- Email |
- Print |
- Comments (113) |
- Share
Here's a short summary of our findings:
BFG's offering is the price/performance leader in the high-end graphics card segment because it is both fast and quiet, plus it closes the gap between the GeForce GTX 260 216 SP and the GeForce GTX 280/285 cards. It keeps up with the big boys, but costs a lot less.
The EVGA GTX 295 Hydro Copper is the unchallenged performance leader because water cooling gives this card maximum headroom for overclocking. Anybody who's after the strongest dual-GPU card, owns a powerful multi-core CPU, wants to run a minimum resolution of 1920x1200 for gaming, and has the necessary cash, should buy one of these and order a water-cooling system at the same time (using it as a standard air-cooled GeForce GTX 295 card is simply asking for trouble). EVGA boosts its 3D performance by a significant margin and consequently raises the bar in our performance measurements. Our brand-new i7 CPU still can't completely load both GPUs all the way down, despite being overclocked to 3.8 GHz. We'll see how long this lasts.
The MSI GTX HydroGen is a very nice card, and thanks to its water cooling, is quiet. Thanks to its overclocking, the card is fast enough to keep up with newer GeForce GTX 285 models. All in all, it strikes a very good compromise between performance and noise levels, especially for a single-chip card.
We're also waiting on water-cooled GeForce GTX 285 models with considerable anticipation. Anybody who's after the fastest single-chip card and who doesn't mind some fan noise might find that the Zotac GeForce GTX 285 AMP makes a great 3D graphics component. The MSI GeForce GTX 285 SuperPipe enables high performance without requiring expensive liquid cooling. It's just a little slower than the AMP Edition from Zotac, but thanks to its dual fans and extra-long heatpipes, it has extra headroom for further overclocking, yet still runs very quietly. Palit's Revolution 700 should make ATI fans happy, thanks to its capable cooling, even under heavy loads, and its high performance for some games.
When it comes to handing out any editor's recommendations, we had a hard time because all these products are well-designed in their own rights. If forced to pick the best card, we'd have to dig deeply into the details from our tests, because that's primarily where the differences really lie. The price/performance leader is clear, though: this honor goes to the BFG GeForce GTX 275. For those in search of high performance but who don't have unlimited budgets, this card does the job. We also give an Editor's Choice to the MSI GeForce GTX 285 SuperPipe because of its great balance between performance and cooling, which shows that even an air-cooled high-end graphics card can still be very quiet.
Best prices for tested products
- Avivo vs. Purevideo, Round 1: The Radeon X1000 vs. Geforce 7000 Generation [Graphic & Displays]
- New card or new system? [Graphic & Displays]
- AMD Radeon HD 3800: The Empire Strikes Back [Graphic & Displays]
- AGP Platform Analysis, Part 1: New Cards, Old System [Graphic & Displays]
- Hardware Questions for a gaming pc. [CPU & Components]
Questions? Ask Tom's community!
- 1 / 6
- Next
-
Sponsored links
Related forums topics
Related articles
-
Best Of The Best: High-End Graphics Card Roundup
Performance on its own is not enough to earn a recommendation here. The very best graphics cards also employ innovative cooling to help muscle their way into our hearts. Today, we look at high-end offerings from BFG, EVGA, MSI, Palit, and Zotac
-
Radeon HD 4850 Vs. GeForce GTS 250: Non-Reference Battle
Tired of bog-standard reference graphics cards differentiated by nothing but a box? We pit Gigabyte's GV-N250ZL-1GI with Zalman cooling and Asus' EAH4850 MT with adjustable voltages against each other to see if either board stands out.
-
GeForce And Radeon Take On Linux
Graphics technology makes quantum leaps on a regular basis, but Windows isn't necessarily everyone's darling. We tried Fedora Core 5 to check the "state of the Linux union".
Partners
The Games selection
violent :
More Mindless Violence
Basic shooting game, but still so powerful! Use the mouse to take aim and shoot at the little beasties before they get to you. Use Space to reload....
|
action :
Yoyo the Star
Yoyo is a young girl who recently graduated and dreams to become a movie star (don't we all). You'll have to guide her on the path to stardom,...
|
Only one ATi card? What happened to all those OC'd 4890s?
And those HAWX benchmarks look ridiculous. ATi should wipe floor with nvidia with that. Of course you didn't put dx10.1 support on. Bastard...
Only one ATi card? What happened to all those OC'd 4890s?
These are the same boards that were included in the recent charts update, and are largely contingent on what vendors submit for evaluation. We have a review upcoming comparing Sapphire's new 1 GHz Radeon HD 4890 versus the stock 4890. It'll be up in the next couple of weeks, though.
Am i the only one that find this article akward since looking at the tests done on Ati cards on The Last Remnant game makes me wonder what went wrong ... i mean it`s UT3 engine ... why so low performance ?
Ugh, please tell me that The Last Remnant hasnt been added to the benchmark suite.
And I'm not exactly sure why the writer decided to bench on Endwar instead of World In Conflict. Why is that exactly?
And despite Quarz2's apparent fanboism, I think HAWX would have been better benched under 10.1 for the ATI cards, and used the highest stable settings instead of dropping off to DX9.
The EVGA 295 is the stuff gods game with.
I would love that card. I would have to replace my whole system to work it properly however.
I want $1500 now... i7 920 (why get better? They all seem to be godly overclockers) and EVGA 295.
How about a test suit of the EVGA GTX 295 in crossfire for a quad-gpu configuration? I know there's driver issues, but it would be fun to see what it could do regardless. Along with seeing how far Toms can OC the EVGA GTX 295.
Actually... Toms just needs to do a new system building recommendation roundup. I find them useful personally, and would have used it myself had my cash source had not lost his job...
Weird test:
1) Where are the overclocking results?
2) Bad choice for benchmarks: Too many old DX9 based graphic engines (FEAR 2, Fallout 3, Left4Dead with >100FPS) or Endwar which is limited to 30FPS. Where is Crysis?
3) 1900x1200 as highest resolution for high-end cards?
Seems that the cumulative benchmark graphs are going to be a bit skewed if The Last Remnant results are included in there... it's fairly obvious something odd is going on looking at the numbers for that game.
Worst article in a long time. Why compare how old games perform on NVIDIA's high end graphic cards? Don't get me wrong i like them but where's all the Atomic stuff from Saphire, Asus and XFX had some good stuff from ATI too. So what.. you just took the reference cards from ATI and tested them? :| That is just wrong.
WOW what a piece of s********** is this """"""review"""""" Noobidia pay good in this days.
ok i tried playing The Last Remnant on my comp with my 4870x2 and it failed hardcore >.< the game itself is ridiculously boring too. sooo why is it added to the benching list?? *shakes head* makes me sad...
I find it a lack this tests do not include the 3DMark Vantage suite.
Ok, there aren't many games using DX10, but some very good ones do !.
Thats the reason i've switched to vista.
And with me enough people to justify a proper DX10 benchmark.
No mention of the GTX 285 2GB version? I'm planning on picking up three of these for a tri-SLI Core i7 build, all water-cooled and overclocked.
well i'm running an factory overclocked gtx285. only because i like solid drivers and DAAMIT doesn't seem to be able to provide these consistently. thats been my biggest problem in picking up an ATI card.
This review however is terrible. the benchmark selection is dated if nothing else. even toms other reviews of recent have used better benchmarks than this.
This benchmark is not fair for Ati !!!
Lets see some 3dmarkVantage pls
Like car review magazine (like the one my friend is working for), I THINK they only have cards that were submitted to them and (not sure if this is the case with Tom's) they're only lended for a limited amount of days.
Although I'm not very satisfied (coz lack of ATI card in your possession), I thank you for the review with Fallout, Left 4 Dead and Last Remnant with DX9. Yup I'm still using XP coz the bog-down symptom with Vista is too noticeable for my rig.
1920x1200 as minimum threshold? Cool, as my 23" is limted to 1920x1080 anyway
I think you guys should cut Tino Kreiss some slack this I believe his first publication? Saying things like "this is the worst article I've read in a long time" doesn't actually help. You can blame the choice of benchmarks suites on sites manager/editor not the author as he only does what he is told to write. So with that in mind............Cangelini your fired.
I am curious though, HAWX is a game sponsored by ATI so why is the HD4890 getting it's backside tanned by the GTX275? It's not just a few FPS behind either the difference is quite remarkable and yes I do realise the BFG GTX275 is overclocked but it's not overclocked by a lot.
Cangelini your fired.
Perhaps you'll hire me as a copy editor for your posts instead? ;-)
In all seriousness, Tino has been with Tom's German office for a long time. I've asked the staff responsible for testing there to drop in and provide some feedback on the products and benchmarks used here.
Best,
Chris
How lame this article is... i was always wondering why they don't use full potential of gpu, if ATI is capable of using DX10.1 (and game uses that technology), why not use it. it might not be fair for nvidia but ffs, i believe that this kind of review should show all potential of products.
Shame for TH!