EVGA GeForce GTX 280 1GB Superclocked Review

3DMark06

While some may wonder at the use of still including 3DMark06 in the tests it gives us a good idea of the basic limitations of a graphics card. Since the standard test runs at 1280x1024 there will be a fair amount of CPU bottlenecking with higher-end cards and remember that in many cases a higher 3DMark score does not equate better performance. Here we have also included tests with AA and AF enabled


Here we see the EVGA GTX 280 trailing behind both the GX2 and its ATI counterpart at every resolution when AA is not enabled. These scores are indicative of some major CPU bottlenecking since it seems like none of the top three cards can really stretch their legs.

However, when the image quality presets are turned up we start seeing the GTX 280 in a whole new light. While it can’t compete with the raw power of the GX2, it shows how well it handles higher IQ presets whereas the HD3870X2 does not do so well.


Enemy Territory: Quake Wars

Enemy Territory: Quake wars is the latest iteration of the wildly popular Quake franchise from ID Software. While it was met with luke-warm reviews by both the media and the gaming community, it remains an extremely popular online game.

In this test we set up a 15 minute timedemo on the Refinery level while the framerates were recorded in-game.


There will be many instances where we will see the GTX 280 bottlenecked by our overclocked CPU and this is happening here as well. Without AA turned on, frame rates smash up against the CPU like a train hitting into a concrete wall but once AA is enabled things start looking different. Higher IQ presets mean that the GTX 280 is really able to stretch its legs and shows about a 10% improvement over the GX2.