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NVIDIA GeForce GTX295 - a new benchmark for speed? ZOTAC GeForce GTX295 Dual-GPU Review Game Tests: Crysis Warhead

The struggle for the honorable "leader's jersey" among single video cards continues. As you know, AMD has long been adhering to the course when its new flagship 3D graphics consist of two conditionally "middle" video chips. At the same time, NVIDIA is taking a more traditional approach, adding transistors and building muscle in its single-chip solutions. However, this does not prevent NVIDIA from releasing dual-chip video cards, in the intervals between the global update of the architecture of the graphics processors it develops. The latest development belongs to the flagship series of video cards GeForce GTX, and has the largest number so far assigned by the company - "295". Using the example of the Zotac GeForce GTX 295 video card, kindly provided by the Moscow office of the company, we will study the appearance of the video card, its configuration, internal structure and, of course, the performance of the new product. Moreover, we will check how its performance is scaled depending on the speed of the PCI Express bus, and also examine the power consumption of the video card in various modes. But first things first. The Zotac GTX 295 graphics card comes in a standard branded box, which is equipped with a cutout, so you can take a look at the graphics card. Unfortunately, it is impossible to touch it through the plastic-covered window. It's a pity, very pleasant sensations, but more on that later. In this case, looking at a video card through the package is not very informative - you can only see a black “bar” with either holes or pimples, and a proprietary sticker with the name of the video card. The front side of the box carries more information - the width of the memory bus and its total volume are indicated, 896-bit and 1792 Mb. Remember to divide these values \u200b\u200bby two to get the correct amount of memory and bus width for each of the two GPUs that make up the GeForce GTX 295. The other side of the box is not as interesting as the previous one, but here we find a mini-guide to building Quad SLI system, which requires one GeForce GTX 295 video card (ticked as you already have). You will also need a second such video card and a motherboard with SLI support. As you can see, NVIDIA has foreseen the possibility of combining SLI and a new "two-headed" flagship, which continues the old traditions.

Unlike many other video card manufacturers, Zotac does not hesitate to indicate the nominal frequencies of its products. This information is located on one of the ends of the box. As you can see, the nominal frequencies of the Zotac GTX 295 are equal to the nominal frequencies of the GeForce GTX 260, as well as the width of the memory bus and its volume for each of the two video processors. But there are also fundamental differences, which we will consider a little later.

From the system requirements, which are also indicated on the end of the box, we note the indicated minimum power of the power supply, which is 680 W (when using an Intel Core i7 3.2 GHz processor). How much these requirements correspond to reality, we will check when we move on to the tests and study the power consumption of the Zotac GTX 295 video card in different modes. We will preliminarily say that the figure given is generally not groundless, although slightly overestimated. Video card complete set: user's manual driver disc 3DMark Vantage disc game disc Race Driver: Grid HDMI-HDMI cable two power adapters DVI / D-Sub adapter cable for connecting to the SPDIF connector on the mat. board. As you can see, all the necessary accessories are included with the video card. Having an HDMI cable will save time and effort when connecting your computer to a projector or wide panel. And with the included 3DMark Vantage and Race Driver: Grid game, you can appreciate the incredible level of performance of the new product and fully enjoy exciting races with maximum graphics quality and maximum speed in all respects. Let's see what the new product looks like externally and how it works inside. As mentioned above, the GeForce GTX 295 is a kind of black "brick". On the front end of the video card there are three video outputs - two Dual-Link DVI and one HDMI. And the ventilation holes, contrary to usual, are located “under” the DVI connectors, not above them. There is nothing remarkable on the front side of the video card, except for the Zotac branded sticker, except for the soft-touch plastic cover of the casing. That is why the video card is very pleasant to hold in your hands. On the back of the video card, we see the same hole for the cooler turbine through which air is sucked in, as well as many small surface mounting elements. Obviously, the most interesting things - the GPU and memory chips, are hidden inside. On the upper edge of the video card there are two connectors for additional power supply of the video card and the “exhaust” hole of the cooler, which is not covered by any cover. A reasonable compromise between the rotational speed of the cooler and its noise. If the heated air is removed in the traditional way - along the card through the grille on the front panel outside the case, you will need to significantly increase the speed of the cooler, which will inevitably lead to an increase in the noise level. In addition, such powerful video cards, as a rule, are installed in systems corresponding to the level, where the issue of cooling the internal space of the case has already been resolved and the release of a part of the heated air inside by the video card will not lead to a significant change in the temperature balance. Since we are talking about cooling a video card, we will begin our acquaintance with the internal structure of a video card by examining the cooler design. The cooler is a "sandwich" made up of two aluminum soles, into which copper cores with heat pipes are pressed, through which heat from the GPU is transferred to the cooling fins located inside the "sandwich". Thermal contact between the video memory chips and the cooler base is provided with thermal pads. Another copper core on one side of the cooler is for cooling the PCI Express switch chip. The turbine, located in the "tail" of the cooler, sucks in air from both sides of the video card and drives it through the cooling fins. Part of the air, as mentioned above, comes out into the case through the upper edge of the cooler, and the other part of the heated air passes through the end of the video card, where the connectors are located, and is thrown out. The video card itself consists of two halves, each of which has one video processor and a corresponding set of video memory chips. The design of the PCBs is almost identical, with the only differences on the left side. On that "half" of the GeForce GTX 295, where the PCI-Express 16x slot is located, there is an HDMI connector, a PCI-E bus switch and an NV-Link connector for combining video cards into a Quad-SLI bundle, and on the other - two DVI connectors. On the reverse side, no significant elements are observed on both "halves".

The GeForce GTX 295 graphics card carries two GT200b GPUs, manufactured using the 55nm process technology, not 65nm, as in the previous revisions. As mentioned above, their nominal frequencies are identical to the operating frequencies of the GT200 installed on the GeForce GTX 260 video cards. But there is a very important difference - the number of stream processors has not been cut, so that each of the installed GPUs has all 240 computational units, as in a full-fledged GTX 280 graphics card.

Each of the GPUs relies on 896 MB of video memory. This volume is collected by 14 DDR3 microcircuits with a 1.0 ns access time and a nominal frequency of 1000 MHz (2000 MHz DDR) manufactured by Hynix. At this frequency, the video memory works normally. Of course, the memory bus width is 448 bits.

The NVIDIA NF200-P-SLI chip is a PCI Express 2.0 bus switch chip.

The NVIDIA NVIO2 chip contains RAMDAC and TDMS units, and provides image output to displays.

Let's summarize the interim results. Structurally, the GeForce GTX 295 video card is very similar to the GeForce 9800GX2 - the same "sandwich" with a cooler located in the middle. Like its predecessor, the new "two-headed" video card GeForce GTX 295 consists of two "halves" united in SLI mode by means of internal cables. Each of the parts is equipped with a GT200b graphics processor, the operating frequencies of which and the memory bus width coincide with the parameters of the GPU installed on the GeForce GTX 260. However, the number of stream processors in the GPU of the GeForce GTX 295 is 240, as in the older model - GeForce GTX 280. Obviously, due to this combination of factors, the performance of one "half" of the GeForce GTX 295 should be approximately between the GeForce GTX 260 and the GeForce GTX 280. Accordingly, the performance of the GeForce GTX 295 when working "at full strength" should be slightly higher than the performance of the GeForce GTX 260 SLI and slightly less than the GeForce GTX 280 SLI. To what extent these expectations are justified, we will now find out.

Performance testing

Since the GeForce GTX 295 claims to be the fastest "single" video card, the following video cards will participate in this test - the GeForce GTX 280 and a combination of two such video cards in SLI mode, as well as, of course, the Radeon HD4870X2. To assess the efficiency of the "internal" SLI video card GeForce GTX 295, we also tested the performance of one "half" of this card, disabling SLI in the driver settings. Test stand

In the diagrams, the results for the GeForce GTX 280 in singles and doubles are marked in dark green. The results of the work of the "half" of the GeForce GTX 295 and in the normal mode are marked in light green. The results for the Radeon HD4870X2 are traditionally shown in red. GeForce video cards were tested on drivers version 181.20, Radeon HD4870X2 - on Catalyst 8.12.

Testing in 3DMark Vantage Performance mode showed that the GeForce GTX 295 really pulls out the "leader's shirt" from the previous king of 3D graphics - the Radeon HD4870X2.

If we take the 3DMark score without taking into account the CPU score (GPU Score), then the advantage of the new product over the Radeon HD4870X2 is about 9%. Not so much, but it is quite noticeable and cannot be attributed to the measurement error. Especially when you consider that when fighting for the "crown" every percentage is on the account.

When tested in 3DMark Vantage, the graphics settings High mode, the advantage of the GeForce GTX 295 rises to almost 30%, which is somewhat strange. It is quite possible that due to the use of a wider memory bus, the GeForce GTX 295 can get an additional advantage in the transition to the "heavy" graphics mode compared to the Radeon HD4870X2. However, the figure of 30% looks somewhat dubious.

However, the Extreme 3DMark Vantage test mode sums up the testing results in this application. Indeed, as the "severity" of the mode increases, the advantage of the GeForce GTX 295 over the Radeon HD4870X2 increases. In Extreme mode, we see a difference in the GPU Score of these video cards of about 12%.

When tested in the game Crysis in low resolution, we again see how the GeForce GTX 295 outperforms the Radeon HD4870X2 by 25% in performance.

With an increase in resolution, the difference in the results of the GeForce GTX 295 and Radeon HD4870X2 decreases slightly, but still remains noticeable - about 10% in favor of the new product.

The inclusion in the game Crysis of the heaviest graphics mode VeryHigh is still a very difficult test even for the most powerful video cards. In absolute terms, the results of the GeForce GTX 295 and Radeon HD4870X2 noticeably sag even at low resolutions, but the advantage of about 10% still remains with the new product.

But the increase in screen resolution comes as a surprise. Among the "single" video cards, the victory remains with the Radeon HD4870X2, however, the GeForce GTX 295 is only slightly behind.

Nevertheless, in the game Far Cry 2 with the graphics quality settings Ultra GeForce GTX 295 in the dispute with the Radeon HD4870X2 takes a convincing revenge and its advantage is about 15-20%. Interestingly, in this test the results of the new product are very close to the results of the GeForce GTX 280 in SLI mode, and this is for a "single" video card!

In Race Driver: Grid, the new GeForce GTX 295 initially outperforms the Radeon HD4870X2 at low resolutions, but then the balance of forces in this pair is reversed, and the Radeon HD4870X2 comes out ahead. However, the difference in results by a few percent cannot be called significant, especially since all video cards show quite comfortable FPS in this game.

GeForce GTX 295 performance scalability

Now, based on the above results, we can find out how effectively the two "halves" of the GeForce GTX 295 work in the SLI bundle. As a starting point, we will take the results shown by one half of the GeForce GTX 295 (SLI mode for the video card is disabled) and compare them with the performance of the same video card, but in the maximum performance mode (SLI mode for the video card is enabled). The diagram below shows the percentage increase in performance when the "internal" SLI mode is enabled for the GeForce GTX 295 video card.

As you would expect, in synthetic 3DMark Vantage tests the scalability of the "internal" SLI fluctuates within 80% -90%, which is quite close to the theoretical maximum of 100%. In Crysis, the SLI efficiency is slightly lower, from 65% to 75%, but this is also a very good result. Far Cry 2 reacts very positively to the increase in the number of GPUs in the video system, here the gain from using the SLI bundle in high resolutions exceeds 90%! Good results were obtained in Race Driver: Grid - SLI efficiency ranged from 73% to almost 90%. Next, we'll look at scalability in a slightly different way. Namely, how the performance of the GeForce GTX 295 will change if it is installed in a motherboard with support for the PCI Express 1.0 bus, whose bandwidth is half that of the PCI Express v2.0 bus. To do this, we taped a part of the PCI Express slot of the GeForce GTX 295 video card with tape to make it work in PCI-E 2.0 8x mode.

In this screenshot you can see (we glued two images together so that all the parameters of this menu item in the NVIDIA control panel are visible) that after such a simple operation the video card uses half the lines of the PCI Express 2.0 bus, while the resulting total bus bandwidth is equal to the interface bandwidth PCI Express 1.0 16x. The results of testing the performance of the GeForce GTX 295, obtained after the bus "cut", will be displayed as a percentage of the results obtained earlier at the speed of the PCI Express 2.0 16x bus.

As you can see from the diagram, the GeForce GTX 295 video card practically does not respond to a halving of the PCI Express speed. This means that by purchasing a GeForce GTX 295 video card, owners of motherboards with support for the PCI Express v1.0 bus. practically will not lose in performance. Provided, of course, that the CPU is able to unleash the full potential of this powerful video card.

Power Consumption Test

And, finally, we present data on the power consumed by video cards under various load conditions. In the table below you can see the results obtained for the power consumption of the GeForce GTX 295 and Radeon HD4870X2

As you can see, in the "rest" mode, the new product has a very moderate power consumption, which is greatly facilitated by the drop of the GPU frequency to 300 MHz and the video memory frequency to 100 MHz. But the main purpose of a gaming video card is to please with high FPS at maximum graphics settings. As it turned out, the "appetite" of the GeForce GTX 295 is quite modest here, especially in comparison with the Radeon HD4870X2. However, the maximum load mode created by the FurMar test in Xtreme burning mode showed the real ardor of the GeForce GTX 295, whose power consumption came close to the 300W level. Note that the GPU temperature in this mode has reached 93 and 96 degrees (the "leading" GPU heats up a little more). At the same time, the cooler of the GeForce GTX 295 video card was overclocked to a speed of 3400 rpm, which is about 80% of the maximum. Of course, at this speed the cooler noise was quite noticeable. At the same time, during testing in Far Cry 2, the cooler speed did not exceed 2400 rpm, while its noise was barely noticeable. Well, so that you can estimate the power requirements for the power supply, here are the total power consumption figures of our test stand based on the Core i7 965 Extreme processor, overclocked to 3.84 GHz.

As you can see, the minimum requirements for the power supply indicated on the packaging of the Zotac GeForce GTX 295 video card are not so far from reality. However, it is well known that it is better not to save money on a power supply for top-end configurations, it will come out more expensive.

conclusions

The battle for the "crown" of the fastest 3D accelerator continues! Today we got acquainted with another "two-headed" video card from NVIDIA, which can rightfully be called the fastest video accelerator to date. The novelty has demonstrated excellent performance results in the most difficult modes and is not distinguished by the "hottest" temper and noise (if not specially warmed up). Moreover, the novelty can be used in Quad-SLI mode, which means we can expect even higher FPS and the number of "parrots" in 3DMark. But we will tell this story next time. Since the GeForce GTX 295 claims to be the fastest "single" video card, the following video cards will participate in this test - the GeForce GTX 280 and a combination of two such video cards in SLI mode, as well as, of course, the Radeon HD4870X2. To assess the efficiency of the "internal" SLI video card GeForce GTX 295, we also tested the performance of one "half" of this card, disabling SLI in the driver settings. Test stand

Testing in 3DMark Vantage Performance mode showed that the GeForce GTX 295 really pulls out the "leader's shirt" from the previous king of 3D graphics - the Radeon HD4870X2.

When tested in the game Crysis in low resolution, we again see how the GeForce GTX 295 outperforms the Radeon HD4870X2 by 25% in performance.

With an increase in resolution, the difference in the results of the GeForce GTX 295 and Radeon HD4870X2 decreases slightly, but still remains noticeable - about 10% in favor of the new product.

But the increase in screen resolution comes as a surprise. Among the "single" video cards, the victory remains with the Radeon HD4870X2, however, the GeForce GTX 295 is only slightly behind.

GeForce GTX 295 performance scalability

Power Consumption Test

conclusions

In order to "climb the mountain again" NVIDIA company transferred its "top-end" graphics processor GT200 to a thinner production process - 55 nm. The new GT200b chip remained architecturally the same, but became less hot, which made it possible to release an accelerated version of the single-chip GeForce GTX 280 - the GeForce GTX 285 video card (it was discussed in the review ZOTAC GeForce GTX 285 AMP! Edition). But this turned out to be not enough to overthrow the Radeon HD 4870 X2, and simultaneously with the GeForce GTX 285, the dual-GPU GeForce GTX 295 was released, which was based on two slightly simplified GT200b chips. The resulting accelerator, in the name of which there is no hint of "two-headed", and should provide unsurpassed performance.

To begin with, let's give a comparative table showing the history of development of dual-GPU NVIDIA video cards and analogs from a direct competitor AMD-ATI.

	GeForce 9800 GX2	GeForce GTX 295	Radeon HD 3870 X2	Radeon HD 4870 X2
Graphics chip		GT200-400- B3
Core frequency, MHz
Unified processor frequency, MHz		1 242
Number of unified processors
Number of addressing and texture filtering units
Number of ROPs
Memory size, MB
Effective memory frequency, MHz		2 000 (21 000)*	2250 (2*1125)
Memory type
Memory bus width, bit
Technical production process
Power consumption, W		before289

Judging by the characteristics of the GeForce GTX 295, the architecture of the new graphics accelerator is at the junction of the SLI configurations of the GeForce GTX 280 and GeForce GTX 260 with the transition to 55 nm process technology, which made it possible to obtain power consumption at the level of a competitor's solution. Only testing can show how effective such a "alloy" is, so let's get acquainted with one of the options for the novelty.

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 295 Graphics

Let's start by summarizing and refining the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 295 specification.

Manufacturer
	ZT-295E3MA-FSP (GeForce GTX 295)
Graphics core	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 (GT200-400-B3)
Conveyor	480 unified streaming
Supported APIs	DirectX 10.0 (Shader Model 4.0) OpenGL 2.1
Core frequency (shader domain), MHz
Amount (type) of memory, MB
Frequency (effective) memory, MHz
Memory bus, bit
Tire standard	PCI Express 2.0 x16
Maximum resolution	Up to 2560 x 1600 in Dual-Link DVI mode Up to 2048 x 1536 @ 85 Hz on analog VGA Up to 1920x1080 (1080i) via HDMI
	2x DVI-I (VGA via adapter) 1x HDMI
HDCP support HD video decoding	there is H.264, VC-1, MPEG2 and WMV9
Drivers	The latest drivers can be downloaded from: - support site ; - gPU manufacturer website .
Products webpage

The video card comes in a cardboard box, which is exactly the same construction as for the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 285 AMP! Edition, but has a slightly different design all in the same black and gold colors. On the front side, in addition to the name of the graphics processor, there is 1792 MB of GDDR3 video memory and 896-bit memory bus, hardware support for the newfangled physical API NVIDIA PhisX and the presence of a built-in HDMI video interface.

The back of the package lists the general capabilities of the graphics card with a brief explanation of the benefits of using NVIDIA PhisX, NVIDIA SLI, NVIDIA CUDA, and GeForce 3D Vision.

All this information is briefly duplicated on one of the sides of the box.

The other side of the package lists the exact frequency response and the operating systems supported by the drivers.

A little below, the information on the minimum requirements for the system, in which the "gluttonous" ZOTAC GeForce GTX 295 will be installed, is carefully indicated. So, the future owner of such a powerful graphics accelerator will need a power supply with a capacity of at least 680 W, which is capable of providing up to 46 A along the 12V line. Also, the PSU must have the required number of PCI Express power outputs: one 8-pin and one 6-pin.

By the way, the new packaging is noticeably more convenient in everyday life than the previously used ones. It allows you to quickly access the contents, which is convenient both during the first assembly of the system and when changing configuration, for example, if you need some kind of adapter or, perhaps, a disk with drivers when reinstalling the system.

The delivery set is quite sufficient for installing and using the accelerator, and in addition to the video adapter itself, it includes:

cD with drivers and utilities;
a disc with a bonus game "Race Driver: GRID";
cD with 3DMARK VANTAGE;
paper guides for quick installation and use of the video card;
branded sticker on the PC case;
adapter from 2 x peripheral power connectors to 6-pin PCI-Express;
adapter from 2 x peripheral power connectors to 8-pin PCI-Express;
adapter from DVI to VGA;
hDMI cable;
cable for connecting the SPDIF output of the sound card to the video card.

The unusual appearance of the GeForce GTX 295 video card is due to the design. This is striking at first glance when you see a virtually rectangular accelerator completely enclosed by a casing with a slot through which you can see the turbine of the cooling system hidden somewhere deep.

The reverse side of the video card looks a little simpler. This is due to the fact that, unlike the GeForce 9800 GX2, there is no second half of the casing here. This would seem to indicate a greater predisposition of the GeForce GTX 295 graphics accelerators to disassembly, but as it turned out later, everything is not so simple and safe.

On top of the video card, almost at the very edge, there are connectors for connecting an additional power supply, and due to the rather high power consumption, you need to use one 6-pin and one 8-pin PCI Express.

Near the power connectors there is an SPDIF digital audio input, which should provide mixing of audio stream with video data when using the HDMI interface.

Further, a cutout is made in the casing, through which heated air is ejected directly into the system unit. This will obviously worsen the climate inside it, because, given the power consumption of the video card, the cooling system will blow out a fairly hot stream.

And already near the panel of external interfaces there is an NV-Link connector, which will allow combining two such powerful accelerators in an uncompromising Quad SLI configuration.

Two DVIs are responsible for the image output, which can be converted to VGA using adapters, as well as a high-definition multimedia output HDMI. There are two LEDs next to the top video outputs. The first one displays the power status at the moment - green if the level is sufficient and red if one of the connectors is not connected or an attempt is made to power the card from two 6-pin PCI Express. The second indicates the DVI output to which the master monitor should be connected. A ventilation grill is located just below, through which part of the heated air is blown out.

Disassembling the video card, nevertheless, turned out to be not as difficult as it was in the case of the GeForce 9800 GX2. First, you need to remove the upper casing and the ventilation grill from the interface panel, and then just unscrew one and a half dozen spring-loaded screws on each side of the video card.

Inside this "sandwich" is a single cooling system, consisting of several copper heat sinks and copper heat pipes, on which a lot of aluminum plates are strung. This is all blown out by a rather powerful and, accordingly, not very quiet turbine.

On both sides of the cooling system there are printed circuit boards, each of which is a half of the GeForce GTX 295: it carries one video processor with its own video memory and power supply system, as well as auxiliary chips. Please note that the 6-pin connector for the additional power supply is located on the half saturated with chips, which is logical, since up to 75 W is provided by the PCI Express bus located in the same place.

The boards are interconnected with the help of special flexible SLI bridges. Moreover, they themselves and the connectors for their connection are very capricious, so we do not recommend opening our expensive video card without special need.

But bridges alone are not enough to ensure that parts of the GeForce GTX 295 work in harmony with the rest of the system. In real conditions, the chipset or the increasingly used NVIDIA nForce 200 extension with PCI Express 2.0 support is responsible for the operation of an SLI bundle of a pair of video cards. It is the NF200-P-SLI PCIe switch that is used in the GeForce GTX 295.

Also on the boards are two NVIO2 chips, which are responsible for the operation of video outputs: the first provides support for a pair of DVI, and the second - for one HDMI.

It is thanks to the presence of the second chip that the multichannel sound is mixed from the SPDIF input to the convenient and promising HDMI output.

The video card is based on two NVIDIA GT200-400-B3 chips. Unfortunately, there was not enough space on the printed circuit boards to accommodate several more memory chips, so the full-fledged GT200-350 had the memory bus reduced from 512 to 448 bits, which in turn led to a decrease in rasterization channels to 28, like in the GeForce GTX 260. But on the other hand, there are 240 unified processors left, like a full-fledged GeForce GTX 285. The graphics processor itself operates at a frequency of 576 MHz, and shader pipelines at 1242 MHz.

The total volume of 1792 MB of video memory is recruited by Hynix microcircuits H5RS5223CFR-N0C , which at an operating voltage of 2.05 V have a response time of 1.0 ms, i.e. provide operation at an effective frequency of 2000 MHz. They operate at this frequency, without providing a groundwork for overclocking enthusiasts.

Cooling system efficiency

In a closed but well-ventilated test bench, we were unable to get the turbine to automatically spin up to maximum speed. True, even with 75% of the cooler's capabilities, it was far from quiet. Under these conditions, one of the GPUs closer to the turbine heated up to 79ºC, and the other to 89ºC. Taking into account the total power consumption, these values \u200b\u200bare still far from critical overheating. Thus, we can note the good efficiency of the used cooler. It would also be a little quieter ...

At the same time, the acoustic comfort was disturbed not only by the cooling system - the power supply regulator on the card also did not work quietly, and its high-frequency whistle was not pleasant. True, in a closed case, the video card became quieter, and if you play with sound, then good speakers will completely hide its noise. It will be worse if you decide to play in the evening with headphones, and someone is already going to rest nearby. But this is exactly the price to pay for very high performance.

During testing, we used the Test stand for Video Cards No. 2

CPU	Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 (LGA775, 2.83 GHz, L2 12MB) @ 3.8 GHz
motherboards	ZOTAC NForce 790i-Supreme (LGA775, nForce 790i Ultra SLI, DDR3, ATX) GIGABYTE GA-EP45T-DS3R (LGA775, Intel P45, DDR3, ATX)
Coolers	Noctua NH-U12P (LGA775, 54.33 CFM, 12.6-19.8 dB) Thermalright SI-128 (LGA775) + VIZO Starlet UVLED120 (62.7 CFM, 31.1 dB)
Additional cooling	VIZO Propeller PCL-201 (+1 slot, 16.0-28.3 CFM, 20 dB)
RAM	2x DDR3-1333 1024 MB Kingston PC3-10600 (KVR1333D3N9 / 1G)
Hard drives	Hitachi Deskstar HDS721616PLA380 (160GB, 16MB, SATA-300)
Power supplies	Seasonic M12D-850 (850 W, 120 mm, 20 dB) Seasonic SS-650JT (650 W, 120 mm, 39.1 dB)
Housing	Spire SwordFin SP9007B (Full Tower) + Coolink SWiF 1202 (120x120x25, 53 CFM, 24 dB)
Monitor	Samsung SyncMaster 757MB (DynaFlat, [email protected] Hz, MPR II, TCO "99)

Select what you want to compare GeForce GTX 295 1792MB DDR3 ZOTAC to

Having in its arsenal the same number of stream processors as a pair of GeForce GTX 280s, but in terms of other characteristics more resembling a 2-Way SLI bundle from a GeForce GTX 260, the dual-GPU GeForce GTX 295 in terms of performance is just between the pairs of these accelerators and only occasionally overtakes all possible competitors. But since it does not impose SLI support requirements on the motherboard and should cost less than two GeForce GTX 280 or GeForce GTX 285, it can be considered a really promising high-performance solution for true fans of computer games.

Energy consumption

Having repeatedly made sure during the tests of power supplies that often the system requirements for performance components indicate excessive recommendations regarding the required power, we decided to check whether the GeForce GTX 295 really requires 680 watts. At the same time, let's compare the power consumption of this graphics accelerators with other video cards and their bundles complete with an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 quad-core processor overclocked to 3.8 GHz.

Power consumption, W	GeForce GTX 295	GeForce GTX 260 SLI	GeForce GTX 260 3-Way SLI

Crysis Warhead, Max Quality, 2048x1536, AA4x / AF16x
Call of Juarez, Max Quality, Max Quality, 2048x1536, AA4x / AF16x
FurMark, stability, 1600x1200, AA8x
Idle mode

The results obtained make it possible to refute the recommendation to use very powerful power supplies to provide energy to the GeForce GTX 295. In other words, manufacturers are clearly reinsured in the event of using low-quality power supplies with overstated specifications. While a good 500 W power supply from a reliable manufacturer will provide enough power for such a powerful video card.

Overclocking

To overclock the video card, we used the RivaTuner utility, with the case opened to improve the flow of fresh air to the video card. In addition, the VIZO Propeller cooler provided an improved supply of fresh air directly to the turbine of the video card, and a household fan next to the system unit "blew" the air heated by the video card to the side, preventing it from getting inside the case again.

As a result of overclocking, the frequency of the raster and shader domains was raised to 670 and 1440 MHz, which is 94 MHz (+ 16.3%) and 198 MHz (+ 15.9%), respectively, higher than the default values. The video memory worked at an effective frequency of 2214 MHz, which is 216 MHz (+ 10.8%) higher than the nominal. Let's see how overclocking a video card affects performance.

Test package	Standard frequencies	Overclocked graphics card	Increase in productivity,%










Crisys Warhead, Maximum Quality, NO AA / AF, fps
Crisys Warhead, Maximum Quality, NO AA / AF, fps
Far Cry 2, Maximum Quality, NO AA / AF, fps


Far Cry 2, Maximum Quality, AA4x / AF16x, fps

Overclocking an already productive video card made it possible to get up to 13% more speed. But even at very high resolutions and at maximum image quality settings, it will be hard to notice. and without overclocking, the GeForce GTX 295 provides sufficient frame rates in all games.

conclusions

The GeForce GTX 295 graphics card provides a quantum leap forward in offering more attractive dual-GPU accelerators for the true gaming enthusiast. This solution does provide a very high level of performance, sometimes making it the fastest 3D accelerator available today. At the same time, it has moderate power consumption and a not so noisy cooling system. On the other hand, there are still practically no games in which, at maximum image quality settings and at very high resolutions, “top-end” single-chip video cards do not provide the game frame rate. Therefore, you will have to think twice before buying such an expensive graphics accelerator that does not always provide a noticeable jump in performance. It will probably be more advisable to take a GeForce GTX 285 and a more powerful processor, or a more functional motherboard and more faster RAM, or maybe just a more spacious case with good ventilation and another roomy hard drive. But in any case, you will have to put up with the noisy power regulator of the new GeForce GTX 285 and GeForce GTX 295 products, although this defect may be corrected in future revisions of video cards.

As for the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 295, this video card completely repeats the reference accelerator, and its distinctive positive features include only a very good package bundle and, perhaps, a little less cost than competitors.

Advantages:

very high performance in gaming applications;
directX 10.0 (Shader Model 4.0) and OpenGL 2.1 support;
support for NVIDIA CUDA and NVIDIA PhysX technologies;
technology supportQuad SLI;
excellent equipment.

Disadvantages:

a noticeable squeak of the power stabilizer.

Features:

medium noise and relatively efficient cooling system;
increased requirements for the power supply;
relatively high cost.

We express our gratitude to the company " ELKO Kiev »To the official distributor ZOTAC International in Ukraine for the video cards provided for testing.

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The new most productive graphics accelerator with a less noisy cooling system and ... a good bundle.

In order to "climb the mountain again" NVIDIA company transferred its "top-end" graphics processor GT200 to a thinner production process - 55 nm. The new GT200b chip remained the same architecturally, but became less hot, which made it possible to release an accelerated version of the single-chip GTX280 - the GTX285 video card (it was discussed in the review ZOTAC GeForce GTX 285 AMP! Edition). But this turned out to be not enough to overthrow the Radeon HD4870X2, and at the same time with the GTX285, a dual-GPU was released, which was based on two slightly simplified GT200b chips. The resulting accelerator, in the name of which there is no hint of "two-headed", and should provide unsurpassed performance.

To begin with, let's give a comparative table showing the history of development of dual-GPU NVIDIA video cards and analogs from a direct competitor AMD-ATI.


Graphics chip	GT200-400-B3
Core frequency, MHz
Unified processor frequency, MHz
Number of unified processors
Number of addressing and texture filtering units
Number of ROPs
Memory size, MB
Effective memory frequency, MHz	2000 (2*1000)	2250 (2*1125)	3600 (4*900)
Memory type
Memory bus width, bit
Technical production process
Power consumption, W	up to 289

Let's start by summarizing and refining the GTX 295 specification.

Manufacturer
Model	ZT-295E3MA-FSP (GTX 295)
Graphics core	NVIDIA GTX 295 (GT200-400-B3)
Conveyor	480 unified streaming
Supported APIs	DirectX 10.0 (Shader Model 4.0) OpenGL 2.1
Core frequency (shader domain), MHz	576 (1242)
Amount (type) of memory, MB	1792 (GDDR3)
Frequency (effective) memory, MHz	999 (1998 DDR)
Memory bus, bit	2x 448
Tire standard	PCI Express 2.0 x16
Maximum resolution	Up to 2560 x 1600 in Dual-Link DVI mode Up to 2048 x 1536 @ 85 Hz on analog VGA Up to 1920 × 1080 (1080i) via HDMI
Outputs	2x DVI-I (VGA via adapter) 1x HDMI
HDCP support HD video decoding	there is H.264, VC-1, MPEG2 and WMV9
Drivers	The latest drivers can be downloaded from: - support site ; - gPU manufacturer website .
Products webpage	http://www.zotac.com/

The graphics card comes in a cardboard box, which is exactly the same construction as the GTX 285 AMP! Edition, but has a slightly different design all in the same black and gold colors. On the front side, in addition to the name of the GPU, there is 1792 MB of GDDR3 video memory and an 896-bit memory bus, hardware support for the newfangled physical API NVIDIA PhisX and the presence of a built-in HDMI video interface.

The back of the package lists the general capabilities of the graphics card with a brief explanation of the benefits of using NVIDIA PhisX, NVIDIA SLI, NVIDIA CUDA and 3D Vision.

All this information is briefly duplicated on one of the sides of the box.

The other side of the package lists the exact frequency response and the operating systems supported by the drivers.

A little below, the information on the minimum requirements for the system, in which the "gluttonous" GTX 295 will be installed, is carefully indicated. So, the future owner of such a powerful graphics accelerator will need a power supply with a minimum of 680 W, which is capable of providing up to 46 A along the 12 V line. must have the required number of PCI Express power outlets: one 8-pin and one 6-pin.

The delivery set is quite sufficient for installing and using the accelerator, and in addition to the video adapter itself, it includes:

cD with drivers and utilities;
a disc with a bonus game "Race Driver: GRID";
cD with 3DMARK VANTAGE;
paper guides for quick installation and use of the video card;
branded sticker on the PC case;
adapter from 2 x peripheral power connectors to 6-pin PCI-Express;
adapter from 2 x peripheral power connectors to 8-pin PCI-Express;
adapter from DVI to VGA;
hDMI cable;
cable for connecting the SPDIF output of the sound card to the video card.

The unusual appearance of the video card is due to the design. This is striking at first glance when you see a virtually rectangular accelerator completely enclosed by a casing with a slot through which you can see the turbine of the cooling system, hidden somewhere deep inside.

The reverse side of the video card looks a little simpler. This is due to the fact that, unlike the GeForce 9800 GX2, there is no second half of the casing here. This would seem to indicate a greater predisposition of GTX 295 graphics accelerators to disassembly, but as it turned out later, everything is not so simple and safe.

Near the power connectors there is an SPDIF digital audio input, which should provide mixing of audio stream with video data when using the HDMI interface.

And already near the panel of external interfaces there is an NV-Link connector, which will allow combining two such powerful accelerators in an uncompromising Quad SLI configuration.

Disassembling the video card, however, was not as difficult as it was with the 9800 GX2. First, you need to remove the upper casing and the ventilation grill from the interface panel, and then just unscrew one and a half dozen spring-loaded screws on each side of the video card.

On both sides of the cooling system there are printed circuit boards, each of which represents a half: it carries one video processor with its own video memory and power supply system, as well as auxiliary chips. Please note that the 6-pin auxiliary power connector is located on the half saturated with chips, which is logical, since up to 75 W is provided by the PCI Express bus located in the same place.

But bridges alone are not enough to ensure that parts of the GTX 295 work in harmony with the rest of the system. In real conditions, the chipset or the increasingly used NVIDIA nForce 200 extension with PCI Express 2.0 support is responsible for the operation of an SLI bundle of a pair of video cards. It is the NF200-P-SLI PCIe switch that is used in.

Also on the boards are two NVIO2 chips, which are responsible for the operation of video outputs: the first provides support for a pair of DVI, and the second - for one HDMI.

It is thanks to the presence of the second chip that the multichannel sound is mixed from the SPDIF input to the convenient and promising HDMI output.

The video card is based on two NVIDIA GT200-400-B3 chips. Unfortunately, there was not enough space on the printed circuit boards to accommodate several more memory chips, so the full-fledged GT200-350 had the memory bus reduced from 512 to 448 bits, which in turn led to a decrease in rasterization channels to 28, like in the GTX260. But on the other hand, there are 240 unified processors left, like a full-fledged GTX285. The GPU itself runs at 576 MHz, and the shader pipes at 1242 MHz.

Cooling system efficiency

In a closed but well-ventilated test bench, we were unable to get the turbine to automatically spin up to maximum speed. True, even with 75% of the cooler's capabilities, it was far from quiet. Under these conditions, one of the GPUs closer to the turbine heated up to 79ºC, and the other to 89ºC. Considering the total power consumption, these values \u200b\u200bare still far from critical overheating. Thus, we can note the good efficiency of the used cooler. It would also be a little quieter ...

Testing

CPU	Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 (LGA775, 2.83 GHz, L2 12MB) @ 3.8 GHz
motherboards	NForce 790i-Supreme (LGA775, nForce 790i Ultra SLI, DDR3, ATX) GIGABYTE GA-EP45T-DS3R (LGA775, Intel P45, DDR3, ATX)
Coolers	Noctua NH-U12P (LGA775, 54.33 CFM, 12.6-19.8 dB) Thermalright SI-128 (LGA775) + VIZO Starlet UVLED120 (62.7 CFM, 31.1 dB)
Additional cooling	VIZO Propeller PCL-201 (+1 slot, 16.0-28.3 CFM, 20 dB)
RAM	2x DDR3-1333 1024 MB Transcend PC3-10600
Hard drives	Hitachi Deskstar HDS721616PLA380 (160GB, 16MB, SATA-300)
Power supplies	CHIEFTEC CFT-850G-DF (850W, 140 + 80mm, 25dB) Seasonic SS-650JT (650 W, 120 mm, 39.1 dB)
Housing	Spire SwordFin SP9007B (Full Tower) + Coolink SWiF 1202 (120 × 120x25, 53 CFM, 24 dB)
Monitor	Samsung SyncMaster 757MB (DynaFlat, 2048 × [email protected] Hz, MPR II, TCO'99)

Having in its arsenal the same number of stream processors as a pair of GTX280s, but in terms of other characteristics more like a 2-Way SLI bundle from a GTX260, a dual-GPU video card in terms of performance is just between the pairs of these accelerators and only occasionally outperforms all possible competitors. But since it does not impose SLI support requirements on the motherboard and should cost less than two GTX280 or GTX285, it can be considered a really promising high-performance solution for true fans of computer games.

Energy consumption

Having repeatedly made sure during the tests of power supplies that often the system requirements for high-performance components indicate overestimated recommendations regarding the required power, we decided to check whether the GTX 295 really requires 680 watts. At the same time, let's compare the power consumption of this graphics accelerators with other video cards and their bundles complete with an Intel Core 2 Qyad Q9550 quad-core processor overclocked to 3.8 GHz.

Power consumption, W

We express our gratitude to the company " ELKO Kiev »To the official distributor ZOTAC International in Ukraine for the video cards provided for testing.

Temperature and Overclocking Level Inno3D GeForce GTX 295 Platinum

The temperature regime of the card was at an acceptable level and the GPU did not heat up above 80-82 degrees Celsius, and the noise level even at 94% of the maximum was much lower than that of the turbine of the old revision video card.

Testing

Test configuration

Testing was carried out at the following stand:

CPU:
- Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 (3, [email protected], 27 GHz, FSB 450 MHz)
Motherboard:
- ASUS Rampage Formula (Intel X48)
RAM:
- G.Skill F2-8800CL5D-4GBPI (2x2048 MB, [email protected], 4-4-4-12-2T, dual channel)
HDD:
- Samsung HD252HJ (250 GB, SATA2)
Power Supply:
- Silver Power SP-S850
Operating system:
- Windows Vista Ultimate x86 SP1

Tested on Windows Vista Ultimate x86 SP1. For adapters based on GeForce chipsets, the ForceWare 185.85 driver was used, for Radeon - Catalyst 9.4. The acceleration of physical effects through the video card was disabled only for testing in the 3DMark Vantage application.

The synthetic packages 3DMark "06 and 3DMark Vantage from Futuremark Corp., the masterpiece of game-making from Crytek - Crysis (the test was carried out by the utility CrysisBenchmarkTool 1.05, standard level), released last year Far Cry 2 (built-in benchmark), a benchmark based on games STALKER: Clear Sky (Day mode) and another benchmark Cryostasis TechDemo, demonstrating the capabilities of the game "Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason".

All measurements were carried out at a screen resolution of 1680x1050 (except for 3DMark "06 and 3DMark Vantage) to create a serious load on video accelerators. For 3DMark, the default settings were set, in CrysisBenchmarkTool 1.05, tests were performed with the Very High profile, for Far Cry 2, the maximum settings were used, in the benchmark STALKER was set to ultra-quality with DirectX 10 support, Cryostasis TechDemo used the High preset, anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering were not forced in the drivers, but were selected in the applications themselves.

The graphs with the results show both the average fps and the minimum.

Type