Published in Reviews

The fastest GTX 285 around hits our lab

by on24 August 2009

Index



TestBed

Motherboard: MSI P45D3 Platinum ( Provided by: MSI );
Processor: Intel Core 2 QX9770 Extreme edition at 3.6GHz ( Provided by: Intel );
Memory: Corsair Dominator 12800 7-7-7-24 ( Provided by: Corsair);
HDD: WD VelociRaptor 300G 10,000RPM ( Provided by: SmoothCreation );
Driver:  ForceWare 190.38, Catalyst CCC 8.8
Vista 32 SP1

Futuremark Tests

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Like the tables above show, a performance difference between the BFG Geforce GTX 285 H2OC and dual-chip HD 4870 X2 card is very slim, but BFG’s card has an important advantage – the golden silence.



Gaming

There are no reference GTX 285 results with which we’d compare our today’s water cooled GTX 285, but Inno3D GTX 275 Overclock is faster than the reference GTX 285 so we can see that BFG is far ahead in all the gaming tests.

Far Cry2

Far Cry 2 sees the dual-GPU HD 4870 X2 card winning at all the resolutions where antialiasing has been turned off, but BFG’s card shows its muscle when at the highest resolution – it leaves the closest competitor by 7% at 2560x1600.


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HAWX

BFG’s card runs like a charm, and you’ll have no problems or hiccups no matter which resolution you choose.



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Left 4 Dead


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World in conflict

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Overclocking, Thermals and Consumption

BFG GTX 285 H2OC runs at 729MHz, which is the highest operating clock for a pre-overclocked GTX 285 graphics card. We managed to push it further to 780MHz core, 1791MHz shader and 1450MHz (2900MHz effectively) for the memory. This is a great result since the card has already been overclocked by a pretty margin, and our overclocking resulted in 6% better scores in Far Cry 2.

Consumption is not a problem and our test system drew maximum 350W whereas idle mode resulted in consumption around 100W. This is significantly less compared to 376W required for running Inno3D GTX 275 card. The HD 4870 X2 drew up to 448W.

Operating temperatures are of course pretty low as well, as this is a water cooled card. During our testing the maximum temperature was 58 degrees Celsius, whereas idle mode resulted in about 34 degrees. Compared to the reference GTX 285, BFG’s temperatures are up to 30 degrees Celsius lower. Of course, temperatures depend on the environment you’re in, but since Europe has seen some high temperatures these days, we must say that BFG GTX 285 H2OC handled our testing like a champ.


Conclusion

BFG's Geforce GTX 285 1024 H2OCW is undoubtedly the fastest single-GPU card from Nvidia. This card is not cheap, but the quality you get is excellent and you can find it here priced at £396.99.

The copper block on the GTX 285 H2OC card is BFG's ThermoIntelligence design, made in cooperation with Danger Den, and the card is single slot. Apart from being famous as the leader among GTX 285 graphics cards, thanks to the operating clocks of 729MHz, this card is completely inaudible and at the same time up to 30 degrees Celsius cooler than reference, air-cooled cards.

If resolutions like 1920x1200 or even 2560x1600 are your preferred gaming resolutions and you do not want a dual-GPU card, then the fastest single-GPU card on the market – BFG Geforce GTX 285 1024 H2OCW is the card that will rock your world, and stay seriously cool while doing so.


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Last modified on 23 August 2009
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