A meet and greet with the GTX 295 single-PCB
When we look at connectivity, we see two DVI ports supporting simultaneous HDCP and they are of course dual link capable. Dual link means you can hook up a high resolution monitor up to 2560 x 1600, and likely even higher.
A thing from the past now is the 7-pin analog HDTV-out mini-din, and S-video connector, or YPrPb (component) or composite outputs. Well, the last time I used that connector was before 2004, so I made my peace with that one.
I'm missing a HDMI port here. That's a bit of a loss on the new design really. No biggy though, Inno3D will include a DVI to HDMI adapter you can use.
You can see the GTX 295 single-PCB is thick and is thus a dual-slot based graphics card. The card has the same length as the previous GeForce GTX 295 card. That's 27 cm / 10.6 inches of pure unadulterated silicon right there.
High-end cards need a lot of power. The GeForce GTX 295 comes with a 289 watt TDP (peak wattage). Since your motherboard can only deliver 75 watts, you'll need to hook it up to a PSU with enough AMPerage and as such you will need to connect both the 8-pin and 6-pin PCIe power headers.
289W / 12v = 24 AMPs. So bear in mind that you'll need a 6-pin and an 8-pin 12V power connector with enough power (preferably 20 AMPs per 12v connector and thus rail). Don't go cheap on your PSU. They are important. In combo with a fairly high end system I recommend a 650~700W PSU.
One last look at the card's cooling. It works really well, and and it seems that this new single-PCB based model is running slightly cooler and makes less noise than the previous model. Both are close though.
Bragging rights: alive and working in the test system. Seriously, these are always the coolest photos, aren't they?
Now admittedly, the old design with the mesh cover... personally I figure was looking a little nicer. Taste differs though! Let's head over to some actual benchmarks and see what the GeForce GTX 295 has in store for us performance wise.