EVGA GeForce GTX 285 1GB SSC Edition Review

Conclusion

The EVGA GTX 285 SSC is fast. If I could end this conclusion right there I would have since that one line pretty much sums up the theme of this review from start to finish. However, there is so much more to this card than that so we would be completely off our rockers if we didn’t mention that the 285 is also highly efficient and runs as quiet as a mouse for the most part. Usually quiet operation, efficiency and performance don’t walk hand in hand down the streets of GPU Ville but this time they get along just fine without getting into a ruckus. Indeed, other than a few custom-designed ATI 48xx-series cards we believe the GTX 285 has the quietest stock cooler of any high performance card. There will be times when the afterburners need to kick in (particularly in Dead Space) and the fan quickly spins up but those instances are few and far between.

Performance-wise, there is no faulting this card considering it beggars the GTX 280 while at times flicking the ears of the HD 4870 X2. Even though we didn’t test a non-overclocked card, I think it is safe to say that the GTX 285 is currently the fastest single GPU card on the planet. As it stands, ATI just doesn’t have anything on their menu to compete with the GTX 285 since the HD 4870 1GB is woefully outgunned and the HD 4850 X2 is nowhere close to achieving widespread availability. So what more is there for ATI in all of this? Well, they may be able to pull a rabbit out of their hats somehow but until that is done, Nvidia has the $400 to $500 CAD price bracket dancing to their tune.

Unfortunately, the GTX 285 succumbs to the ages-old problem faced by intermediate graphics cards: its closest competition is the card it replaces and that card is now retailing for quite a bit less. This means that even though the GTX 285 has some truly jaw-dropping performance for a single-GPU card, the GTX 280 remains the better buy for the time being. The real question that begs to be answered with this card is: just how much are you willing to pay for performance? Granted, the price of around $500 for the GTX 285 isn’t highway robbery but you have to remember that the performance we saw here today came courtesy of a highly overclocked version of this card. This means the EVGA GTX 258 SSC we tested will probably end up going for mode than $500 CAD when launched which puts it into HD 4870 X2 territory and at that point, its shine rubs off damn quick.

We aren’t here to talk about price since that is one aspect of this launch that seems to change on an hourly basis. Looking through the fog of potentially high prices, it is easy to see that the EVGA GTX 285 SSC is a hell of a card that isn’t held ransom by the dodgy SLI / Crossfire profiles and high power consumption that come with high performance dual GPU cards. It offers incredible performance through higher clock speeds and brings with it actual power savings we hadn’t seen on the Nvidia 55nm manufacturing process until now while offering a Lifetime Warranty. What is there not to like?


Pros:

- Very, very fast
- Low power consumption
- Quiet
- Lifetime warranty
- Literally all alone in this price bracket
- Good overclocking potential


Cons:

- Potential price versus the GTX 280
- No competition = Nvidia can initially set whatever price they want