the new GTX295 in jan 09

[skunksmash]

the 4850x2 is certainly the better buy currently Michael, this card is a MEGA performer for its tiny price tag..:eek: it out performs the GTX280 in ALL cases, & the difference between the GDDR5 4870x2 & the GDDR3 4850x2 is about 5fps in most cases

have a look at this....

the card itself is slightly longer than the 4870x2 (if that's possible) it can get pretty toasty... 80c load, but that's to be expected

its retailing at about $330 compared to the $500 for the 4870x2, so in reality your paying an extra $180 or so for 5fps... & it also uses less power than its big brother

.......& happy new year




SK

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

You have a pair of 4850s on one card. You want plenty of cooling. I have a Cooler Master Stacker 810 chassis. I leave the slot next to it open. On my monitor, 1680x1050.

Crysis DX10
1600x1200, 4AF, 4AA

4870x2 ($550): 47.6
4850x2 ($329): 42.3
280 ($499): 41.9

I would give up 10% performance to save $231.

 

[skunksmash]

GTX295 VS 4870X2 @ 1680x1050

At 1680x1050 and 4XAA 16xAF, GTX beats ATI by 12% and it seems Nvidia is just too strong for ATI, as 1920x1200 and 4xAA 16xAF results in Nvidia extending the lead to 14%

SOURCE

These results do look promising, but fudzilla has been less than reputable in the past ... the GTX295 retail price is really gonna make or break this card, & there is also the heat ppl are predicting it to throw out, that could make this card look ugly pretty quick.




SK

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

I would wait for a more reputable site to post benchmarks.

 

[skunksmash]

when are you gonna buy then Michael..?? is the 4870x2 still choice no.1, or is the 4850x2 looking more appealing..??

or maybe nvidia are starting to look better..??

im not sure if the x2 prices will drop much more before they're next gen offerings..??



SK

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

4850x2 is noisy but $230 cheaper and 10% slower. I read a few other reviews that don't show good things about a 295. Not sure when I am going to get it. My 8800 GTS is going good with Fallout 3. I want a good card for Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2.2. ATI has better drivers for Adobe. I am planning a 3 week trip to Europe for August. I will bring back 5000-6000 pictures to process.

 

[Everlong]

GeForce GTX 295 Early Performance Test

Firing Squad have some benchmarks. I guess early drivers for it are bringing it down a bit, like there's issues with Crysis at higher resolutions on one of the benchmarks.

Only game the 4870x2 is noticably faster is Left 4 Dead, other games it out performs the 4870x2 or is roughly on par with it. They also run a 4870x2 2GB + a 4870 1GB in Crossfire and the 295 seems to be able to keep up with that, as well.

 

[skunksmash]

Unlike the GeForce 9800 GX2, the GeForce GTX 295 isn’t completely enclosed in metal casing. In fact, the bottom PCB is completely exposed to air.

this may help, but if they're using the GX2 as a comparison lets hope the housing is as far as it goes.....lol

if they can keep this card below 80c in a crappy cable filled case then they will retake the crown....




SK

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

I am playing Fallout 3, BF2, Project Reality, and Call of Duty 4. My monitor is 1650x1080. I don't like spending more than $400 on a graphics card because they change every 6 months and last about 18 months in my workstation. Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2.2 work better with ATI drivers for on card rendering. I usually shoot in RAW with my two Olympus DSLRs. My workstation Supermicro X7DWA-N board only has one x16 v2 slot available for graphics. I use the second one for my SAS RAID controller. My chassis is well ventilated. I have the eVGA 8800 GTS 640MB card right now. Fallout 3 looks great.

 

[skunksmash]

CUDA is another reason you personally might benefit from Nvidia, its another fud link but the science is sound.

its a shame you cant use the other slot for a workstation card something like this wouldn't need to be upgraded every few months & you could keep your 88GTS..?? or grab a 1gb 4870 or GTX260.



SK

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

The SAS RAID provides faster storage IOs.

Drive Index : 104.84MB/s

Detailed Benchmark Results
Buffered Read : 1.01GB/s
Sequential Read : 119.73MB/s
Random Read : 128.25MB/s
Buffered Write : 679.29MB/s
Sequential Write : 31.91MB/s
Random Write : 31.21MB/s
Random Access Time : 1ms

I upgrade my video card every 12-18 months. CUDA is interesting but has some issues on CS4.

 

[Everlong]

CUDA is interesting but has some issues on CS4.

Is that with Forceware drivers or actual CUDA drivers?

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

Not sure. I was looking to move to ATI because I heard better results with rendering on a few camera forums.

 

[Everlong]

There was a time when ATI cards did have better picture quality when rendering images. Not sure if it's still the same now, though.

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

That is why I am not in a rush...

 

[xguntherc]

they don't render any better anymore.. not really. Very close race on that.

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

On my workstation CS4 has its 4 Xeon cores, 16GB of RAM, and SAS RAID for its scratch pad. I want a good graphics card to render thousands of E-520 10MP RAW images.

 

[MrNeeds]

On my workstation CS4 has its 4 Xeon cores, 16GB of RAM, and SAS RAID for its scratch pad. I want a good graphics card to render thousands of E-520 10MP RAW images.

click here for the ultimate rendering and physics card

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

I usually don't spend more than $400 on a video card because they change so often. This workstation is also used for gaming.

 

[Everlong]

Guru3D have done some benchmarking on the 295 now:

GeForce GTX 295 review - BFG

Gets beat by the 280 SLI, but overall specs of 2 280s are better than the 295.

Outdoes the 4870x2, apart from Crysis 2560x1600 resolution.