BFG GeForce GTX 285 OCX review - Final Words & Conclusion

The Verdict

We test a lot of BFG products here at Guru3D.com, and for a good reason. We do try to show you guys the best stuff out there and BFG fits this audience extremely well. As such, BFG offers the fastest single GPU based graphics card we ever tested and that should mean a lot. Dazzling framerates in the highest resolutions and image quality settings is what you'll achieve with this particular card.

Though an extremely lovely card, my biggest concern has to be pricing. The OCX model is demanding a good chunk of dough out of your pocket. I'm not saying it's not worth it but the best next thing is the GeForce GTX 295 which costs only like fifty to seventy-five bucks more (compared to the OCX)... offering more performance and thus value. Though using the word value at this high-end level is... a relative concept. It's a choice you have to make and consider though, but it would be the better choice. It's the same with a Radeon HD 4870 X2, which you can purchase for less than the price of this OCX card. That's a sincere reality. Another reality is also that with dual GPU cards like the GTX 295 and 4870X2 you are bound to run into a driver issue or two at one point in the future. Each positive has a negative, in some weird twisted way.

BFG's GTX 285 range starts at the OC version and ends at the OCX. There's roughly a ~75 USD difference between the cheapest model and this OCX version. What product is most suited to you? Well, a previous review has shown that the difference among the several overclocked products is relatively small. We feel that a standard version might be better suited, purely value wise. You can always try and tweak some extra performance out of the product yourself. There however is an advantage for the extra money you put down for the OCX edition... it's a guaranteed faster overclocked product that comes with a life-time warranty. So if that appeals to you, definitely it would be the way to go as the extra money is a safe investment.

We really like the GeForce GTX 285 for what it is, the fastest single GPU based graphics card on the globe. The step to 55nm was a good one, as not only did the product get a little faster, it's more energy efficient as well. And in current days, that's an important issue we like to raise awareness of. The most scorching game titles like Fallout 3 run at 8x AA at 1920x1200 will return 63 frames of rendering performance, each second. Call of Duty World at War, no issue Sir, 4x AA and 16x AF @ 2560x1600 resolution gave back ~45 FPS on average. These are excessive and very high-end numbers for sure.

Additional value for GeForce series 8 and newer cards can be found in PhysX support and a handful of CUDA applications. BFG brings you what they do best, and that is a very fast clocked product with this OCX model. It is the fastest GTX 285 product we have tested to date. Obviously you'll have to chip in a bit more dough for the overclocked editions, but these guaranteed overclocks are protected with an excellent warranty policy and you're obviously eligible for the step-up program. If you are in the market for a product of this caliber then it should be at the top of your list. As such we give it our "Top Pick" award. Yes Sir, yes we can!

Thanks go out to BFG for sending out their board.

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