GeForce GTX 295 Vs. GTX 275 SLI: When Two Are Better Than One

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Benchmark Results: Left 4 Dead

Holy platform bottleneck, Batman. The only real interesting set of data points come from the GeForce GTX 275s at their stock clocks. Though we’ve been watching these two cards smoke the rest of the pack up until now, they’re bested by the same two boards running slower clocks, even.

The same thing happens with anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering turned on. While we’d expect the frame rates to all be similar (after all, faster GPU clocks aren’t going to help on a platform that’s limited by CPU performance), it’s hard to say why the less aggressively-clocked cards turn out to be faster. The bottom line here is that, either way you go, Left 4 Dead will run plenty well, even at 2560x1600 and all of the details cranked up.

Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini is an Editor Emeritus at Tom's Hardware US. He edits hardware reviews and covers high-profile CPU and GPU launches.
51 Comments Comment from the forums
  • been waiting for more on the 295...
    Reply
  • dragonfang18
    I already ordered 2 295's... $504 each.
    Reply
  • imrul
    "Intel Core i7 920 Extreme (Bloomfield)" (page 3)

    there's no extreme version of i7 920, nor is it bloomfield...
    Reply
  • dragonfang18
    i7 IS Bloomfield imrul...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Core_i7
    Reply
  • reasonablevoice
    What the hell is up with the underclocked cards out performing the others in that H.A.W.X.

    Can the author of the article comment with what they think is going on there?
    Reply
  • cangelini
    reasonablevoiceWhat the hell is up with the underclocked cards out performing the others in that H.A.W.X.Can the author of the article comment with what they think is going on there?
    Happened in WiC w/o AA as well. Difficult to say went on there, but the results are repeatable. Probably more important, though, is that when more of an emphasis is put on the graphics subsystem, you see those stock-clocked boards take the lead, as we'd expect.
    Reply
  • avatar_raq
    1.Very good article, unlike some other author's articles in this site, this article is solid (starting from the test system down to the conclusion) and interesting, this is what I always expect from Chris.
    2.As for the strange issue in L4D, HAWX and WIC where the slower 275s beat the faster ones....Odd indeed. Is there any chance the normally clocked cards automatically clocked down to 2D mode or somthing in-game? In other words the GPUs usage dropped due to the CPU bottleneck or whatever, and the cards' driver decided to clockdown to save energy! I've seen nvidia and ati cards do that. The monitoring utility of rivatuner could have revealed such things since it shows real-time clocks..BTW what software did you use to downclock?
    It would be funny to consider downclocking our cards to 'gain' performance!!
    3.I hope the new (single PCB) 295 will drop in larger quantities, perhaps it will be more practical than the current one, and will tip the balnce here in its favor.
    http://www.techpowerup.com/img/09-05-12/13c.jpg
    Reply
  • Can you put the "online shop" section underneath the "Next" button for the next page...its really annoying and inconvenient to have it positioned within the article as it seems to be.
    Thanks
    Reply
  • rags_20
    Please benchmark in Very High.
    Reply
  • JeanLuc
    rags_20Please benchmark in Very High.
    I noticed that to, if I owned that kind of hardware I would be playing every game at the highest settings even if it is Crysis.
    Reply