics card is an "enhanced" edition of the Nvidia GT 240 series, featuring improved cooling and gold plated video outputs. The card comes in a complete package and the bundled retail game (Alone In the Dark) could make its purchase even more appealing.

The competition in this s category is very tough. Speaking with numbers, the already tested Gainward GT 240 Golden Sample is "faster" due to its higher clocks for the memory and especially for the shaders. Of course, the differences between the two cards are minor under real gaming. In most cases the difference won't be higher than 1-2 FPS.

We were troubled us with the fact we couldn't overclock the iChiL card using the Nvidia Performance utility and the 195.62 WHQL drivers. However, provided that we have to do with an already overclocked product, this is not something that should be considered as a drawback since the performance gain with in these cases is not worth mentioning.

Concluding this review we can say that the Inno3D GT 240 iChill XS3 is a good example of taking a "normal" product and improve it in several ways. The retail package is complete (compared with other vendors), the installed aftermarket GPU cooler seems to be efficient and quiet, while the supported Nvidia technologies (like CUDA) add some extra value to the card. Provided that do know what to expect in terms of performance form a mid-range graphics card, the Inno3D GT 240 iChill XS3 will do the job for you.

However, our question about the price of the card remains. Many similar products are currently available at the same price range and some of them clearly offer a better (9800GT) or an even better performance (like HD5750).