HEXUS.bang4buck, temps, power-draw, overclocking
In a rough-and-ready assessment of the cards' bang per buck, we've aggregated the 1,920x1,200 frame-rates for four games, normalised them* and taken account of the cards' prices.But there are more provisos than we'd care to shake a stick at. We could have chosen four different games (not including Far Cry 2), the cards' prices could have been derived from other sources and pricing tends to fluctuate daily.
Consequently, the table and graph below highlight a metric that should only be used as a yardstick for evaluating comparative performance with price factored in. Other architectural benefits are not covered, obviously.
| Graphics cards | ZOTAC GeForce GTX 295 | BFG GeForce GTX 285 OCX | Inno3D GeForce GTX 280 | Inno3D GeForce GTX 260 in SLI |
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2 2,048MB |
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 2,048MB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aggregate marks | 471.05 | 369.41 | 314.57 | 459.1 | 430.67 | 373.91 |
| Normalised marks | 355.52 | 304.74 | 277.28 | 349.55 | 335.34 |
306.96 |
| Price | £392 | £378 | £275 | £430 | £345 | £260 |
| HEXUS.bang4buck score at 1,920x1,200 | 0.9 | 0.81 | 1.01 | 0.81 | 0.97 | 1.18 |
| Acceptable frame rate (av. 60fps) at 1,920x1,200 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Yes |
| Ambient temperature | 19.1°C | 21.5°C | 21.5°C | 19.7°C | 24°C | 22°C |
| Idle card temperature | 44/46°C (GPU0/1) | 41°C | 47°C | 47°C (card nearest CPU) | 73°C | 42.5°C |
| Load temperature | 72/74°C | 73°C | 74°C | 70°C | 95°C | 62.5°C |
| Ambient to load temperature delta | 52.9/54.9°C | 51.5°C | 52.5°C | 50.3°C | 71°C | 41°C |
| Power-draw idle | 132W | 105W | 107W | N/A | 149W | 138W |
| Power-draw load | 305W | 239W | 260W | N/A | 366W | 275W |
* the normalisation refers to taking playable frame rate into account. Should a card benchmark at over 60 frames per second in any one game, the extra fps count as half. Similarly, should a card benchmark lower, say at 40fps, we deduct half the difference from its average frame rate and the desired 60fps, giving it a HEXUS.bang4buck score of 30 marks. The minimum allowable frame rate is 20fps but that scores zero.
As an example, should a card score 120fps we treat it as 90fps as only half the frame rate above 60fps is counted for the HEXUS.bang4buck - this is the formula: (120-((120-60)/2)). Similarly, should it score 30fps, we count it as only 15fps: (30+((30-60)/2)).
HEXUS.bang4buck analysis
We've seen it in the benchmarks but now it's ratified by the HEXUS.bang4buck. Pay a little more for a GTX 295 over the GTX 285 OCX and you receive exponentially better performance, leading to a higher metric score.Price reductions on the outgoing GTX 280 make it attractive, are the twin Radeon HD cards, especially the custom-designed Sapphire HD 4850 X2 2GB.
Looking at pure performance, then, we can say that the ZOTAC card is priced about right - if near-£400 can be right - but the BFG OCX needs to come down to around £330 if it's to make financial sense in this company.
Temperatures and noise
The big-ass cooling on the GTX 295 works particularly well in keeping
the twin GPUs relatively cool and, under load, run at around the same
temperature as
the single-GPU BFG. Nothing much to write home about here, though.
Both cards are quiet enough as to not be obstructive in a high-end PC.
Overclocking
ZOTAC's 576/1,242/1,998MHz frequencies were raised to a BFG GTX 295-matching 684/1,474/2,400MHz,
giving some real extra poke to the twin-GPU monster. Re-running Enemy
Territory: Quake Wars at 1,920x1,200 showed no real improvement,
highlighting the need for a 30in, 2,560x1,600px panel, and scaling to
that resolution increased average frame-rates from 91.5fps to 99.62fps.
