The Verdict
The final conclusion of the GeForce GTX 295 will not be much different than the preview we already have shown you. In fact, it's even slightly better. I honestly say that I really enjoyed using BFG's GeForce GTX 295. It offers an incredible amount of raw horsepower to render your games. In addition to the preview, we have shown you that though power consumption by itself is high, it's actually pretty good for a product of this class. Temperatures are okay, noise levels are okay, performance is grand and heck... if you still do not have enough you can overclock the little fucker as well. And yeah, overclocking wise we were able to pull a rabbit out of a hat, it's a very tweakable product as it seems.
What do you get for 499 USD? Well, a product that offers extreme performance. No matter what type of game you throw at it, you flick on the highest image quality settings and go into the highest resolutions. The GTX 295 will get the job done.
In this review I took both older and the newest and hottest games available. Surely a title like Left 4 Dead based on the HL-2 source engine is a pretty easy task for any modern graphics card, but the card scaled just so well.
Did you have a look at our Far Cry 2 test?, yeah more of that amazing performance. The same goes for Call of Duty World at War and obviously the other titles we tested. You will not have to forfeit on image quality settings and you can play at the highest resolutions. But that is of course expected. Also and I do have to mention this, the GTX 295 will be a graphics card for users with a high resolution monitor. The overall performance really starts to kick in after roughly 1920x1200, a resolution where more and more pixels need to be rendered and where GPU limitation normally kicks in pretty fast... So keep in mind that cards like these really start to show off at the higher resolutions.
Now make no mistake... the GTX 295 is faster and is the winner of this test opposed to the Radeon HD 4870 X2. It is all relative though. Prices on that product have gone down to 400-450 USD, positioning it exactly right against the GTX 295. Also, the Radeon HD 4870 X2 certainly isn't far away with it's stunning performance. Either way, you'll adore the raw performance. There's no wrong or right between these two options.
When we compare to GeForce GTX 280 in SLI we again can do nothing else but notice that the overall GTX 295 performance is really close to a 280 SLI setup... for less money.
What about Quad SLI you ask? Well fear not dear Watson.. we have another article ready and waiting for you guys where we'll take the Radeon HD 4870 X2 setup in CrossfireX and the GeForce GTX 295 setup in Quad SLI, waiting to be read. It's downright disgusting how much power these setups will consume, let alone the money you have to smack onto the table. But heck, it is a lot fun isn't it?
Alright you guys, let me wrap up this review. Initially when I heard about the GTX 295 I had a little doubt. I'm not a big fan of dual-GPU solutions. You can get confronted with driver issues or games that are unsupported when they are new. That opinion of mine has not changed, I'm a single GPU kinda guy. But I have to admit, the GeForce GTX 295 took me by surprise... I really seem to like it. The performance is astounding, the price is reasonable and any other variable I mentioned in this review is just looking good. Mind you that BFG will also go even more extreme and build water-cooled version of the GTX 295, very interesting. BFG covers your product with a life-time warranty and made the bundle really interesting. If you decide to place 499 smackaroonies on the table for this card... dude, nobody will hold a grudge against you, in fact everybody will be nodding wisely at you. You'd be making a very valid choice.
Street prices are now showing at online etailers, the cards cost 459 EUR and $499 in the USA.
A very impressive product. Thanks go out to NVIDIA & BFG for their endless support. And guys, check out the GeForce GTX 295 Quad SLI review if you like to get into the 6th gear of gaming performance.
One last note before you'll start emailing us. You'll notice GeForce GTX 285 press releases today. Reviews however are not yet allowed. We'll have some good stuff ready next week on the 15th when that embargo is lifted. Meanwhile, if you like to learn how the GeForce GTX 295 performs in Quad SLI mode, click here.
BFG GeForce GTX 295 - Info: BFG Technology
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