It’s that time of year again when one of the biggest computer technology events has come and gone, leaving in its wake a whole slew of must-have products. Better yet, some of these products are already available for order locally, or are nearly so. We have in our offices two of the most exciting products we could have asked for – the Asus branded GTX 285 and 295 graphics cards. We take a quick look at these card’s specifications and their positioning in the high-end market.

The GTX285 is described simply enough: it is the update of the previous top-of-the-line GTX280, and represents one of the first products to come out from Nvidia’s plants sporting the 55nm die-shrink that Nvidia sorely needs to combat ATI on the high ground. As a die-shrink version of an existing GPU, one would expect the changes to stop at the microscopic level, but Nvidia has taken advantage of the smaller and cooler core by increasing clocks and making adjustments for the expected lower power consumption.

                                             The EN GTX285 looks the same as the GTX280. Surprisingly, the GTX285 is the same length as the GTX295, although the GTX295 is much heavier.

To whit, the GTX285 has core, memory, and shader frequencies of 648, 1242, and 1476MHz respectively, compared to the GTX280’s numbers of 602, 1107, and 1296MHz. Memory interface at 512 bit, 240 stream processors, and memory size of 1GB remain the same from the GTX280. The physical dimensions of the GTX285 GPU are also smaller, with a physical footprint more than 100 square mm smaller than the GTX280’s – a difference that should bear results in the temperature department. It can also be assumed that the GTX285 will be a better overclocker than the GTX280, though this remains to be seen as the Taiwan chip fabs start to ramp up and the 55nm process matures.

                                             Comparison between the GTX280 and GTX285. Graph from overclock3d.com.

Power consumption is the flip side of the die-size coin – traditionally, a smaller fab-process should result in lower power consumption – as long as drivers and power control schemes work well together to control power flow into the card dependent on activity. Stated TDP is a low 183W, compared to the GTX280’s 236W TDP - a difference of 53W. As with the GTX280, the GTX285 has two golden fingers capable of supporting 3-Way SLI.

                                             The black and gold theme complements the glossy black cards within.

Asus’ packaging is as good as ever – the components are separated into compartments, with black and gold trim being the dominant theme inside the main box. The card itself is somewhat of a letdown since it looks exactly the same as its predecessor, although one notable difference is the change-over to dual 6-pin power connectors compared to the GTX280’s combination 6 and 8-pin connectors – an indicator of its lower power consumption.

                                             The GTX295, above, needs an eight and six pin connector, while the GTX285 differs from the GTX280 by only requiring two 6-pin connectors.

                                             Exploded view of the GTX295 showing the "sandwich" method of cooling.

The second card is the GTX295 – a wholly more exciting piece of silicon, or perhaps it is more accurate to say “pieces”, as the GTX295 is composed of two boards sandwiched together in the same way as Nvidia’s previous dual PCB card, the 9800 GX2. The GTX295 is literally the heaviest card I’ve ever hefted – it weighs in at around 3 pounds, but it is also heavy in other factors, namely numbers. When compared to the previous high-end placeholders GTX280 and GTX260, the GTX295 seems to be a combination of the two, with features chosen to perfectly complement the GTX295’s dual-PCB design and the resulting heat and packaging issues.

                                             Comparison graph from firingsquad.com. Note the combination of specifications that is the GTX295.

This simply means that instead of relying the top-end GTX280 or 285 to provide the internals for the GTX295, Nvidia took the GTX 260’s 448-bit memory interface and the smaller 896MB cache of DDR3 memory. Clock speed is also conservatively copied from the GTX260’s with a 576MHz core, 1.0GHz memory (2.0GHz effective), and 1242MHz for the stream processors. The GTX280 contributes its 240 stream processors, for a total of 480 stream processors for the whole card. Stated TDP is a reasonable (for a dual-PCB card) 289W.

                                             One-half of the sandwich (lower photo). Note the flexible SLI connection at top left of the lower picture.

The GTX295 is a physically imposing card; it is designed to be cooled as efficiently as possible with the limited space at its disposal. Due to this, it gives off the feeling of having a lot of mass in a concentrated space, like a 3-pound dumbbell but much more expensive. The two PCBs “sandwich” the cooler between themselves, with the cooler contacts finished in copper. Some exploded views from firingsquad.com shows how cooling air is sucked in through the large water-wheel type fan and pushed through the middle cavity between the two GPUs. Unlike previous designs, building the two PCBs facing each other eliminates the problem of having one GPU much hotter than the other.

                                             The large cooling fan, exposed rear, and the interior cavity all assist in cooling the dual PCB monster.

The rear of the card is left bare in contrast to previous Nvidia dual-PCB products, perhaps as an aid to cooling and to save as much space as possible for the cooling cavity in between the PCBs. The front of the card is also left practically bare; the rubber-feeling cover is of a mesh design. Other notable features of the card include a power LED indicating whether enough power is being fed to the card or not. A single SLI connector adorns the top of the card. In addition to the dual DVI connectors, an HDMI connector is placed beside the rear exhaust grille. This card uses a six and an eight-pin power connector.

                                             GTX295 (left) boasts of an additional HDMI connector. Indicator lights are for power andvideo-signal.

                                             The middle cavity for cooling.

For both cards, Asus maintains its high packaging standards - both packages include a DVI to VGA converter, a molex power converter, an HDMI audio SPDIF connector, and an S-video to 3-way RCA connector. The GTX285 comes with a tasteful faux-leather mousepad, while the GTX295 gets a CD wallet of the same material. Both packages are wrapped up in the previously described black-with-gold-trim boxes.

                                             The GTX295 GPU exposed. 55nm process chips are physically smaller than previous high-end cores.

Asus got their GTX285 and 295 samples to us in record time, in fact these Asus boards are the first to arrive of what surely will be a virtual flood of GTX285/295 products. Online reviews are already crowing about how the GTX295 is beating up on ATI’s best, and in every benchmark we encountered, the GTX295 was truly dominating, to the tune of 40% higher fps at the high resolution benchmarks, notably in Crysis.

                                            Bundle for the Asus EN GTX295.

The GTX285 compares favorably to ATI’s 4850 X2, although it does not defeat it in all of the benches. With these specs, these Asus cards will surely become the subject of many a comparison to come in the HWZ offices – watch out for these two in a future review either online or in our magazine!