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

Age of Conan Performance
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  • SiliconDoc - Monday, January 19, 2009 - link

    Here, take a look at the power useage:
    .
    http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews...">http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews...
    .
    There you see the SICKNESS in all it's silicon cooking glory... the 4870x2, the 4850x2 AND the 3870x2 ALL COMSUME MORE POWER THAN THE GTX295(x2) .

    Just look at that CRAP.....
    .
    Now it's time to say WHAT HASN'T BEEN SAID:
    .
    Since the 4870/4870x2/512/1024/2048 are all on a SMALLER silicon die - and all have a HIGHER core clockspeed, and ALL have mroe electricity surging through them, all causing MORE HEAT ... with those smaller cores FILLED UP WITH DATA and electricity more often at a DENSER level - guess what's coming ? !? !
    It's only been 5 months- and SOON - the 4870 monsters - due to ELECTROMIGRATION - are going to start BURNING OUT...
    .
    YES BURN OUT TIME FOR THE SMALLER ATI CORES IS COMING SOON TO A RIG NEAR YOU !
    .
    lol - Another gigantic POINT - the raging reds have for 5 months never considered.... never brought up - never talked about...
    .
    I can HARDLY WAIT till the failures start hitting hard.. in bigger and bigger numbers - it's inevitable.
  • 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.
  • SiliconDoc - Monday, January 19, 2009 - link

    The 4870 uses more power in idle - look at the power charts.
    " No power savings" = 4870
    Gosh I am really sick of the lies.
    How did you manage to get yourself to spew that out ?
    The 285 is lower in idle than a 260 which also beats the 4870.
    "no power savings" = deranged redfan.
  • sam187 - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link

    I still would like to know if the GTX285/295 support Hybrid SLI -> Hybrid Power...
  • Daeros - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link

    AFIK, the entire GTX2XX line dropped hybrid power. The only cards that support it are the high-end 9XXX cards.
  • sam187 - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link

    The GTX260/280 also support it:
    http://www.nvidia.com/object/hybrid_sli_desktop.ht...">http://www.nvidia.com/object/hybrid_sli_desktop.ht...
  • Daeros - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link

    wow, I totally missed that. sorry
  • Aberforth - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link

    man, some of these reviews are getting very generic and boring day by day, you take pictures of a product at different angles and do the number game, maybe it's because the technologies and innovations these days are becoming so forced and profit oriented.
  • GaryJohnson - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link

    As opposed to the before time or the long long ago when technology was all about mystery and wonder?
  • Aberforth - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link

    Yes

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