Nvidia GeForce GTX 295
Posted 01/08/09 at 12:00:00 PM by Will Smith
Comments
Print
Email
We’ve made no secret of the fact that we love the pulse-pounding speed that ATI’s Radeon 4870 X2 boards deliver, but there’s a new speed king in town—the GeForce GTX 295. On paper, the two GPUs on the 295 fall somewhere between the GTX 260 and GTX 280, but this board delivers a crushing performance blow to ATI’s fastest part.
The GTX 295’s GPUs feature 896MB of GDDR3 memory and the full complement of 240 shader cores previously seen only on GTX 280 boards (current GTX 260 boards have just 216 shader units). However, the core and memory clocks are a touch below those of the single-GPU GTX 280 boards—576MHz and 999MHz respectively. Additionally, the new GPU is Nvidia’s first to step down from a 65nm to a more efficient 55nm process. The benefit? Mega-speed in one double-wide card. Even with the process-size shrink, the card requires a new mid-mounted cooler—that’s right, the heatsink/fan is sandwiched between two boards, each with its own GPU and memory.
Naturally, the card is outfitted with all the accoutrements we’ve come to expect, including a pair of dual-link DVI ports and a single HDMI port. Like the rest of the cards in the GeForce G200 series, the GTX 295 also supports general-purpose GPU computing, using both the open OpenCL platform as well as Nvidia’s proprietary CUDA platform. While we’re optimistic about the promise of general-purpose GPU computing, we don’t see any proprietary API gaining enough traction with consumers and developers to make a long-term impact. The same is true for Nvidia’s PhysX accelerated physics API. With just a handful of games supporting PhysX acceleration, and then only for superficial eye candy, we’ll continue to base our purchasing recommendations on performance in popular games rather than proprietary APIs that may or may not gain mainstream popularity.
Finally, the boys in green strike back at the 4870 X2
So where does that leave the GeForce GTX 295? With this board, Nvidia has shown that it can build kick-ass technology and doesn’t need to hide behind proprietary APIs to protect and expand its market. The GTX 295 is demonstrably faster than the Radeon 4870 X2 in every benchmark we use. And that makes our recommendation easy, without even considering PhysX or CUDA. Expect a street price of around $500.
Nvidia GeForce GTX 295
Lita Ford
Blazing speed in a single double-wide card.
Edsel Ford
PhysX support still basically superfluous.
Benchmarks
| GeForce GTX 295 | Radeon 4870 x2 | GeForce GTX 280 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Driver Version | 181.2 | 8.12 | 180.48 |
| Crysis 4x AA / Very High | 30.1 | 29.6 | 18.35 |
| Crysis noAA / Very High | 36.83 | 31.6 | 22.28 |
| Call of Duty | 115.5 | 106.5 | 68.09 |
| Vantage Game 1 | 28.98 | 19.2 | 17.32 |
| Vantage Game 2 | 21.86 | 18.9 | 13.11 |
| Far Cry 1920x1200 (High Quality, No Physics, No AI) | 80.9 | 68.48 | 52.2 |
| Far Cry 1680x1050 (High Quality, No Physics, No AI) | 87.7 | 72.15 | 58.7 |
Best scores are bolded. Benchmarks are run on an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9770 Extreme, with 4GB of memory running Windows Vista. Crysis, and 3DMark Vantage are run at 1920x1200, with 4x AA and 8x anisotropic filtering, unless otherwise noted. Call of Duty is run at 2560x1600 with 4x AA.
basically, thats the way i
Submitted by michalraise on Fri, 06/05/2009 - 12:13am
basically, thats the way i see it der, nvidia got the extreme top performance (when you sli them), but the best bang in the "normal" high end is still with ati.
______________________________
Trade show - Exibit show Directory,International Trade Shows - Business Trade
Submitted by majorsuave on Wed, 01/21/2009 - 9:42am
When Lita was rocking along with Joan Jett in the Runaways in the late 70s, yep, she was the thang. Now however I would see a still functional Edsel Ford as more valuable than a partly functional Lita Ford.
On the other hand, how many watts the 295 is munching?
How does it compare with a 4870x2 for cunsumption?
THE GTX295 USES A LOT LESS POWER
Submitted by SiliconDoc on Thu, 01/22/2009 - 1:08am
Even the gtx260 uses less power than the 4870.
Pretty simple math - 295 WINS.
Cuda, PhysX, large cool die size, better power management, game profiles out of the box, forced SLI, better overclocking, 65% of GPU-Z scores and marketshare, TWIMTBP, no CCC bloat, secondary PhysX card capable, SLI monitor control, confident - not a r
Submitted by kx5500 on Sat, 02/21/2009 - 3:00pm
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.
Hey...
Submitted by loadwire on Sun, 01/18/2009 - 3:07pm
Hey can't wee all just get along! "ATI is Better... No Nvidia Is Better.." Shut up!!!
Submitted by jchurchwell on Sun, 01/11/2009 - 5:03pm
I personally prefer Nvidia cards. Can't really say why, I just do. I've owned and used ATI also and have had no problems. I think if you have a good rig either one will perform great. I'm actually considering ATI cards for my next rig, just to change things up a little. Right now I have 2 GTX 260s in SLi that I'm very pleased with. Sure, I'd love 2 GTX280s or 2 GTX 295s, or even 2 4870x2s, but thats just not in my budget right now.
Both companies make good quality cards! What can you afford,and whats your preference?
Submitted by syquest1 on Sat, 01/10/2009 - 8:40am
Holy crap!! The Nvidia and ATI fanboys (and fangirls) need to take a step back from each other and return to your corners. Who cares who is a fan of either company? I have had ATI and Nvidia cards (both great and crappy). I have been using an Nvidia 8800 GT for a year now. It has been a great workhorse. I just built a Core i7 machine and put that card in it until I had the money to buy a high end card. I have reached that goal and ordered a GTX 295 from Newegg yesterday purely based on the specs and reviews I have read on numerous sites. And yes I am sure in a couple of months ATI and/or Nvidia will have new cards out that blow the GTX 295 out of the water. All of us enthusiasts know how it goes in the BYOC world when it comes to hardware. We all know that if we keep holding out for the next best thing we would all still be running GeForce 7900's or X1950XTX's. You can't hold out forever.
All of this harsh back and forth between the Nvidia and ATI groupies is idiotic at best. Buy what you want and can afford. The hating on people that spend their hard earned money and pay $500 (like myself) is wasted energy. I have been saving money for 6 months to be able to buy the GTX 295.
One more thing....please use spell check and read over what you type before posting. The spelling and grammar I have seen is atrocious (that means bad).
Peace out everyone.
Jon
how fast is fast
Submitted by jihnn on Sat, 01/10/2009 - 8:04am
$500 to get 10 maybe 15 more fps. in my world nvida doesn't relate. i may push by budget to get a very fast ati card while i will not even consider this card. sure its impressive the fastest single card out there. personaly i like ati's bang for the buck profile, they are talking to me. that $100 diff. pays my internet bill for a month and gets me a new game, it puts gas in the car for about a month.
sure i want one..... but not gonna happen
what about the heat, can you put a shelf above it and bake pizza's? i have had a nvidia dual core card and it was hot, my final thermal soluttion was to take the side cover off the puter and have a small squirrel cage fan blowing on the card (i hated that card)
Submitted by dballew on Fri, 01/09/2009 - 10:47pm
Well, I'll find out soon enough. Went in to Fry's today to pick up a 4870 x2 and saw a BFG GTX 295 sitting on the self. I wasn't really looking to SLI or Crossfire and that's why I liked the idea of two GPU's on one card (I've got an Asus P5K deluxe with only one slot). I saw the crappy reviews for the previous lines of nVidia x2 cards and the universal glowing reviews of the Radeon x2 so that's why I was going to buy one. Both the Diamond and Visiontech x2's were selling for $550 at Fry's. I know they can be had cheaper at Newegg and shipping is fast there, but I wanted to get my hands on one today (yeah, I know I'm impulsive) This GTX 295 was $500. I bought it because it was cheaper and it looked to be a better spec'd. Prob should have checked online to see if there was any info before hand as the sales guy at Fry's said they just came in today. I did get online when I got home figuring I could always return it. I did a search for GTX 295 and found a fair number of articles quite a few with included benchmarking. After reading all of them, I'm now glad I bought this. Every article was the same, This card outperformed the Radeon 4870 x2 and everything but a 280 SLI setup. All the reviews i saw had it either ahead or slightly ahead of a 260 SLI setup. Time will tell if I stay happy with it after running it in my rig a while. I am going to be picking up the parts for a Core i7 965 rig based on an Asus P6T board in the next few days so I'm hoping to move this over and down the road when prices drop, may get a second one. But for now, two GPU's on a single card that is quicker and a little cheaper (at least today) than the 4870 x2 wins my vote. I am interested in the thermals on this too, so I'll be checking around.
Submitted by STorpedo on Sat, 01/10/2009 - 3:59am
If you're interested in thermals, you might be a bit dissapointed, but that comes with the territory with dual-gpu 1slot cards. You can get some ram-heatsinks and stick a whole bunch of em on the backplate, and stick a fan real close, or upgrade to an antec 1200, that thing has amazing airflow. Also, if anybody has the bawls to make a watercooling kit for this baby, you could go with that. But personally, if you can wait, you can get a 4870, OCit a bit, have almost top-notch preformance, in everythin except for Crysis (for which you won't get top-top notch preformance anyways, even with this card), and upgrade to a card for the same price which will be 30-40% better in one year.
:(
Submitted by K0BALT on Fri, 01/09/2009 - 9:23pm
Makes me kinda sad. I just splurged on (2) GTX 260 Core 216's. I'd like 2 of these paired up with the new Phenom II. Oh well.... next xmas.
[H]ard OCP Just did a review
Submitted by xveganx on Fri, 01/09/2009 - 8:42am
[H]ard OCP Just did a review on this and said its pretty much a wash with the 4870x2 in actual game play and the x2 did win a couple of the tests. Their conclusion was that for the $100 price difference the x2 is still a much better value.
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTYwOCwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
Lol, I love all these
Submitted by pcwizmtl on Fri, 01/09/2009 - 7:27am
Lol, I love all these fanboys dropping like $600-700 on a videocard that will eventually cost half the price (give about a year) and get it's ass kicked by a competitor that analyses the market and technology to give the consumer something that actually has a bang for their buck.
Nvidia, the way it meant to... BSOD (this is not my own line, I saw it somewhere on the forums and LMAO at it's cleverness)
When something is good, you don't need to convince people, intelligent people actually see real value.
Im not dropping cash to get 10 more frames per second in a game. Give me a card that performs a good %30 better (to a min.) than my current setup, at a reasonable price and I'll consider it.
I picked up 2 4850's for myself instead of a 4870x2 and gave up the gddr5, overclocked them and have very close benchmarks to a 4870x2 and saved about $300.
I'm not a fanboy, I try to save cash, If I were a fanboy, I'd rock a white laptop with an apple on it and beg my parents for cash for some crap I dont need.
That's why I say, F@(% it!
It's all about homework people.
Don't believe the hype.
Hey will I'll trade you my
Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Fri, 01/09/2009 - 1:13am
Hey Will Smith I'll trade you my two 8800GTS 640mb video cards that I have in SLI for this one video card. See you will come out on top. Two video cards for one. It'll be a loss for me be I can live with it. Let me know what you want to do... Honest seriously.... Really.... I'll trade you my two cards for this one. Really...:)
BTW I've been enjoying your twitter thing.... (kiss up kiss up)
nVidia still doing what it does best......
Submitted by ghot on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 8:06pm
....spanking the rest of the vid card industry....
I have gotten seriously sick and tired of ATI fanboys dissing the GTX 280 by comparing it to an ATI card with TWO GPU's...seems nVidia felt that way also. I sure am glad I stuck with nVidia....I hate to have to look back and say to myself...why oh why didn't I dance with the girl that brung me :)
MAX PC: Slap two of these in a rig ....please...and show us some benchmarks :)
Submitted by Spider-Mom on Fri, 01/09/2009 - 8:42pm
Its more like nvidia got its ass handed to it for almost a year and coudnt come up with anything to compeate in any meaninfull time frame. This card is a failure. ATI will have there next stepping out so soon that this will seem stupid. ATI has alraedy won this cycel.
And seriously no one cares if the X2 was only better because it had 2 GPUs. The only people who metnion that are the jelous fools like you. The fact that nvidia had to come out with their own dual GPU card to compeate(at the end of the product cycle) shows just how far behind they were.
ATI
Submitted by n0t_a_n00b2 on Fri, 01/09/2009 - 3:02pm
So one isn't that bright. The 4800 series was revealed on the eve of the GT200 launch, so don't be surprised if a 4970 with a 1 GB frame buffer of GDDR3 and a 384 bit memory interface and 1200-1600 stream processors, and all running at 200 watts on the 40nm process. Then along the road (six to twelve weeks) we'll see an X2 vesion that will shut the Nvidia fanboys up for another 3 months.
Submitted by STorpedo on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 9:46pm
And I have gotten seriously sick and tired of NVidia fanboys' blind devotion. Listen bud, I liked NVidia a hell of a lot more than ATI in the last couple of years, but the last gen's GTX280 iteration was terrible, SLI was implemented terrrrribly in all but 3 games (check out xbitlabs.com, GPUs vs Games article), not to mention the really stupid tactic of slapping as much transistors as they can on the PCB and not even caring about efficiency. In the last graphics war the 4870x2 won fair and square, not cause it's one slotted, but cause it was hell of a lot more cost-efficient and better designed. This vid. card is definetley a step in the right direction for Nvidia, but I won't pronounce a clear winner until I see ATI's and Nvidia's next gen. So if you didn't get my point so far, don't state Nvidia as the clear winner matter-of-factly just because you really want Nvidia to win, you just might look stupid.
Not much better
Submitted by bbecker42 on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 5:27pm
The 295 really do that much better than the 4870x2 and the only place where it really outshined its competitor was in a benchmark. Expect some price drops from ATI!!!!!
Submitted by STorpedo on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 9:25pm
Doh, I just got myself a 4870x2 :( Course, I got it watercooled, so I make up for it in OC'ing, hehe :)
Submitted by avenger48 on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 6:27pm
Until the GTX 300's come out, it's not half bad.
Submitted by avenger48 on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 2:04pm
This is for the EVGA version, $510 or so at last check.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130439
Thanks for the link.
Submitted by jcollins on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 2:45pm
Thanks for the link.
Submitted by Pixelated on Sun, 01/11/2009 - 5:00pm
What you've never heard of Newegg before?
Submitted by hogkill on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 1:18pm
In your year end "build a pc" mag you stated that there wouldn't be a faster card then the X2 for a good while, but it's only the beginning of January and there already is one. One of the disadvantages of reusing old articles, that should have been checked.
We weren't briefed on the
Submitted by willsmith on Fri, 01/09/2009 - 12:28am
We weren't briefed on the GTX 295 until about 3 weeks ago, long after the Build a PC mag came out. Unfortunately, I don't have any crystal balls. I don't know what happens internally at Nvidia, but I don't think this card was on any roadmaps until ATI came out and spanked the GTX 280 with no real downside.
Submitted by xveganx on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 1:10pm
for the person who asked when this would be available, its already for sale on newegg.
Submitted by jcollins on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 1:54pm
You got a link for it? I don't see it on their site. The info they have on it has a Buy Now link that leads nowhere.
WOOT!!
Submitted by tbui02721 on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 12:25pm
I can't wait. This card is real. If you read in the video card forums, there is a website with an almost complete benchmark. The only thing is is that they don't tell you the heating situation that card has. Hope you guy's read up.
Submitted by jcollins on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 11:58am
Looks interesting, but I'd like a bit more detail (or at least some line saying you'll talk more about it after CES). For example, I had to go elsewhere to find out that this card was announced at CES today.
1) When's this estimated to be released? Is this just a paper release to scare ATI or is this "real" and will be on the street in a month or two or four or twelve?
2) Did you do the benchmarking yourselves, or are you using Nvidia press release materials? Can we trust these benchmark numbers? I'm assuming you guys benchmarked a pre-release card, but you don't say.
3) If you did the benchmarking, why didn't you use the same driver versions for both Nvidia cards? I know that it takes time to the benchmarks, blah blah blah. However, it's a bit apples and oranges in comparing the two NVidia cards if they're different versions.
4) If you did the benchmarking yourself, you indicate you used Vista. You don't say if it is 32 bit or 64 bit or the SP level (I'm assuming 32 Bit SP1).
5) If you did the benchmarking yourselves, how was the stability/heat? Any funky crashes during benchmarking? Am I going to buy this card thinking it's the schnizzle and find out it crashes every 10 minutes in Crysis due to heat?
Submitted by willsmith on Fri, 01/09/2009 - 12:42am
This is the review that will run in the March issue of the magazine. It's a review of the reference board we received from Nvidia, and for all intents and purposes is the same as the first round of boards you'll see at Newegg (clocks, memory config, etc).
At Maximum PC, if we don't say otherwise, you can assume that any benchmark numbers we run are a result of testing we run ourselves. I can only think of a handful of times that we've reported benchmarks results from anything other than systems where we control all the variables (drivers, OS, etc) on, and every time we did it was clearly stated which benchmarks are the result of our testing vs. the cooked numbers provided by manufacturers.
Quite frankly, I didn't have time to rerun the numbers on the GTX 280 board with the new drivers and still do the stress testing that I like to run on new boards. They're really just there for perspective, the really interesting thing to me is the gap between the 4870 X2s and the GTX 295. I figured it's better to provide context than not to.
Our web guys must have left off the note that's supposed to run at the bottom of our benchmarks. It's Vista SP1 on a the Extreme Penryn quad-core (I'm terrible with CPU model numbers, can't recall which one it is atm).
If there are heat/stability/crashing issues, that's something we note in a review. We don't give good reviews to unstable hardware.
We got the board really late, and in a perfect world, I would have done an expanded review for the web, which is what I usually do.
As a point of reference (and I'll add it to our list of enhancements for the website) I need to add a link to a review policy to all review pages, something that will explain exactly what a verdicted review means at Maximum PC. Basically, we stake the reputation of our publication on our verdicted reviews. We review on a standardized test platform, disclose as much as we can so you can repeat our tests at home, and weigh real-world benchmarks (Call of Duty, Far Cry, and Crysis) above synthetics like 3DMark. This is the way we've always run our magazine, and that isn't going to change as we continue to expand onto the web.
Hope this helps, please feel free to email me or post questions here if you have any further questions. I'm at CES now, so my responses will likely be slow, but I love talking to readers.
///Will
Submitted by jcollins on Mon, 01/12/2009 - 12:21pm
Thanks for the info Will. That's the sort of info I was looking for.
Submitted by Pixelated on Mon, 01/12/2009 - 2:22am
I think anyone who buys one of these cards is running them at 1920x1600 and above, on a large monitor with full details and AA maxed out. This is the realm where the RV700 really shines. I'd be interested to see how the new Nvidia GX2 card does with a high AA at 2560x1600. These synthetic benchmarks (other than Crysis) don't even scratch the surface of what we expect from a $500 card. It would have been fine for a midrange card but not a top of the line dual GPU setup. Real worldbenches is where it's at.
Submitted by karnak on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 10:44am
What was the GPU score and the overall score?
Submitted by mikemckay on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 8:51am
if i get one of those, im going to print off a picture of a VHS tape and attach it to the top for some old school style modding
Like Someone Already Said...
Submitted by Kromaethius on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 8:29am
All things aside, but it looks like a VHS Cassette Tape... =;o)
Submitted by onewithazureskies on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 7:51am
Additionally, the new GPU is Nvidia’s first to step down from a 65nm to a more efficient 55nm process.
Not that it is a particularly relevant player:
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/nvidia_applies_pressure_with_new_9800gtx
Submitted by arkweld on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 7:31am
thinks it's funny, that this high-end example of video tech is encased in something that looks like a VHS cassette?
$500. You can now get the
Submitted by Hairpuller on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 7:25am
$500. You can now get the 4870x2 for $400 after rebate.
Submitted by BoxyBrown on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 7:21am
I'm glad Nvidia was able to strike back. Competition is great. The consumer wins. 4870x2 will soon be mine.
Submitted by STorpedo on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 6:58am
I mean it sounds good in theory, but this is just a desperate attempt by nvidia to regain the single-slot preformance crown, and I don't think its worth it. Sure, if you've got unlimited funds, go for it, but keep in mind that, a) nvidia will be switching to GDDR5 either in the summer or the winter of this year, and b) will be generally making their vid. cards much more efficient and well-designed. I'm not an ATI fanboy or anything, but, like I said, might be better off waiting for a half, or even for a year which is when the 3xx architecture should come out.
Submitted by willsmith on Fri, 01/09/2009 - 12:44am
If you have a current-gen card faster than a 4850, this isn't a good upgrade for you. As a general rule, it's not worth it to upgrade within a single generation of hardware, unless something changes, like you get a bigger monitor and your old card doesn't have the horsepower to run at native resolution.
Submitted by Fallenoneusn on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 6:29am
Good review Will but what is the expected price point?
Submitted by willsmith on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 9:56am
They didn't give me an MSRP, but they expect the street price at places like Newegg to be around $500.
Submitted by Digital-Storm on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 9:04am
An arm and a leg.
Submitted by whitephoenix117 on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 1:22pm
I have a 280 and only wish that EVGA step up was longer than 90 days
PS who gives a s%@t about 4870x2's at $500 entry price it easily smokes ATI
nVidia FTW
Submitted by STorpedo on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 9:20pm
lol, talking about fanboys. Not saying that a 295 atm isn't a good buy, just saying-take it easy fella.
diff. between Nvidia and ATI
Submitted by tomastaz on Sun, 05/24/2009 - 6:12pm
The difference between ATI and Nvidia is this, simply: ATI is good for for the ones who want good price/power, and Nvidia cards are just on steriods.
Must Read Articles
Feature
Review
Feature
Feature
Feature
Most Popular Articles
This Month's Issue
FEATURE Windows XP/Vista/7 Tips!FEATURE Monitor Roundup: 7 LCDs ReviewedHOW TOMaster PhotoshopFEATUREAMD's Awesome New GPUWHITE PAPEROrganic LEDs
Technology News
Computer Cooling Fans
Computer Cases
PC Game Controllers
PC Games
Computer Hardware
Headphones
MP3 Players
Stream Video
Computer Mouse
Monitors
Motherboards
NAS Storage
Networking
Laptop Computers
DVD Burner
Digital Cameras
Portable Storage
Computer Accessories
Smartphone
Antivirus Software
Sound Cards
Speakers
Computer Systems
Thumb Drives
Video Cameras
Video Card Reviews
Water Cooling
Gadgets
- Keyboards
© 2009 Future US, Inc. All Rights Reserved.