Testbed:

Motherboard:
EVGA 680i SLI (Provided by EVGA)

Processor:
Intel Core 2 Duo 6800 Extreme edition (Provided by Intel)

Memory:
OCZ FlexXLC PC2 9200 5-5-5-18  (Provided by OCZ)
        during testing CL5-5-5-15-CR2T 1066MHz at 2.2V

PSU:
OCZ Silencer 750 Quad Black (Provided by OCZ)

Hard disk:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 80GB SATA (Provided by Seagate)

CPU-Cooler:
Freezer 7 Pro (Provided by Artic Cooling)

Case Fans:
Artic Cooling - Artic Fan 12 PWM
Artic Cooling - Artic Fan 8 PWM

Vista 32 SP1


We tested EVGA GTX 280 Hydro Copper 16 using HPPS 12V Eheim water cooling system that’s easy to mount and use. The card runs at 691MHz/1485MHz/2430MHz. Although overclocked the card ran cool and the highest measured temperature was 59°C.



Overclocking wasn’t difficult but we didn’t push for the maximum, either. We’ve noticed that shader clocks couldn’t dependently follow the higher clocks on the GPU, so we had to clock them independently. We easily overclocked the core to 740MHz and Shaders to 1530MHz. It brought a 3,7% better result in Vantage mark, and after overclocking EVGA GTX 280 HC 16, it beat the reference GTX 280 by 11.5%.





Gaming

 

The tables feature three GTX 280 cards, two of which factory overclocked. Gainward GTX 280 runs at reference 602MHz, whereas XFX GTX 280 670M runs at 670MHz. The difference is visible but not drastic. GTX 280 is currently the best single card, and EVGA emerged a winner today.



In Company of Heroes and Call of Juarez, EVGA GTX 280 Hydro Copper 16 outperformed Gainward by up to 15% and XFX by up to 5%. These are the greatest margins, and the difference between the cards shrunk as we increased the resolution.



F.E.A.R. likes speed and we see EVGA GTX 280 HC 16 again beating reference GTX 280 by up to 14%. We see a similar result in the following game, too.




Conclusion

GTX 280 is the fastest single GPU card and EVGA most certainly pushed it even further with their overclocking. In order to make sure your card lasts for a long time, EVGA decided that water cooling is the way to go. So, they’ve made their own water block design made of pure copper, but also a bit heavy. The card is not heavy enough to damage your PCIe slot, but you should still make sure it’s screwed to the case nice and tightly. Mounting it on different cooling systems is quite simple, and EVGA provides 1/2'’ and 3.8’’ water block fittings for that.

The water block is designed to also enable additional cards in SLI or Tri-SLI mode – once the cards get cheaper or we start getting better deals on two or three GTX 280 HC 16 cards. Priced at $629.99 this card is not the cheapest of the lot, but it will be the quietest and probably longer lasting.

EVGA carefully picks the best cores to use on their top models, so we were able to overclock this beast all the way up to 740MHz for the GPU whereas EVGA guarantees stable operation up to 691MHz.

Geforce GTX 280 has other nice features such as PhysX and CUDA support. These features are available to other G80 and G92 owners, but the sheer strength of GTX 280 will make this the best choice. You’ll have 240 stream processors at your disposal, capable to handle anything you may dish out at your GTX 280. Overclocked EVGA GTX 280 Hydro Copper 16 will provide even more raw power, and we sincerely recommend it because, although it’s pricey (the prices keep dropping), its performance is simply excellent.