GeForce GTX 285: 55nm Enabling Higher Performance
by Derek Wilson on January 15, 2009 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Just last week, NVIDIA announced both the GTX 295 and GTX 285. Today we have availability on both and test results for the GTX 285. As we weren't able to get power tests done time to include in the GTX 295 review, we also have those available today.
EVGA was kind enough to provide the hardware for this review. They sent us two GTX 280s for single and SLI testing. They provided us with overclocked cards, but for this article we underclocked them to stock GTX 285 speeds in order to learn what we can expect from non-overclocked variants.
The hardware looks the same as the current GeForce GTX 280. There really isn't anything aside from the GPU that appears different (except the sticker on the card that is).
We've already indicated the changes that have gone into the GTX 285, but here's another look at the updated clock speeds and the test setup.
| GTX 295 | GTX 285 | GTX 280 | GTX 260 Core 216 | GTX 260 | 9800 GTX+ | |
| Stream Processors | 2 x 240 | 240 | 240 | 216 | 192 | 128 |
| Texture Address / Filtering | 2 x 80 / 80 | 80 / 80 | 80 / 80 | 72/72 | 64 / 64 | 64 / 64 |
| ROPs | 28 | 32 | 32 | 28 | 28 | 16 |
| Core Clock | 576MHz | 648MHz | 602MHz | 576MHz | 576MHz | 738MHz |
| Shader Clock | 1242MHz | 1476MHz | 1296MHz | 1242MHz | 1242MHz | 1836MHz |
| Memory Clock | 999MHz | 1242MHz | 1107MHz | 999MHz | 999MHz | 1100MHz |
| Memory Bus Width | 2 x 448-bit | 512-bit | 512-bit | 448-bit | 448-bit | 256-bit |
| Frame Buffer | 2 x 896MB | 1GB | 1GB | 896MB | 896MB | 512MB |
| Transistor Count | 2 x 1.4B | 1.4B | 1.4B | 1.4B | 1.4B | 754M |
| Manufacturing Process | TSMC 55nm | TSMC 55nm | TSMC 65nm | TSMC 65nm | TSMC 65nm | TSMC 55nm |
| Price Point | $500 | $400 | $350 - $400 | $250 - $300 | $250 - $300 | $150 - 200 |
The price point for the GTX 285 is $400, but newegg has parts for $380 right now and overclocked variants for not too much more.
The Test
| Test Setup | |
| CPU | Intel Core i7-965 3.2GHz |
| Motherboard | ASUS Rampage II Extreme X58 |
| Video Cards | ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 SLI NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 SLI NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 SLI EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 |
| Video Drivers | Catalyst 8.12 hotfix ForceWare 181.20 |
| Hard Drive | Intel X25-M 80GB SSD |
| RAM | 6 x 1GB DDR3-1066 7-7-7-20 |
| Operating System | Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit SP1 |
| PSU | PC Power & Cooling Turbo Cool 1200W |
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GhandiInstinct - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link
Derek,These articles need to start concluding with: "So if you have to buy a video card(cpu...etc) today, buy the ____________.
Thank you.
Beoir - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link
For a similar price you could get a 4870 X2.Do they think the customer is stupid? NVIDIA was not thinking about pricing by making it only $100 less than a dual GPU. But, to be the "glass is half full" wait a few months and I'm sure the price will drop significantly.
SiliconDoc - Monday, January 19, 2009 - link
It's stupid to get a dual gpu solution when you can have one GPU be smoking up the fps in ALL GAMES.The problem of course is, ATI doesn't have a single gpu that is even close. ATI is sucking wind.
That's a problem, so somehow, some line of hogwash must be blabbered about to fix that problem.
If you like screwing with games endlessly, trying to get CF working, then you go to another title and it takes an fps HIT, and comes out lower and nothing can fix it - go for your "pick".
There's just no way a sane person would take the 4870x2 over the GTX285, unless they loved trouble, no driver profiles, no Cuda, and no PhysX - and a huge power suction to go with all that crap - toasting any "savings" on the electric bill.
Try the Warmonger demo, it even runs at 17fps on a 3650 at 1280x1024. Check out how cool PhysX is - you've never seen any game like it - try it... then you'll see.
http://www.nvidia.com/content/graphicsplus/us/down...">http://www.nvidia.com/content/graphicsplus/us/down...
top one - download that puppy and have some real fun...
HUGE POTENTIAL, and it's already something to behold.
hk6900 - Saturday, February 21, 2009 - link
I really hope that you get curb-stomped. It'd be hilarious to see you
begging for help, and then someone stomps on the back of your head,
leaving you to die in horrible, agonizing pain. *beep*
Shut the *beep* up f aggot, before you get your face bashed in and cut
to ribbons, and your throat slit.
JarredWalton - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link
Or for $50 more you can get a GTX 295 instead of the 4870X2. I'd be more inclined to go that route, personally. I don't think the importance of drivers and multi-GPU driver profiles can be overstated on the single card dual-GPU solutions.Goty - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link
The GTX295 would make sense if it weren't NVIDIA's practice to shove out a halo product with issues and then stop supporting it entirely farther down the road a la the 9800GX2.Thar - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link
These reviews left me a little confused. Where you comparing a single card to configurations with two cards in crossfire and or two cards in SLI? If I see SLI or X2 at the end of a card name am I to assume the test bed was running two cards and if I don't see it assume a single card was used?In your conclusion you say the 295 has captured the Halo yet not one bench mark showed it at the top. The only thing I could figure is you were benching a single 295 against 2 card SLI and Crossfire set ups.
Toolius - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link
Would it be possible to update the results with 4870x2's in Crossfire ? I mean a GTX295 SLI setup is over a 1000 $ and a GTX 285 SLI setup is close to 800 $ . Considering that 4870x2's in Crossfire also cost just about the same , Can we have some figures for 4870x2's in crossfire as well PLEASE ?? Pretty Please ? With a Cherry on top :)Thar - Friday, January 16, 2009 - link
Head over to Tom's Hardware for 4870's in Crossfire. A good review that makes it clear how many cards are running in each test.Best I could tell this test on Anandtech did not have the GTX295 in a dual card SLI setup, and while they completly failed to mention it I do believe the GTX 285 and 260 were both in a two or maybe 3 card SLI setup.
IKeelU - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link
Third sentence should probably read: "As we weren't able to get power tests done on time..." instead of: "As we weren't able to get power tests done time..."