Nvidia breaks the 20,000 mark

Posted by C. Robert Dow and Jon Peddie on January 19th 2009 | Comments Closed
Categories: Hardware Review
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Nvidia GTX295 and GTX 280.
(Source: Jon Peddie Research)

“In computer graphics too much is not enough”—Jon Peddie 1980

The new GTX 295 dual-GPU AIB from Nvidia is a beast—period.

The $499 (MSRP) AIB has a pair of die-shrunk 55nm GTX 280 chips and the GPUs run at 576MHz while the memory is clocked at 999MHz. Compared to the GTX 280, the differences are shown in Table 1.

GTX280 GTX295 Difference
Processors 240 480 100%
Pixel Fill rate (Gpix/sec) 19.3 39.6 105%
GPU clock MHz 602 576 -4%
Memory Clock MHz 2214 1998 -10%
Memory size MB 1024 1792 75%
Price 329 479 46%
Benchmark score 16664 20033 20%

Table 1: Comparison of Nvidia GTX280 to GTX295. (Source: Jon Peddie Research)

Physically, the AIBs are almost identical. The 295 has a stealth-like black-matte surface while the 280 is dressed out in sparks.

Benchmarks

Figure 1: Comparison of four enthusiast AIBs at 1920 x 1200.
(Source: Jon Peddie Research)


Figure 1: Comparison of four enthusiast AIBs at 2560 x 1600.
(Source: Jon Peddie Research)

We compared the GTX 295 to other AIBs and the results can be seen in Figures 1 and 2.

It’s amazing to see that score barrier be crossed, and at a reasonably high resolution, 1920 x 1200. At lower resolutions, like 1680 x 1050, it actually achieved 23,811.

Price-performance

When compared on a price-performance basis the HD4850 X2 continues to beat the crowd as shown in Table 2.

Price Benchmark Price-performance
HD 4870 X2 $443 9,791 22.1
HD 4850 X2 $309 7,629 24.7
GTX 280 $329 3,588 10.9
GTX 295 $479 9,464 19.8

Table 2: Price-performance comparison of enthusiast AIBs.
(Source: Jon Peddie Research)

Anecdotes

Benchmarking: We think there’s a bug in Vantage, a sensitivity to our OS. On our Vista 32-bit Nehalem machine Futuremark reports the AIB doesn’t support DirectX 10.

Testing: We ran into some crashes in Fallout3 with the 295. Nvidia fixed the drivers within 20 hours of our reporting them—impressive.

Fitting: We could hardly get a TI AIB into an Asus mobo designed for Nvidia SLI. Nvidia power connectors are on top and ATI’s are on the back—cable management is the issue.

These are the kinds of gotchas that come up using these AIBs which will keep them out of the hands of the casual users or anyone not willing to load software, play in dialog boxes, or call tech support. Right now, these AIBs are truly for enthusiasts and tinkerers.

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