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ZOTAC GeForce GTX285 and GeForce GTX295 Video Card Review

Jason Landals
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In the two horse race of performance video cards, things have been pretty cyclical. One company would release a new whiz-bang card, then the other company would release their response. This was followed by a similar cycle of tweaked versions of the same cards. In the last two release cycles those tweaks came in the form of dual GPU cards, which sandwiched two cards into one package. The most recent cycle left off with ATI releasing their dual GPU solution in the form of the Radeon HD 4870 X2, and NVIDIA responding with…nothing. NVIDIA finally turned their nothing into something by releasing both a dual GPU solution and a tweaked single GPU card, and they are bringing vendors like ZOTAC along for the ride.


Features and Specifications

ZOTAC has recently released both a GeForce GTX 285 and a GeForce GTX 295 card, and we’re taking a look at them today. The GTX 295 is a vanilla version, with the same clock speeds and specifications as the NVIDIA reference version. However the GTX 285 card they provided is one of their AMP! Editions, where they crank up the clocks at the factory to provide you with the best performance while still giving you a warranty. I’ll let the comparison below do the rest of the talking.

So basically we have a showdown between raw horsepower and multicore finesse. I think we know where this will end up, so we’ll have to see how they both stack up against our previously reviewed GeForce GTX 200 series cards. If you want more details on the cards themselves, you can check out the product home page for both the GeForce GTX 285 AMP! Edition and the GeForce GTX 295. For everyone else, let’s get this show on the road.

As for pricing, these are hot-off-the-fab video cards so I wouldn’t expect any miraculous deals. The GeForce GTX 285 AMP! Edition can be had for $399 USD on average, and the GeForce GTX 295 will set you back $499 USD. These are the typical prices for newly released NVIDIA cards, and I’m sure they will go down in a few months. Still is this price tag justified? Do you get the performance you think you paid for? Well I guess we’ll just have to find out.

Two Cards Can Make A Winning Hand

Like most other NVIDIA based cards, both the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 285 AMP! Edition and the GeForce GTX 295 follow the reference NVIDIA design fairly closely. The GTX 285 looks very much like the GTX 280, with the only differences being in the hardware itself. The die size has been shrunk to 55nm from the previous 65nm, and all the clock speeds are ramped up in their stock configuration. With that in mind, ZOTAC has taken those speeds and bumped them up that much further with the AMP! Edition.

On the other hand, the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 290 is a completely different animal. This “card” actually consists of two GeForce GTX 200 series cards attached to each other by way of a data connection and a very large heatsink. It’s much heavier then the GTX 285 AMP! and I’m sure it’ll be able to throw around it’s weight in later tests. Dual GPU cards tend to be very touchy so ZOTAC hasn’t really messed with the speeds on the GTX 295. That being said, it’s only a matter of time before they start trying to wring some more performance out of this behemoth.

As for getting the rendered image to your screen, each card has it’s own set of options. The GTX 285 has the standard dual DVI ports, as well as an analogue video port. The GTX 295 has the same two DVI ports, but eschews the analogue video out for an HDMI output. Both cards are of couse HDCP compliant. I still find it odd that an HDMI port, commonly seen in home theatre equipment, was found on the ultra-powerful dual GPU card. I can’t imagine putting this monster into my normally quiet HTPC. That being said most modern LCD panels come with HDMI input, making this a good one-size-fit’s-all port placement.

Cool and Connected

Since we’re dealing with two completely different card designs here, ZOTAC went with two variations on how to cool them. The GeForce GTX 285 AMP! Edition is cooled with a cooler similar to what is used on the GTX 280 and GTX 260 based cards we’ve reviewed before. The single fan, two slot cooler has a variable speed fan that reacts to how much load is being placed on the card and how hot it is. The only major difference in this new cooler is that unlike the other two afore mentioned coolers, there isn’t any metal backplate and the back of the card is completely exposed. This is most likely to the metal backplate on the GTX 280 and GTX260 being used to actively cool the RAM on the backside of the card. There isn’t any RAM on the backside of the GTX 285, so no active cooling is required.

Like many other areas, the GeForce GTX 295 is a different animal in the area of cooling. Since this is a much more beefy card with two PCBs sitting opposite of one another, an equally beefy cooler is needed. The fan to cool this cooler pulls air from either side of the card, through holes in the PCB and the outer shell. When compared to previous dual GPU cards like the 9800 GX2, the GTX 295 has it’s backside completely exposed. This is once again most likely due to the fact that the backside of the card has no RAM or components that need active cooling.

The air that is sucked in from the fan on the GTX 295 is then pushed through a large heatsink that is sandwiched between the two PCBs. This cooler has a set of fins reminiscent of a CPU cooler and a fin count to match. The materials used to make the cooler are a mix of aluminum (fins) and cooper (heatpipes). From what I can see of it, the cooler seems to be in contact with both the cores and memory on both cards. It’s a pretty precarious operation to dismantle this card, so installing an after-market cooler or water block (more likely) might be fairly difficult.

Everyone’s Into Duos…Right?

Now if the performance offered by a single GTX295 just isn’t enough for you, the card still supports SLI, though only with one addon card. There is a single SLI connector on the leading edge of the card. When combined with a second GTX 295 card, this should effectively make a quad SLI system.

When it comes to SLI support on the GTX 285, the standard SLI connector is present. This dual connector allows you to run this card with two others, for a total of three in a triple SLI setup.

Power requirements are also different for the two cards. I know, it’s shocking how that could happen when you add a second GPU and PCB to the same package. Anyhow, the GTX 285 uses the same two 6-pin PCIe power connectors seen on the GTX 280. The S/PDIF connector is situated right next to the power connectors, and is used to move audio from the sound card through to the digital outputs. As for the GTX 295 it’s uses a 6-pin and an 8-pin connector, each one attached to an opposite PCB. The S/PDIF connector position hasn’t changed though.

Included Accessories

The accessories included with the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 285 AMP! Edition and GeForce GTX 295 run the gamut from typical to thoughtful. The above picture is of the accessories included in the GTX 295 package, and feature two power adapters, and S/PDIF cable, DVI-to-VGA connector, and a surprise addition in the form of an HDMI cable. The package for the GeForce GTX 285 AMP! Edition includes essentially the same thing, only swapping out the HDMI cable for an DVI-to-HDMI adaptor.

One thing that is universal between the two cards is the software package and included paperwork. Both cards included a user manual outlying their respective installation steps, as well as full warranty info. As for software, ZOTAC includes the latest compatible drivers at time of release, as well as some minor utilities on the main CD. In addition to that, they have also included a full install of 3DMark Vantage and a copy of Race Driver: GRID. This package ensures that you can instantly find out if the large chunk of change you just spent on new video cards actually granted you some performance increase. I do like the fact that they included GRID as this is one of the best racing games in a while.

Test System Setup

To test the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 285 AMP! Edition and the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 295 we installed them in the following test system made up of the following components:

We used a rather large suite of software for testing purposes. First we did a couple run-throughs in 3DMark Vantage to see how the card performed in synthetic testing. Though 3DMark Vantage uses a game engine to test things, the engine used is developed by Futuremark themselves and isn’t used in any real world games. At least not yet. But if the engine does get the game title treatment, then all the better.  

For real world testing, we used a selection of modern and popular titles to put the cards through their paces. In other words, we chose stuff the people actually play. Obviously, we buy cards to play games, not to benchmark. Those titles include Crysis, World in Conflict, Unreal Tournament 3, and Half Life 2: Episode 2. So without further adieu, here’s how things went down.

3DMark Vantage

3DMark offers a series of preset benchmark runs that gradually increase resolution and display settings to further and further push the hardware being tested. For the purpose of testing these high end cards, we only decided to use the “High” and “Extreme” test settings. The reason for this is because these two settings use resolutions of 1680×1050 and 1920×1200 respectively, and these are the two most widely used resolutions on most modern LCD panels.

We start with the “High” test preset. Though I was hoping things would actually turn out as one would expect, it didn’t quite go that way. Most of the literature out there indicates that there is only a 10% performance boost in going from the GTX 280 to the GTX 285. This is due to the die shrink of the GPU in the newer card, which allows for cooler running temperatures and slightly higher speeds over its older counterpart. So why the nearly 40% jump in performance? Well I was having some issues with running the benchmark using the new drivers that came with the card. I have updated the drivers now, and the problem has been corrected, but I was unable to post the results for this test.

Luckily the tests we ran in the “Extreme” mode were done with the new drivers, and they managed to redeem themselves with the results posted. The increase in performance from the GTX 280 to the GTX 285 was only 8%, which is just shy of the prescribed 10%, but that extra ground should be gained in the real world tests. As for the GTX 295 it was light years ahead of the other cards, relatively speaking. The GTX 295 beat the GTX 285 by a margin of about 29%. Hopefully these results carry over into the real world game tests we have lined up.

Crysis

Once the synthetic benchmarks are out of the way, it’s time to switch to some real world tests to see what these video cards are really capable of. Usually I wait until the last test to take a look at Crysis, but this time I decided to take a look at it first and get it out of the way.

The tests were run on high setting, and the average of three separate tests were taken. In the results that were posted, we see the same pattern evident from the 3DMark testing. The GTX 285 is faster then the GTX 280 by almost 10%, and the GTX 295 trumps all participants.

Since the results were favourable to my doing so, I decided to crank up the settings as high as I could and see how playable the game remained and how realistic it turned out. Let’s just say that doing that showed me what gaming can be all about. I was able to fully experience the lush jungle environments the game takes place in, and use it to my advantage. It’s almost too bad that the FPS genre is mostly made up of fast paced games, because sometimes I would find the scenery passing by too fast to be really appreciated. Still the speed of Crysis is nothing compared to our next test.

Unreal Tournament 3

Unreal Tournament made its name on fast paced, sports-like, FPS competition. This fast paced game has always been about ramping up the competitive spirit of its players, but in this latest version,  the guys at Epic decided to ramp up the graphical quality of the experience. The is still quite playable though, as our results show.

The GTX 285 once again comes in at an expected performance increase over it’s predecessor. However the GTX 295 posts a rather curious number, rather then blowing the competition out of the water. At both resolutions, the GTX 295 only made performance gains of less then 5% over the single GPU GTX 285.

Even the confusion with the results still can’t cloud the one fact behind this test, and it’s that the gameplay in UT3 with either of these cards is butter-smooth. Unlike Crysis, the framerates in UT3 show that you have nothing to worry about if you want to crank the settings as far as they can go.

Half-Life 2: Episode Two

For our final two tests, we’re going to the oddballs of the bunch. First up is Episode 2 of Half Life 2, which is selected because it’s a DX9 title with a decent ability to put strain on modern hardware. Not to mention, people still love this game and the Source engine is still used in a lot of new games you know and love (Portal anyone?). Still you wouldn’t guess it by looking at these numbers.

With results like this, the game is anything but unplayable. The GTX 295 is definitely the champ once again, taking a commanding lead over the other GTX 200 series cards. No surprises here.

The same results are shown in the second HL2:EP2 demo. The GTX 295 gives everyone a decent beatdown. As for the GTX 285, it’s happy to simply be better then the GTX 280, if only by a percentage or two less then 10.

With this kind of breathing room in a DirectX9 title, you can start enabling all the little features and abilities that API can support. Our gameplay through Half Life 2: Episode 2 (as well as other similar Source-based games) was wonderful looking and without issue. If you were to combine this setup with a good set of 5.1 headphones or speakers, the experience would be anything if not immersive.

World in Conflict

Finally we turn to our only Real-time strategy game in this entire line-up. World in Conflict is one of those RTS titles that shows how far the RTS genre has evolved visually. This game fully supports DX10, and has some nice 3D candy to go with this make war not love setting.

As for the results of our benchmarks, the story is the same as it has been with the other test, though in this case the results are much tighter. With all that in mind, I can still say that these two cards will be the best performing cards you can get . . . until AMD get’s its act together and formulates a proper response.

When we turned to actually playing the game, the visual experience was different then what you would need on an FPS title. With FPS games, framerate is everything, and lag is death. In RTS titles, a minor slowdown isn’t going to impede your overall gameplay. So with that in mind I say that these cards are great performers for those who like their 3D RTS games. Taking the numbers posted into account, this game if more than playable.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

This tale of two cards has now drawn to a close, and we’ve discovered a few important things about the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 285 AMP! Edition and the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 295. The first and most prominent of these truths is that to have the best performance in a video card, you have to be willing to spend a decent amount of money. Even then, your might not get what you’ve paid for. This is evident with the GTX 285. While it makes extra strides over it’s older brother, it doesn’t quite have the performance to make up for the price discrepancy.

As for the GTX 295, it really is in class all it’s own. You do accept having a certain degree of personal lunacy for purchasing such a card, so the financial lunacy isn’t much more of a stretch. Still it is (currently) the fastest graphics card available. The package ZOTAC adds to that cards makes it an even better consideration. The inclusion of a game, full benchmarking tool, and an HDMI cable are all nice additions to this premium package.

There are few issues that still manage to accompany these cards. The big one is of course the price to performance ratio for the GTX 285. It’s hard to justify this card when it only has a minor performance bump over the GTX 280. Hopefully the die shrink to 55nm that has been brought in with this new card will yeild some more interesting products. The GTX 295 can only muster a a couple gripes from me. The first is the immaturity of the drivers from NVIDIA. This isn’t their first time to the dance, so having problems running the benchmarks I want to run and having weird performance gaps when I do run them is somewhat annoying. That will still be eventually fixed. The other one is the difficulty in installing a 3rd party cooler, or more importantly a water block. That is an intrinsic problem with these dual GPU designs, so once again it’s ends up being a minor gripe as it’s not a fault of the card vendor.

In the end what we really have here is one card that is a incremental improvement, and one that is a full leap ahead. The GTX 285 is a good replacement for the GTX 280, and offers a decent performance increase over it’s older brother. The GTX 295 is just a monster the steps on everything in it’s path. Though I know this is only the latest release in a continuing cycle of video card revisions, I’m still going to award ZOTAC an Editors’ Choice for the GeForce GTX 295. As for the GTX 285, it’s a fast performer in its own right, and should give NVIDIA some breathing room in this current generation of video cards.

The Verdict: ZOTAC GeForce GTX 285 AMP! Edition

Pros

  • Die shrink adds performance and reduces heat
  • Well engineered card
  • Excellent retail package
  • Good future replacement for the older GTX 280

Cons

  • Current performance doesn’t justify price increase

Overall Rating 8.5/10

 

The Verdict: ZOTAC GeForce GTX 295

Pros

  • Extreme performance
  • Excellent retail package
  • Quiet, well engineered card.

Cons

  • Still some driver issues
  • After-market cooler may be difficult to install

Overall Rating: 9.5/10.0

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Photo Gallery – ZOTAC GeForce GTX285 and GeForce GTX295 Video Card Review
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