Card appearance
Please head on over to our reference examination to understand what constitutes a GeForce GTX 280 GPU.
BFG's GTX 280 OCX appears physically identical to the reference GTX 280 design, and only the addition of an OCX sticker to the fan sets it apart.
It's the fastest of BFG's triumvirate of air-cooled GTX 280 cards, supplanted only by the even-higher-clocked H2OC model that uses a pre-attached waterblock.
The OCX ships with clock speeds of 665MHz core, 1,458MHz shader and 2,400MHz memory, representing 10/12.5/8.4 per cent increases, respectively, over stock-clocked GTX 280 speeds of 602MHz/1,242MHz/2,214MHz.
Clearly, BFG has purchased high-yielding GPUs and added high-performance DDR3 memory to attain the OCX's clocks.
The rear of the GTX 280 reference design is enclosed in a protective shroud, with the dual SLI bridges protected by rubberised cover.
One can add a second and third card for increased framerates, motherboard and cash permitting.
View the card from a slight angle and its dual-slot nature becomes apparent.
The GTX 280 requires one 8-pin and one 6-pin PCIe power connector, and it churns through 236W when under full load. However, as per the reference design, the fan is impressively quiet.
Next to the power you'll find the S/PDIF-input for passing audio over HDMI.
Looking at the card in full-on profile gives a better impression of how the sloped shroud design allows the it to 'breathe' a bit easier when squeezed against another card in SLI mode, should your wallet be thick enough to buy one or even two more.
The heatsink shroud also brings air in over the VRM circuits to keep them cool - nice!
Display output is handled by two dual-link DVI connections and a standard TV-out. There's also provision for HDMI with audio via an adapter, assuming a cable is connected from motherboard to card.
Summary
Priced at around £317, which equates to around £35 more than a default-clocked model, the BFG GeForce GTX 280 OCX should provide somewhere in the region of 10 per cent extra performance.
