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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 (Reference Card)

08 Jan 2009

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		<h2>More articles (3)</h2>
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			<a href="/feature-clash-titans-ati-radeon-hd-4890-crossfirex-vs-nvidia-geforce-gtx-295" alt="/product-nvidia-geforce-gtx-295-reference-card/review?review=10043">Clash of the Titans - ATI Radeon HD 4890 CrossFireX vs. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295</a>			</li>
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			<a href="/review-comeback-kid-nvidia-geforce-gtx-295-full-review" alt="/product-nvidia-geforce-gtx-295-reference-card/review?review=7789">The Comeback Kid - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 Full Review</a>			</li>
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			<a href="/review-double-stacker-riposte-nvidia-geforce-gtx-295-preview" alt="/product-nvidia-geforce-gtx-295-reference-card/review?review=9258">Double Stacker Riposte - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 Preview</a>			</li>
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			<h2 class="header-green">The Comeback Kid - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 Full Review</h2>
		<span class="byline">Reviewed by Kenny Yeo on Thursday, 08 Jan 2009</span>
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		 		<h2 class="page-title">The Comeback Kid - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 Full Review</h2>
		 		<h3 class="page_title">The Comeback Kid - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 Full Review</h3>
<p><a href="/view/9258" target="_blank">First previewed</a> less than a month ago, the new twin-GPU GeForce GTX 295 is NVIDIA's latest flagship card. Its conception follows closely that of NVIDIA's earlier dual-GPU offering, the GeForce 9800 GX2, and that can be seen from the GeForce GTX 295 two PCB design. Rather than follow ATI's lead and squeeze two GPUs on a single PCB, what NVIDIA is doing here, instead, is to squeeze two PCBs, one GPU each, into a single card. It would therefore not be wrong to call the new GeForce GTX 295 a sandwich.</p>
<p class="rtecenter"><img src="http://images.hardwarezone.com/upload/files/2010/03/933a9410e4.jpg" title="As this diagram clearly show, the new GeForce GTX 295 is quite literally a sandwich of a graphics card - two card plastered together kept cool by a heatsink/fan combo in the middle." alt="" /></p>
<p class="rteleft">As mentioned in our preview, the GeForce GTX 295 employs two GPUs that boast specifications that are in between the current single GPU flagship, the Geforce GTX 280, and the less powerful GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 (GTX 260+). To be more precise, it has 240 processing cores, the same number as the GeForce GTX 280; whereas the memory bus width and clock speeds follow that of the GTX 260+, which means it has a 448-bit wide memory bus, and clock speeds of 576MHz for the core, 1998MHz DDR for the memory and 1242MHz for the shaders.</p>
<p>NVIDIA was very fussy about what we could and could not test with their new flagship, and so the preview was limited to only a number of tests. However, now that the GeForce GTX 295 has been officially announced, we have free rein to do what we want. Plus now we've newer drivers to showcase the latest results.</p>
<p>To refresh your memory, and for the benefit of those who haven't read our preview, the GPU-Z readings tell you exactly what's underneath the GeForce GTX 295. The table, on the other hand, shows you how the GeForce GTX 295 stands up to the competition.</p>
<p class="rtecenter"><img src="http://images.hardwarezone.com/upload/files/2010/03/e74cdc0281.gif" alt="" /></p>
<p class="rtecenter">
<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" border="1" align="center" width="95%">
    <caption>NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 and Competitive Comparison SKUs</caption>
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <th valign="middle">Model</th>
            <th valign="middle">NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 1792MB GDDR3</th>
            <th valign="middle">Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB GDDR5</th>
            <th valign="middle">NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 1GB GDDR3</th>
            <th valign="middle">NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB GDDR3</th>
            <th valign="middle">ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB GDDR5</th>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th valign="middle">Core Code</th>
            <td valign="middle">GT200 x 2</td>
            <td valign="middle">R700 (RV770 x 2)</td>
            <td valign="middle">GT200</td>
            <td valign="middle">GT200</td>
            <td valign="middle">RV770</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th valign="middle">Transistor Count</th>
            <td valign="middle">2800 million</td>
            <td valign="middle">1912 million</td>
            <td valign="middle">1400 million</td>
            <td valign="middle">1400 million</td>
            <td valign="middle">956 million</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th valign="middle">Manufacturing Process</th>
            <td valign="middle">55nm</td>
            <td valign="middle">55nm</td>
            <td valign="middle">65nm</td>
            <td valign="middle">65nm/55nm</td>
            <td valign="middle">55nm</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th valign="middle">Core Clock</th>
            <td valign="middle">576MHz</td>
            <td valign="middle">750MHz</td>
            <td valign="middle">602MHz</td>
            <td valign="middle">576MHz</td>
            <td valign="middle">750MHz</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th valign="middle">Stream Processors</th>
            <td valign="middle">480 Stream Processors</td>
            <td valign="middle">320 Processors (1600 Stream processing units)</td>
            <td valign="middle">240 Stream Processors</td>
            <td valign="middle">216 Stream Processors</td>
            <td valign="middle">160 Processors (800 Stream processing units)</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th valign="middle">Stream Processor Clock</th>
            <td valign="middle">1242MHz</td>
            <td valign="middle">750MHz</td>
            <td valign="middle">1296Mhz</td>
            <td valign="middle">1242MHz</td>
            <td valign="middle">750MHz</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th valign="middle">Texture Mapping Units (TMU) or Texture Filtering (TF) units</th>
            <td valign="middle">160</td>
            <td valign="middle">80</td>
            <td valign="middle">80</td>
            <td valign="middle">72</td>
            <td valign="middle">40</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th valign="middle">Raster Operator units (ROP)</th>
            <td valign="middle">56</td>
            <td valign="middle">32</td>
            <td valign="middle">32</td>
            <td valign="middle">28</td>
            <td valign="middle">16</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th valign="middle">Memory Clock</th>
            <td valign="middle">1998MHz GDDR3</td>
            <td valign="middle">3600MHz GDDR5</td>
            <td valign="middle">2214MHz GDDR3</td>
            <td valign="middle">1998MHz GDDR3</td>
            <td valign="middle">3600MHz GDDR5</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th valign="middle">DDR Memory Bus Width</th>
            <td valign="middle">448-bit</td>
            <td valign="middle">256-bit</td>
            <td valign="middle">512-bit</td>
            <td valign="middle">448-bit</td>
            <td valign="middle">256-bit</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th valign="middle">Memory Bandwidth</th>
            <td valign="middle">223.8GB/s</td>
            <td valign="middle">230GB/s</td>
            <td valign="middle">141.7GB/s</td>
            <td valign="middle">111.9GB/s</td>
            <td valign="middle">115.2GB/s</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th valign="middle">PCI Express Interface</th>
            <td valign="middle">PCIe ver 2.0 x16</td>
            <td valign="middle">PCIe ver 2.0 x16</td>
            <td valign="middle">PCIe ver 2.0 x16</td>
            <td valign="middle">PCIe ver 2.0 x16</td>
            <td valign="middle">PCIe ver 2.0 x16</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th valign="middle">Molex Power Connectors</th>
            <td valign="middle">6-pin, 8-pin</td>
            <td valign="middle">6-pin, 8-pin</td>
            <td valign="middle">6-pin, 8-pin</td>
            <td valign="middle">2 x 6-pin</td>
            <td valign="middle">2 x 6-pin</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th valign="middle">Multi GPU Technology</th>
            <td valign="middle">Yes (SLI)</td>
            <td valign="middle">Yes (CrossFireX)</td>
            <td valign="middle">Yes (SLI)</td>
            <td valign="middle">Yes (SLI)</td>
            <td valign="middle">Yes (CrossFireX)</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th valign="middle">DVI Output Support</th>
            <td valign="middle">2 x Dual-Link, 1 x HDMI</td>
            <td valign="middle">2 x Dual-Link</td>
            <td valign="middle">2 x Dual-Link</td>
            <td valign="middle">2 x Dual-Link</td>
            <td valign="middle">2 x Dual-Link</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th valign="middle">HDCP Output Support</th>
            <td valign="middle">Yes</td>
            <td valign="middle">Yes</td>
            <td valign="middle">Yes</td>
            <td valign="middle">Yes</td>
            <td valign="middle">Yes</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th valign="middle">Street Price</th>
            <td valign="middle">US$499</td>
            <td valign="middle">~US$529</td>
            <td valign="middle">~US$429</td>
            <td valign="middle">~US$259</td>
            <td valign="middle">~US$209</td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>
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