several different companys make the nvidea cards and there all slightly different. then you can also buy modcards that come overclocked and such for a little more power and faster clockspeed. (i got the ATI 5850 Black wich is one such card. advantage of this is you get the extra power of overclocking it without voiding the warenty) EX. the MSI 260 has a better heatsink and cooling on it. so saying its a gtx 260 is just the basics