ASUS ENGTX285 TOP

NVIDIA Continues to refine the GT200 GPU, and the latest 55nm version offers better efficiency and higher performance. In this article, Benchmark Reviews performance tests the ASUS GeForce GTX 285 against a wide range of video cards. With 1GB of GDDR3 video memory clocked to 1300MHz, and 240 cores working at 1550MHz, the ENGTX285 TOP pushes frame rates to a new high. Benchmarks will help set these video cards apart, but price will ultimately decide the products fate.

Discrete desktop graphics have had a lot of controversy surrounding them of late. While NVIDIA and ATI continue to produce high-end components at an alarming rate, video games made for the PC platform have required about the same level of power for the past three years. I discussed this topic at-length in my Year In Review: 2008 Computer Hardware Industry Failure article, and it seems that all of the key players are comfortable with more of the same.

Unfortunately, 2009 is not just another year. 2008 Was by most accounts a bad year, and many companies found themselves closing-up shop after a long period of complacency. So perhaps it's best that NVIDIA has decided to take a great idea (the GT200 GPU), and make it better. As it stands now, NVIDIA already supports a very large line of desktop video cards in their current line-up:

So now that NVIDIA has announced the latest single-GPU top-performer, there's a new standard to be met. The GeForce GTX 280 has already earned the 2008 Editors Choice Award from Benchmark Reviews, and we've seen how powerful the factory-overclocked versions can be. ASUS, a company not known for launching reference-level products, has announced immediate availability of their ENGTX285 TOP edition video card. This factory-overclocked graphics card takes the GT200 GPU to every high performance levels than we've previously seen out of any one single GPU. Compared against a large field of competitors, the new GeForce GTX 285 extends NVIDIA's legacy.

About the company: ASUSTek Computer, Inc.

ASUS, a technology-oriented company blessed with one of the world's top R&D teams, is well known for high-quality and innovative technology. As a leading provider of 3C (computers, communications and consumer electronics) total solutions, ASUS offers a complete product portfolio to compete in the new millennium.

In 2006, the company shipped 55 million motherboards, which means one in three desktop PCs sold last year was powered by an ASUS motherboard. Our 2006 revenues reached US$16.5 billion, and is expected to garner US$23 billion in 2007.

ASUS products' top quality stems from product development. It's like learning Chinese Kung-Fu; one must begin with cultivating the "Chi" and inner strength. Besides innovating cutting-edge features, ASUS engineers also pay special attention to EMI (electromagnetic interference), thermal, acoustics and details that usually go unnoticed to achieve complete customer satisfaction. ASUS notebooks are the first TCO'99-certified notebooks worldwide. The requirements for this honor include radiation emission control, energy (battery consumption), ecology (environment friendly) and ergonomics.

To succeed in this ultra-competitive industry, great products need to be complimented by speed-to-market, cost and service. That's why all 100,000 over employees of ASUS strive for the "ASUS Way of Total Quality Management" to offer the best quality without compromising cost and time-to-market while providing maximum value to all customers through world-class services.

With unyielding commitment to innovation and quality, ASUS won 2,168 awards in 2006, meaning on average, the company received over 5 awards everyday last year. BusinessWeek ranked ASUS amongst its "InfoTech 100" for the 9th straight year. The readers of Tom's Hardware Guide, the world's largest IT website, selected ASUS as the best maker of motherboards and graphics cards. Furthermore, the company is ranked as No.1 in quality products and services by the Wall Street Journal.

ENGTX285 Specifications

The GeForce GTX 285 is the fastest single GPU solution available. Utilizing an enhanced GT200 GPU architecture based on a 55nm fabrication process, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 is faster, quieter, and uses less power than the GTX 280. Including a total of 240 processing cores and 1GB of onboard frame buffer memory, the GeForce GTX 285 provides the highest-end gaming experience for a single GPU system configuration across the widest range of applications and quality settings.

Coupled with PureVideo HD technology, the NVIDIA GTX 285 video card delivers an astounding multimedia experience. The GeForce GTX 285 features two dual-link, HDCP-enabled DVI-I outputs for connection to analog and digital PC monitors and HDTVs, a 7-pin analog video-out port that supports S-Video directly, plus composite and component (YPrPb) outputs via an optional (and included) dongle.

• ASUS ENGTX285 TOP GeForce GTX 285 Video Card
• HDMI resolutions: 480p/720p/1080i/1080p
• PCI Express 2.0 interface
• Dual card-slot active cooling solution
• PureVideo HD technology with hardware decoding of high-definition video formats
• Dual dual-link DVI - up to 2560x1600
• DVI HDTV output: 480p/720p/1080i

Bus Support

• PCI Express 2.0
• PCI Express x16 Backwards Compatible

3D Acceleration

• Microsoft DirectX10 support
• Unified Shader Model 4.0
• OpenGL 2.1

Others

• HDTV Ready (using dongle adapter)
• Vista Ready
• SLI and 3-Way SLI Ready
• HDCP Ready
• DVI Audio (using digital audio connection)
• Dual Link Dual DVI
• RoHS Compliant

Dual-Stream Decode

Recently, studios have begun taking advantage of the additional space high-definition media such as Blu-Ray and HD DVD discs provide by adding dual-stream picture-in-picture functionality to movies. Often the PiP content is coupled with advanced BD-J (Java) or HDi (XML) features, so taking the processing burden off of the CPU is even more important for titles with these advanced features. The latest PureVideo HD engine now supports dual-stream hardware acceleration which takes the workload off of the CPU and gives it to the more powerful GPU.

GT200 Graphics Processing Unit

• 1.4 Billion transistors
• Local 16k shared memory
• 670 MHz Graphics engine clock speed
• 240 Graphics processor cores
• 1550 MHz graphics processor clock speed
• 400 MHz RamDAC
• Max. Resolution @ 2560 x 1600
• True 128-bit floating point high dynamic-range (HDR) lighting with 16x full- screen anti-aliasing
• Double precision 64-bit floating point computation support
• 2^nd Generation NVIDIA Unified Architecture
• Supports future 10-bit color and and 120 MHz LCD panels

GT200 Video Memory

• 1 GB GDDR3 video memory
• 1300 MHz memory clock (2600 MHz Date Rate)
• 16Mx32 Memory configuration
• 512-bit memory bus
• Memory pieces: 16
• Memory package: uBGA

HDCP over dual-link allows video enthusiasts to enjoy high-definition movies on extreme high-resolution panels such as the 30" Dell 3007WFP at 2560 x 1600 with no black borders. The GeForce GTX 285 also provides native support for HDMI output, using a certified DVI-to-HDMI adaptor in conjunction with the built-in SPDIF audio connector.

GeForce GTX 285 Features

Engineered for world class gaming performance, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 is the most powerful single GPU on the market for gaming and beyond. Users can experience top new games such as Far Cry 2, Mirror's Edge, and Call of Duty 5: World at War at extreme HD resolutions and high image quality. Three GeForce GTX 285 graphics cards can be combined in a 3-way SLI configuration for the ultimate gaming experience.

Of course the GTX 285 doesn't just deliver great 3D graphics, it also includes NVIDIA CUDA technology built-in to deliver "Graphics Plus" capabilities such as:

• GPU-accelerated NVIDIA PhysX gaming effects (Mirror's Edge, Cyrostasis, UT3, GRAW2, Warmonger, and many more coming soon)
• NVIDIA GeForce 3D Vision stereoscopic 3D gaming
• High-speed CUDA-enabled HD video transcoding and/or filtering (Elemental Badaboom, CyberLink PowerDirector, Arcsoft Total Media Theater, TMPGenc xPress, MotionDSP Carmel)
• Lightning-fast and smooth image processing (Adobe CS4)
• Distributed Computing (Folding@home, SETI@home, BOINC Platform, GPUGrid, Einstein@home)

The GeForce GTX 285 supports PhysX technology, which is powering the next generation of games such as Mirror's Edge and Cryostasis. PhysX technology provides an enormous boost to both performance and realism. With NVIDIA's R180 series drivers, two GeForce GTX 285 boards can operate in SLI mode or dedicate one GPUs to PhysX and the other to graphics. Users may also choose to use an older GeForce 8-series and above board as the dedicated PhysX card, while using the GeForce GTX 285 as the main graphics board.

Backed by NVIDIA's Lumenex Engine, the GeForce GTX 285 Features delivers true 128-bit floating point high dynamic range (referred to as HDR), lighting capabilities with up to 16x full-screen anti-aliasing. Second-generation NVIDIA PureVideo HD technology with HDCP compliance delivers the ultimate high-definition video viewing experience to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 video card.

With hardware decoding for Blu-ray and HD DVD formats, PureVideo HD technology lowers CPU utilization when watching high-definition video formats by decoding the entire video stream in the graphics processor, freeing up the processor for other tasks. In addition to low CPU utilization, PureVideo HD enhances standard definition video content with de-interlacing and other post-processing algorithms to ensure standard DVD movies look their best on the PC screen and high-definition television sets. High definition content protection, or HDCP, technology ensures a secure connection between the GTX 280 graphics card and an HDCP capable monitor for viewing protected content such as high-definition Blu-ray or HD DVD movies.

Coupled with PureVideo HD technology, the GeForce GTX 285 deliver the ultimate multimedia experience. HDMI technology allows users to connect PCs to high-definition television sets with a single cable, delivering high-definition surround sound audio and video with resolutions up to 1080p. PureVideo HD technology scales video in the highest quality up to resolutions of 2560x1600 - from standard and high-definition file formats - while preserving the details of the original content. PureVideo HD technology also accelerates high-definition video decode, freeing up CPU cycles while watching high-definition Blu-ray and HD DVD movies or other VC-1 and H.264 encoded file formats.

NVIDIA Unified Architecture

• Unified shader architecture
• GigaThreadTM technology
• Full support for Microsoft DirectX 10
• Geometry shaders
• Geometry instancing
• Streamed output
• Shader Model 4.0
• Full 128-bit floating point precision through the entire rendering pipeline

NVIDIA Lumenex Engine

• 16x full screen anti-aliasing
• Transparent multisampling and transparent supersampling
• 16x angle independent anisotropic filtering
• 128-bit floating point high dynamic-range (HDR) lighting with anti-aliasing
• 32-bit per component floating point texture filtering and blending
• Advanced lossless compression algorithms for color, texture, and z-data
• Support for normal map compression
• Z-cull
• Early-Z

NVIDIA Quantum Effects Technology

• Advanced shader processors architecture for physics computation
• Simulate and render physics effects on the graphics processor

NVIDIA Triple-SLI Technology

• Patented hardware and software technology allows three GeForce-based graphics cards to run in parallel to scale performance and enhance image quality on today's top titles.

NVIDIA PureVideo HD Technology

Along with world-class video acceleration, PureVideo HD has been at the forefront of advanced video post-processing. With the R174 series driver, we are introducing new features for PureVideo HD for GeForce GTX 200-based products. These new features, Dynamic Contrast Enhancement and Dynamic Blue, Green, and Skin Tone Enhancements, are extremely computationally intensive and not found on even the most high-end Blu-ray or HD DVD players. But by tapping into the enormous pool of computational power offered by our processor cores, we can now enable post-processing techniques that have yet to be realized in fixed-function video processors.

• Dedicated on-chip video processor
• High-definition H.264, VC-1, MPEG2 and WMV9 decode acceleration
• Advanced spatial-temporal de-interlacing
• HDCP capable3
• Spatial-Temporal De-Interlacing
• Noise Reduction
• Edge Enhancement
• Bad Edit Correction
• Inverse telecine (2:2 and 3:2 pull-down correction)
• High-quality scaling
• Video color correction
• Microsoft Video Mixing Renderer (VMR) support

Advanced Display Functionality

• Two dual-link DVI outputs for digital flat panel display resolutions up to 2560x1600
• One dual-link DVI outputs for digital flat panel display resolutions up to 2560x16004
• Dual integrated 400MHz RAMDACs for analog display resolutions up to and including 2048x1536 at 85Hz
• Integrated HDTV encoder provides analog TV-output (Component/Composite/S-Video) up to 1080i resolution
• NVIDIA nView multi-display technology capability
• 10-bit display processing

Dynamic Color Enhancement

By analyzing the color components of each frame, we can also isolate and improve the appearance of blue, green, and skin tones, which the human eye is particularly sensitive to. Unlike televisions which have built-in image processors, PC monitors typically display the input picture without any processing, which can result in comparatively dull images. Dynamic blue, green, and skin tone enhancement alleviates this problem by applying correction curves on these sensitive colors. The result is improved total balance and clarity, without over saturation.

Built for Microsoft Windows Vista

• Full DirectX 10 support
• Dedicated graphics processor powers the new Windows Vista Aero 3D user interface
• VMR-based video architecture

High Speed Interfaces

• Designed for PCI Express x16
• Designed for high-speed GDDR3 and DDR3 memory

Operating Systems

• Built for Microsoft Windows Vista
• Windows XP/Windows XP 64
• Linux

API Support

• Complete DirectX support, including Microsoft DirectX 10 Shader Model 4.0
• Full OpenGL support, including OpenGL 2.0

ASUS GTX 285 First Look

In this section, we give a brief first look at the new GeForce GTX 285. ASUS is very well known as the premier name in motherboard manufacturing, and they work hard to leverage that prestige over to their desktop graphics and other product lines. Our first evidence of this is the gold foil-embossed textured-cardboard package that the ENGTX285 TOP comes in. Nobody can deny that the package looks nice, but at the same time we expect the product to work as well as it looks. That moment isn't very far away, either.

The product designers at ASUS have decided to step-up their market perception and have gone after a full-blown 'elegance' attitude with the ENGTX285 TOP. Inside the packaging is a collection CDs containing the product manual and display driver, but there are no games or promotional software. Additionally, ASUS has included a mouse pad made of a pleather (plastic leather) surface that fails miserably at fulfilling its purpose. Personally, I think that if a company wants to include a mouse pad with a graphics card it should be a premium product such as the RatPadz Gaming Surface which is worthy of the pairing.

The ASUS ENGTX285 TOP GeForce GTX 285 comes in one color: black. All add-in card partner products of the GTX 260, GTX 280, GTX 285 and 295 series are identical to NVIDIAs reference version. The AIC partner simply brands their allotment of video cards with a decal, or in most cases simply supplies the decal to NVIDIA for distribution. NVIDIA may eventually offer their AIC's the engineering information necessary to create working modifications so that unique varieties of the GT200-based graphics card can be independently designed, although this is unlikely because manufacturing oversight would be sacrificed.

The underside (or top once installed) of the new GTX 285 shown below exposes sensitive electronic components, but also acts as a heat-dissipating surface similar to many previous GeForce generations. Although the new 55nm GPU does expose surrounding components to less heat, nearly every heat-building component resides on the opposite side of the PCB. Notice that while the GTX 285 is roughly the equivalent to an updated GTX 280, it does actually present several design refinements that aren't apparent at first glance.

The NVIDIA GTX 285 graphics card is a performance optimized high-end graphics card on each and every level. Power is drawn from the PCI Express host bus as well as from two 6-pin power connections. Without any auxiliary power provided to the GeForce GTX 285 graphics card, a LED on the header bracket will shine red and the graphics card will not display any picture. In addition, any connector that is not adequately powered will also turn red. Together this functionality offers immediate feedback for enthusiasts concerned about providing adequate power to the GPU.

At the upper-left corner of the GeForce GTX 285 (shown above) there are connections for standard SLI and 3-way SLI configuration. For many extremely demanding applications and video games, a set of GeForce GTX 285 video cards placed into a 3-way SLI set will be much faster than a set of Quad SLI GeForce GTX 295's. The big question gamers and hardware enthusiasts will need answer for themselves is if their configuration is will support this functionality in terms of power supply, case, and cooling.

Moving on to our detailed look in the next section, Benchmark Reviews will give a close inspection of the technology inside the ASUS ENGTX285 TOP GeForce GTX 285 video card.

ENGTX285 TOP Details

Without knowing better, you might confuse the new GeForce GTX 285 for the older GeForce GTX 280 video card. For most, they look identical. In fact, the only true difference is that the GTX 285 lacks the heat-trapping metal back-plate that the GTX 280 came with. From the outside though, these two products are very similar. The inside is a different story however, as NVIDIA has completely redesigned the printed circuit board to accept the new 55nm GT200^B1 and a new memory IC layout.

The reference core clock speed on the GT200 (revision B1) GPU is 648 MHz, which ASUS dials up to 670. Since AIC partners may not use speeds that might render the product unstable, there might be some extra head-room available to overclockers. All 240 stream (shader) processors are clocked from 1476 MHz up to 1550 on the ENGTX285 TOP. Taking advantage of a new actively-cooled location for all 16 GDDR3 IC modules, 1024MB of video frame buffer is stretched from 1242 to only 1300 MHz, which yields a 2.6 GHz data rate on the 512-bit memory interface.

While the angled blower fan is going to help do a better job of cooling the GT200 GPU because it's in a direct path, and the contoured design will assist in bringing an unrestricted supply of fresh air, the ventilation system does not exclusively exhaust outside of the case. In my testing I found that a moderate amount of heat escaped through the SLI port opening and side vents. The majority of heated air does still exhaust outside the case, through vents in the I/O panel.

Taking a look at the I/O panel, which is identical to the GTX 280 and 260 versions, I notice how users must once-again use a DVI-to-HDMI adapter and S/PDIF audio input cable to stream full HDMI audio and video output from the GeForce GTX 285. It's unlikely that AIC partners will be authorized to add a display processor capable of native HDMI or DisplayPort interfaces, as the NVIO2 chip NVIDIA has re-used does not support them.

Because the HDMI audio functionality is controlled at a hardware level, there is no need for additional drivers or software. Much like the SPDIF connection on the back of a motherboard, the video cards audio out function is plug-n-play. The P/SPDIF cable included with the kit connects between a small two-pin port directly beside the power connections for this unit and then into the HT Omega Claro Plus+ AD8620BR Op Amp sound card we used for testing. Your setup may be different so the cable may connect between the GTX 285 and the digital audio input pins on either your motherboard or add-in sound card. Not all motherboards and sound cards support this option, so make sure it's available before you make your purchase.

Looking at how the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 might stack-up in a triple-SLI configuration, you can see a few advantages and disadvantages over previous GeForce products. One of the primary problems encountered with the 8800 GTS, GTX and Ultra series was the tight confinement created inside the case, which often times led to poor cooling. NVIDIA later redesigned the tail end for their GTX 285 using contours to help open up air channels. The opening at the rear of the card is hollowed to allow supplemental cooling-air intake, resembling a jets intake manifold.

Whether the ASUS ENGTX285 TOP video card will be used in single-unit standalone mode, or multi-unit SLI mode, the GeForce GTX 285 has already proven itself capable of matching the power of NVIDIA's previously most-powerful offering. Continue on to our next section, which clarifies the graphics card testing methodology here at Benchmark Reviews.

VGA Testing Methodology

At the start of all tests, the previous display adapter driver is uninstalled and trace components are removed using Driver Cleaner Pro. We then restart the computer system to establish our display settings and define the monitor. Once the hardware is prepared, we begin our testing. The synthetic benchmark tests in 3DMark06 will utilize shader models 2.0 and 3.0, while the video games will use their own proprietary game engine. For lower-end VGA products we test at 1024x768 (15-17" standard LCD), 1280x1024 (17-19" standard LCD), and 1680x1050 (22-24" widescreen LCD). In our higher-end VGA product tests we conduct add the 1920x1200 (24-28" widescreen LCD) resolution. In some tests we utilized widescreen monitor resolutions, since more users are beginning to feature these products for their own computing.

Each benchmark test program begins after a system restart, and the very first result for every test will be ignored since it often only caches the test. This process proved extremely important in the World in Conflict and Supreme Commander benchmarks, as the first run served to cache maps allowing subsequent tests to perform much better than the first. Each test is completed five times, with the average results displayed in our article.

Our site polls and statistics indicate that the vast majority of visitors use their PC for playing video games, and practically every one of you are using a screen resolutions mentioned above. Since all of the benchmarks we use for testing represent different game engine technology and graphic rendering processes, I feel that this battery of tests will provide a diverse range of results for you to gauge performance on your own computer system. Since most gamers and enthusiasts are still using Windows XP, it was decided that DirectX 9 would be used for all tests until demand and software support improve for Windows Vista.

Test System

• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EX58-EXTREME (Intel X58/ICH10R Chipset) with F5c BIOS
• Processor: Intel Core i7-920 Nehalem 2.66 GHz (BX80601920)
• System Memory: 6GB Corsair Dominator PC3-12800 Triple-Channel DDR3 (TR3X6G1600C8D)
• Disk Drive: Patriot Warp v2 SATA 128GB SSD PE128GS25SSDR
• Monitor: SOYO 26-Inch Widescreen LCD Monitor DYLM26E6 (1920x1200)
• PSU: ePower Technology EP-1200P10 xScale 1200W PSU
• Operating System: Windows XP Professional SP-3 (optimized to 16 processes at idle)

Benchmark Applications

• 3DMark06 v1.1.0 (8x Anti Aliasing & 16x Anisotropic Filtering)
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare v1.7.568 (4x AA/16x Trilinear AF using FRAPS)
• Crysis v1.21 Benchmark (High Settings, 0x and 4x Anti-Aliasing)
• Devil May Cry 4 Benchmark Demo (Ultra Quality, 8x MSAA)
• Far Cry 2 v1.02 (Very High Performance, Ultra-High Quality, 8x AA)
• World in Conflict v1.0.0.9 Performance Test (Very High Setting: 4x AA/4x AF)

Video Card Test Products

• NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT Reference Design (600 MHz GPU/1457 Shader/950 RAM - Forceware 181.20)
• Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 102-B50102-00-AT (625 MHz GPU/993 MHz RAM - Catalyst 8.12)
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 Reference Design (576 MHz GPU/1242 MHz Shader/999 MHz RAM - Forceware 181.20)
• Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 102-B50701-10-AT (750 MHz GPU/900 MHz RAM - Catalyst 8.12)
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 Reference Design (700 MHz GPU/1400 MHz Shader/1150 MHz RAM - Forceware 181.20)
• ASUS GeForce GTX 280 ENGTX280 TOP (670 MHz GPU/1550 MHz Shader/1330 MHz RAM - Forceware 181.20)
• Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2 Atomic ST-6026 (800 MHz GPU x2/100 MHz RAM - Catalyst 8.12)

Now we're ready to begin testing video game performance these video cards, so please continue to the next page as we start with the 3DMark06 results.

3DMark06 Test Results

3DMark is a computer benchmark by Futuremark (formerly named Mad Onion) to determine the DirectX 9 performance of 3D game performance with graphics cards. 3DMark06 uses advanced real-time 3D game workloads to measure PC performance using a suite of DirectX 9 3D graphics tests, CPU tests, and 3D feature tests.

3DMark06 tests include all new HDR/SM3.0 graphics tests, SM2.0 graphics tests, AI and physics driven single and multiple cores or processor CPU tests and a collection of comprehensive feature tests to reliably measure next generation gaming performance today. Some enthusiasts may note that Benchmark Reviews does not include CPU-bound tests in our benchmark battery, and that only graphic-bound tests are included.

Here at Benchmark Reviews, we believe that synthetic benchmark tools are just as valuable as video games, but only so long as you're comparing apples to apples. Since the same test is applied in the same controlled method with each test run, I believe 3DMark is a very reliable tool for comparing graphic cards against one-another.

Shader Model 2.0

Our first series of synthetic tests are performed at 1680x1050, and demands only 1.764 megapixels from the graphics card. Beginning with Shader Model 2.0 tests, Return to Proxycon and Firefly Forest are two fast-paced fast-moving scenes that put strain on the GPU's efficiency by calling for large amounts of low-demand graphics in need of high-speed output. Shader Model 2.0 tests have historically performed at slower frame rates when compared to Shader Model 3.0; at least this is the case on newer, more complex, video cards with larger overhead.

Shader Model 3.0 / HDR

The Shader Model 3.0 and HDR (High Dynamic Range) test series in 3dMark06 includes the Canyon Flight and Deep Freeze. Both of these test scenes demand intense graphical computations from the GPU, and when paired with newer (AMD Phenom or Intel Nehalem) processors can actually produce better frame rates than Shader Model 2.0 scenes with the same hardware (and overhead). At 1920x1200 the graphics card is called-on to produce 2.3 megapixels, which is enough to separate the weak from the strong.

While these results we've charted can speak for themselves, allow me to add a bit of commentary. The GeForce 8800 GT, while excellent for low-resolution 1024x768 gaming, is falls beneath the 30 FPS range at 1650x1200 and drops down into the teens at 1920x1200. The Radeon HD 4850 is the most affordable video card to handle 3DMark06 graphics within acceptable range, with the GeForce GTX 260 performing a few frames better at each scene. The Radeon HD 4870 goes toe-to-toe with the GeForce GTX 280, never giving up more than a frame or two in each scene. The GeForce GTX 285 proves that it deserves to replace the GTX 280, and posts performance gains on every scene. Added for good measure is the Sapphire Atomic 4870 X2, which dominates the tests with its extremely-overclocked dual RV770 GPU's.

Take the 3DMark06 tests at face value (as you should any synthetic benchmark), because in our next section we begin real-world testing on a cadre of popular video games known for taxing the graphics processor, and the performance curve is expected change. Our first up is Call of Duty 4, so please continue on...

Call of Duty 4 Benchmarks

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare runs on a proprietary game engine that Infinity Ward based off of the tried-and-true Q3 structure. This engine offers features such as true world-dynamic lighting, HDR lighting effects, dynamic shadows and depth of field. "Bullet Penetration" is calculated by the Infinity Ward COD4 game engine, taking into account things such as surface type and entity thickness. Certain objects, such as cars, and some buildings are destructible. This makes distinguishing cover from concealment important, as the meager protection provided by things such as wooden fences and thin walls does not fully shield players from harm as it does in many other games released during the same time period. Bullet speed and stopping power are decreased after penetrating an object, and this decrease is calculated realistically depending on the thickness and surface of the object penetrated.

This version of the game also makes use of a dynamic physics engine, a feature which was not implemented in previous Call of Duty titles for Windows PC's. The new in-game death animations are a combination of pre-set static animations combined with ragdoll physics. Infinity Ward's use of the well-debugged Quake 3 engine along with new dynamic physics implementation allows Call of Duty 4 to be playable by a wide range of computer hardware systems. The performance may be scaled for low-end graphic cards up to 4x Anti-Aliasing and 16x Tri-linear anisotropic texture filtering.

Before I discuss the results, I would like to take a moment to mention my general opinion on Fraps software when it comes to game performance benchmarking. If you're not familiar with the software, Fraps (derived from Frames per second) is a benchmarking, screen capture, and real-time video capture utility for DirectX and OpenGL applications. Some reviewers use this software to measure video game performance on their Windows system, as well as record gaming footage. My opinion is that it offers a valid third-party non-bias alternative to in-game benchmarking tools; but there is one caveat: it's not perfect. Because the user must manually begin the test, the starting point may vary from position to position and therefore skew the results.

In my testing with Fraps v2.9.8 build 7777, I used the cut-scene intro to the coup d'etat scene when Al Asad takes over control. First I allowed the level to load and let the scene begin for a few moments, then I would use the escape key to bring up the menu and choose the restart level option, I would immediately press F11 to begin recording the benchmark data. This scene is nearly four minutes long, but I configured Fraps to record the first 180 seconds of it to remain consistent. Once the scene would end, I would repeat the restart process for a total of five tests. So within a 2 millisecond starting point margin, all benchmark results are comparable which is probably as accurate as it can possibly get with this tool.

In our frame rate results, all five of the collected test scores were within 0.5 FPS of one-another and then averaged for the chart you see above. Because the products we are testing compete for the high-end segment of discrete graphics, the frame rates in Call of Duty 4 all share similar results with only small degrees of difference between 1680x1050 and 1920x1200 resolutions.

The GeForce 8800 GT plays Call of Duty 4 with moderately acceptable frame rates, scoring 48 FPS at 1920x1200 and making up the bottom end of our charted results. The Radeon HD 4850 renders at 68 FPS, followed by the GTX 260 with 80 FPS. Moving the Radeon HD 4870 yields 85 frames per second at 1920x1200, and is slightly out-performed by the GeForce GTX 280. Even the ASUS ENGTX285 TOP, with all of its new muscle, can only outpace the others by a small margin with 99 FPS rendered.

Essentially, almost all of the graphics products tested produced frame rates between 80-99 FPS at 1920x1200. The Atomic 4870 X2 on the other hand, burned through 130 FPS without breaking a sweat (it's water-cooled, after all). Because of the shear muscle the Sapphire Atomic packs, the video cards we've tested on CoD4 fall into one of two categories: those that aren't the Radeon 4870 X2 Atomic, and those that are. The GTX 285 did extremely well, but the difference between its single GPU and the dual RV770's on the Atomic is the same difference as it shares with the 8800 GT.

In our next section, we shall see if the performance-demanding video game Crysis will help strengthen this position.

Crysis Benchmark Results

Crysis uses a new graphics engine: the CryENGINE2, which is the successor to Far Cry's CryENGINE. CryENGINE2 is among the first engines to use the Direct3D 10 (DirectX10) framework of Windows Vista, but can also run using DirectX9, both on Vista and Windows XP.

Roy Taylor, Vice President of Content Relations at NVIDIA, has spoken on the subject of the engine's complexity, stating that Crysis has over a million lines of code, 1GB of texture data, and 85,000 shaders. To get the most out of modern multicore processor architectures, CPU intensive subsystems of CryENGINE 2 such as physics, networking and sound, have been re-written to support multi-threading.

Crysis offers an in-game benchmark tool, which is similar to World in Conflict. This short test does place some high amounts of stress on a graphics card, since there are so many landscape features rendered. For benchmarking purposes, Crysis can mean trouble as it places a high demand on both GPU and CPU resources. Benchmark Reviews uses the Crysis Benchmark Tool by Mad Boris to test frame rates in batches, which allows the results of many tests to be averaged.

The very first thing we discovered during our 1680x1050 resolution tests was how well NVIDIA products performed compared to the Radeon product line. Test results like these begin to raise the question of how unbiased games like Crysis are when they proudly proclaim "NVIDIA: The way it was meant to be played". I don't consider this to be coincidence, but at the same time it's probably also not coincidence that Crysis demands more GPU power than any other product, which was perfect for a time when AMD/ATI couldn't build a decent VGA product to save their lives (literally).

Analyzing the chart below illustrates two distinct trends. The first is that the Radeon HD 4870 and GeForce GTX 260 are virtually identical in terms of performance. The second trend tries to convince us that an overclocked GeForce GTX 285 can beat or match the performance of an outrageously overclocked (and liquid-cooled) 4870 X2. I suppose that some of readers, those famous for skipping to this (Crysis) test and the conclusion, will fall for the punch line. The rest of us have seen the test results from the previous two sections, and already know the joke.

With only a small dose of anti-aliasing added to Crysis, there are very few products that would make for playable frame rates. Our Island time-demo mixes a some beach and water views, so it's going to be on the high side of frame rates when compared to actual game play. The results shown in the chart below illustrate (more distinctly) how well NVIDIA products scale with anti-aliasing enabled.

It would be easy to accuse NVIDIA of some level of wrong-doing, but there is one glaring piece of evidence in their defense: AMD/ATI graphic cards stop at 8x AA, while modern GeForce products reach 16x Q AA before calling it quits. So with this being an undisputed fact among our test products, it makes more sense to see the GTX 280 and GTX 285 outperform the Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2 Atomic ST-6026.

At the end of our Crysis testing, it was apparent that heavy post-processing effects are still an obstacle that Radeon HD video cards have yet to clear. ASUS should be proud to see the ENGTX285 TOP make the top of our charts for performance with 4x AA enabled. It's worth noting that most products used in this review have been used in other articles and tested at-length on our X48 benchmark system, with the results being comparable all throughout.

In our next section, Benchmark Reviews tests with Devil May Cry 4 Benchmark. Read on to see how a blended high-demand GPU test with low video frame buffer demand will impact our test products.

Devil May Cry 4 Benchmark

Devil May Cry 4 was released on PC in early 2007 as the fourth installment to the Devil May Cry video game series. DMC4 is a direct port from the PC platform to console versions, which operate at the native 720P game resolution with no other platform restrictions. Devil May Cry 4 uses the refined MT Framework game engine, which has been used for many popular Capcom game titles over the past several years.

MT Framework is an exclusive seventh generation game engine built to be used with games developed for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and PC ports. MT stands for "Multi-Thread", "Meta Tools" and "Multi-Target". Originally meant to be an outside engine, but none matched their specific requirements in performance and flexibility. Games using the MT Framework are originally developed on the PC and then ported to the other two console platforms.

On the PC version a special bonus called Turbo Mode is featured, giving the game a slightly faster speed, and a new difficulty called Legendary Dark Knight Mode is implemented. The PC version also has both DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 mode for Microsoft Windows XP and Vista Operating Systems.

It's always nice to be able to compare the results we receive here at Benchmark Reviews with the results you test for on your own computer system. Usually this isn't possible, since settings and configurations make it nearly difficult to match one system to the next; plus you have to own the game or benchmark tool we used.

Devil May Cry 4 fixes this, and offers a free benchmark tool available for download. Because the DMC4 MT Framework game engine is rather low-demand for today's cutting edge multi-GPU video cards, Benchmark Reviews uses the 1920x1200 resolution to test with 8x AA (highest AA setting available to Radeon HD video cards) and 16x AF. The benchmark runs through four test scenes, but scene #2 and #4 are the ones that usually offer a challenge. Displayed below is our result for the test.

Judging from the results charted above, it appears that the Capcom MT Framework game engine isn't particular about which brand of video card you use for gaming. The other obvious result is how much more powerful the Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2 Atomic ST-6026 is when compared to everything else. Please keep in mind that the reference GeForce 8800 GT and overclocked 4870 X2 are included to add contrast.

In these test scenes, the ASUS ENGTX285 TOP offers the best single-GPU performance of any video card available. While the GeForce 8800 GT can still play DMC4, it does so around the 40 FPS range. The Radeon HD 4850 kicks this up to around 60 FPS, while the other take off from there. The GeForce GTX 260 produced 72 FPS on average, and the Radeon HD 4870 is barely out-matched by the GeForce GTX 280 which produced 84 FPS on average. The overclocked GeForce GTX 285 scores 94 FPS in both scenes, and on the other side of the fence is Sapphire's Atomic Radeon HD 4870 X2 which scores 154 FPS. DMC4 was intended to replace our UT3 test, which commonly offered results as high as 180 FPS, but the search for high-demand graphics tests is getting tough as the newest games seem to be happy with old hardware. Feel free to write us with your suggestions.

Our last benchmark of the series is coming next, which puts our collection of video cards against some very demanding graphics with Far Cry 2.

Far Cry 2 Benchmark

Ubisoft has developed Far Cry 2 as a sequel to the original, but with a very different approach to game play and story line. Far Cry 2 features a vast world built on Ubisoft's new game engine called Dunia, meaning "world", "earth" or "living" in Farci. The setting in Far Cry 2 takes place on a fictional Central African landscape, set to a modern day timeline.

The Dunia engine was built specifically for Far Cry 2, by Ubisoft Montreal development team. It delivers realistic semi-destructible environments, special effects such as dynamic fire propagation and storms, real-time night-and-day sun light and moon light cycles, dynamic music system, and non-scripted enemy A.I actions.

The Dunia game engine takes advantage of multi-core processors as well as multiple processors and supports DirectX 9 as well as DirectX 10. Only 2 or 3 percent of the original CryEngine code is re-used, according to Michiel Verheijdt, Senior Product Manager for Ubisoft Netherlands. Additionally, the engine is less hardware-demanding than CryEngine 2, the engine used in Crysis.

However, it should be noted that Crysis delivers greater character and object texture detail, as well as more destructible elements within the environment. For example; trees breaking into many smaller pieces and buildings breaking down to their component panels. Far Cry 2 also supports the amBX technology from Philips. With the proper hardware, this adds effects like vibrations, ambient colored lights, and fans that generate wind effects.

There is a benchmark tool in the PC version of Far Cry 2, which offers an excellent array of settings for performance testing. Benchmark Reviews used the maximum settings allowed for our tests, with the resolution set to 1920x1200. The performance settings were all set to 'Very High', DirectX 9 Render Quality was set to 'Ultra High' overall quality, 8x anti-aliasing was applied, and HDR and Bloom were enabled.

Although the Dunia engine in Far Cry 2 is slightly less demanding than CryEngine 2 engine in Crysis, the strain appears to be extremely close. In Crysis we didn't dare to test AA above 4x, whereas we used 8x AA and 'Ultra High' settings in Far Cry 2. The end effect was a separation between what is capable of maximum settings, and what is not.

Using the short 'Ranch Small' time demo (which yields the lowest FPS of the three tests available), we noticed that there are very few products capable of producing playable frame rates with the settings all turned up. The GeForce GTX 280, ASUS ENGTX285 TOP, and Radeon HD 4870 X2 all offer playable frame rates with maximum settings at 1920x1200, and possible the newer 216-core GeForce GTX 260. Everything else seems incapable of producing the required performance to keep motion fluid and lifelike. At 1680x1050, the range of potential products capable of maximum settings is expanded to the Radeon HD 4850 and 4870, but the GeForce 8800 GT falls well below acceptable limits. When there's a strain on the graphics, the GT200 GPU appears to answer back with performance capable 3D rendering.

Our last benchmark of the series is coming next, which puts our collection of video cards against some very demanding graphics with World in Conflict.

World in Conflict Results

The latest version of Massive's proprietary Masstech engine utilizes DX10 technology and features advanced lighting and physics effects, and allows for a full 360 degree range of camera control. Massive's MassTech engine scales down to accommodate a wide range of PC specifications, if you've played a modern PC game within the last two years, you'll be able to play World in Conflict.

World in Conflict's FPS-like control scheme and 360-degree camera make its action-strategy game play accessible to strategy fans and fans of other genres... if you love strategy, you'll love World in Conflict. If you've never played strategy, World in Conflict is the strategy game to try.

World in Conflict offers an in-game benchmark; which records the minimum, average, and maximum frame rates during the test. Very recently another hardware review website made the assertion that these tests are worthless, but we couldn't disagree more. When used to compare video cards which are dependant on the same driver and use the same GPU architecture, the in-game benchmark works very well and comparisons are apples-to-apples.

World in Conflict plays well on most modern graphics cards, as evidenced by the close proximity of frame rate performance between everything from the GeForce 8800 GT to the GTX 285. With a balanced demand for CPU and GPU power, World in Conflict just begins to place demands on the graphics processor at the 1920x1280 resolution. I was expecting more results along the same line I've seen so far, and that is pretty much exactly what I got, only in much smaller differences. There were a few interesting turn-arounds though.

For the first time in our testing, the GeForce 8800 GT performed better than the Radeon HD 4850. Rather odd, I will admit, but WiC isn't particular to GPU; although it does feature NVIDIA's TWIMTBP slogan. The GTX 260 has gone neck-and-neck with the HD 4850 for most of our tests, but now it seems to be beating out the Radeon HD 4870. Even the GeForce GTX 280 beats the Atomic 4870 X2. The ASUS ENGTX285 TOP GeForce GTX 285 tops our chart with an average 63 FPS performance at 1920x1200. This is another game that proves that what you plan on playing might determine what you plan on buying.

In our next section, we discuss electrical power consumption and learn how well (or poorly) each video card will impact your utility bill...

GTX 285 Temperatures

This section is probably the most popular for me, not so much as a reviewer but more for my enthusiast side. Benchmark tests are always nice, so long as you care about comparing one product to another. But when you're an overclocker, or merely a hardware enthusiast who likes to tweak things on occasion, there's no substitute for good information.

Benchmark Reviews has a very popular guide written on Overclocking the NVIDIA GeForce Video Card, which gives detailed instruction on how to tweak a GeForce graphics card for better performance. Of course, not every video card has the head room. Some products run so hot that they can't suffer any higher temperatures than they already do. This is why we measure the operating temperature of the video card products we test.

To begin my testing, I use GPU-Z to measure the temperature at idle as reported by the GPU. Next I use FurMark 1.6.0 to generate maximum thermal load and record GPU temperatures at high-power 3D mode. The ambient room temperature remains stable, and for this test was 17.0°C while the inner-case temperature hovered around 30°C. The ASUS ENGTX285 TOP GeForce GTX 285 video card recorded 36°C in idle 2D mode, and increased to 85°C in full 3D mode.

FurMark is an OpenGL benchmark that heavily stresses and overheats the graphics card with fur rendering. The benchmark offers several options allowing the user to tweak the rendering: fullscreen / windowed mode, MSAA selection, window size, duration. The benchmark also includes a GPU Burner mode (stability test). FurMark requires an OpenGL 2.0 compliant graphics card with lot of GPU power! As a oZone3D.net partner, Benchmark Reviews offers a free download of FurMark to our visitors.

FurMark does do two things extremely well: drive the thermal output of any graphics processor higher than any other application of video game, and it does so with consistency every time. While I have proved that Furmark is not a true benchmark tool for comparing video cards, it would still work very well to compare one product against itself at different stages. FurMark would be very useful for comparing the same GPU against itself using different drivers or clock speeds, of testing the stability of a GPU as it raises the temperatures higher than any program. But in the end, it's a rather limited tool.

I must admit that 85°C is not the coolest-running GeForce product I have ever tested. Since the vRAM has been relocated to a position surrounding the GPU, it's understandable that heat output would match what we recorded for our overclocked GTX 285 would match that of a reference GTX 280 under maximum load. The idle temperature is far improved, however. At 36°C, the GTX 285 is stone cold when operating in low-power 2D mode. For gamers who like to keep it cool, the surprisingly silent fan under load can be dialed up using tools like RivaTuner.

The most favored feature of past upper-level GeForce designs has been the focused exhaust design. Heated air recirculating around inside the computer case is could reduce stability for your sensitively overclocked computer system. While 85°C is considerably hot under maximum load, it's still almost ten degrees cooler than a reference Radeon HD 4870. But here's a little-known fact: the GT200 GPU is designed operate safely up to its 105°C thermal threshold. What happens after that? Believe it or not, if the GPU exceeds this temperature the clock speed will automatically be dialed down to avoid damage.

VGA Power Consumption

Life is not as affordable as it used to be, and items such as gasoline, natural gas, and electricity all top the list of resources which have exploded in price over the past few years. Add to this the limit of non-renewable resources compared to current demands, and you can see that the prices are only going to get worse. Planet Earth is needs our help, and needs it badly. With forests becoming barren of vegetation and snow capped poles quickly turning brown, the technology industry has a new attitude towards suddenly becoming "green". I'll spare you the powerful marketing hype that I get from various manufacturers every day, and get right to the point: your computer hasn't been doing much to help save energy... at least up until now.

To measure isolated video card power consumption, Benchmark Reviews uses the Kill-A-Watt EZ (model P4460) power meter made by P3 International. A baseline test is taken without a video card installed inside our computer system, which is allowed to boot into Windows and rest idle at the login screen before power consumption is recorded. Once the baseline reading has been taken, the graphics card is installed and the system is again booted into Windows and left idle at the login screen. Our final loaded power consumption reading is taken with the video card running a stress test using FurMark. Below is a chart with the isolated video card power consumption (not system total) displayed in Watts for each specified test product:

At a mere 30W of power consumption at idle, the factory-overclocked GTX 285 is actually on par with a reference GeForce 8800 GT. Full output power consumption is a different story, however. Under full load, the GeForce GTX 285 draws 249W of electricity. This is very close to what the dual-GPU Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2 Atomic ST-6026 consumes, and slightly higher than a reference NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280. Nevertheless, only two six-pin PCI-Express power connections are required to fuel the ASUS ENGTX285 TOP.

GT200 GPU Final Thoughts

Paying to be an early adopter of technology or buying from the top-shelf has never really been my personal taste, even for someone as immersed in technology as I am. There are always new technologies that people talk up as they are developed, such as Blu-ray Disc for example. Yet, because there isn't enough value behind the added features or functionality to warrant paying for the premium price tag, most people simply wait extended periods of time before making their purchase. There is occasionally the rare exception however, when you can find a revolutionary new product that really makes the price worth the purchase.

For me, the GT200 graphics processor that conducts a symphony of 240 processor cores inside the GeForce GTX 280 video card made me believe a uniquely rare exception had occurred. Months later we see the GT200 (B1 revision) launch inside the GTX 285, and I begin to see that waiting would have also been a good idea. Now I'm not going to tell you that GT200-based video cards are a must-have item for everyone. After all, the GTX 260, 280, 285 and GTX 295 are now NVIDIA's top-shelf premium GeForce products and demand a high price for admission in the midst of an economic recession. However, the technology enhancements offered by the GT200 will improve the experience for everyone from the gamer to someone encoding video.

There has been the occasional mention of parallel computing architecture throughout this article, and for very good reason. The GT200 isn't just a graphics processor, at least not in the sense we have experienced for the past decades of video card products. NVIDIA began the movement towards parallel computing with the GT200, which helped the GPU perform many of the same tasks a CPU would; only better. While they each have their strengths, these days they tend to play more of a multi-purpose role. Intel and AMD processors have long since be capable of lower-level graphics processing (mostly 2D limited), and lately they have "evolved" into four Hyper-Threaded cores with the introduction of Intel Core i7 Platform. Built at 55nm, the GT200 is beginning to look, and work, in many of the same ways a CPU does.

For everyone else who actually reads through this entire article, there's a lot going on with the GT200 that is not available anywhere else. For those with deep pockets, NVIDIA SLI technology has taken graphics to unreachable level with GeForce GTX 200-series graphics cards. NVIDIA PhysX technology, which is becoming mainstream in game development, will require no additional accelerator to enjoy the amazing new graphical effects of upcoming game titles. Even Enterprise computing environments will benefit from CUDA applications coded to make use of the many cores inside the GT200, more threads, double-precision math, and increased register file size.

Hopefully, the money-wise hardware enthusiast will begin making smarter decisions when purchasing new computer systems, and might conduct a rudimentary performance analyses to optimize their PC to match the CPU with the GPU. I think that they will find out how a realistic mainstream CPU paired with a higher-end GPU will actually produce better gaming performance than the reverse; and for the same price.

This idea of heterogeneous computing is what NVIDIA has been working hard to accomplish with the GT200. Selecting the most appropriate graphics processor is now exactly as important as choosing the right processor any specific task. Please see our NVIDIA GPU Computing FAQ for additional information on this topic.

ENGTX285 TOP Conclusion

Benchmark Reviews begins each conclusion with a short summary for each of the areas we rate. The first is presentation, which takes product packaging into consideration to the extent that it provides adequate packing material and consumer information for an informed purchase. Video cards, while not an item many would consider to be pulled off of store shelves without research, actually do have several units sold sans review. So it's important that the manufacturer give as much information as possible and list accurate specifications. ASUS has done a decent job of this, listing system hardware requirements such as power and motherboard interface along with the maximum refresh rates for connected monitors, but they neglect to disclose any of the technical specifications for the video card itself. Other than knowing that the ENGTX285 TOP is an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 product with 1024 MB of GDDR3, there's no additional information available to help compare products while standing in the isle.

Graphics cards are beginning to take on two forms: those with integrated thermal management systems, such as the GTX 200 series, and those that use an exposed heatsink and fan. Rating the product appearance, or any of the product aspects for that matter, is very subjective. So while my opinion and perspective is only my own, you must consider the same as someone who rates movies or music. In this regard though, I confess that the GeForce 200 series has always appealed to me by design. While I never really considered the entire pre-G92 GeForce 8800 series to be very attractive as a whole, primarily because of the awkward half-covered products, the GeForce 200 series has finished what was started. One particular favorite of mine is the tilted blower fan, which corrects the functional flaws of the parallel blower fan found in the 9800 series. Unlike the past generation of products, GeForce video card made today do not offer LED lights for cosmetic accents because they are now utilized for functional indication of hardware status.

In the past I have been forced to replace older GeForce products when a capacitor might break away from the PCM from rough handling or an errant cable. Unlike the past generations of GeForce series products, the GTX 285 leaves nothing exposed to potential damage and the sensitive electronic components are protected. NVIDIA has engineered the GeForce GTX 285 to sustain above-average abuse, which also means you'll have very little change of having to RMA this product because it falls apart on you. The plastic shell covering the GTX 285 will work very well in cramped environments where the video card will be in contact with cables and components, just so long as it can fit.

In regards to performance and functionality, NVIDIA has redefined the graphics card space. Beginning with 240 processor cores built on a 55nm process, the ASUS ENGTX285 TOP GeForce GTX 285 is everything that previous products have not been: parallel-computing ready and extremely high-performance. Without question, the GeForce GTX 285 has earned the top position for NVIDIA's single-GPU product line. The core, shader, and memory clocks have all been increased for better performance, and drivers are now stable and optimized after several revisions since the original GTX 280 launch. Post-process effect compression combined with a future-proof 1024 MB of video frame buffer will make this the must-have card for extreme gamers for the foreseeable future (*see intro). A long-overdue 512-bit memory bus calls upon the PCI-E 2.0 bandwidth opportunities, but GDDR4 memory components have still eluded the NVIDIA product line. Additionally, full HDMI audio and video output is available for HTPC builds and viewing high definition copyright protected (HDCP) material. Unfortunately though, there is no DisplayPort functionality in the new GTX 285.

ASUS has been quick to ship inventory of the ENGTX285 TOP GeForce GTX 285 video card out to distributors, so you can expect to see it available at most online retail locations. Considering for a moment that the launch MSRP is set at $399, the opening price is already much less than when the GTX 280 first launched. As of March 2009, NewEgg lists the ASUS ENGTX285 TOP GTX 285 for $349.99 after mail-in rebate promotion. With some additional searching, it appears the most affordable GTX 285 products are from ZOTAC for $329.99 and MSI for $319.99 (both after rebate).

In summary, the ASUS ENGTX285 TOP compute-ready GT200^B1 video card has proved itself to be a welcomed update into the NVIDIA GeForce product line. Performance in video games is overwhelming for most current titles, so you have to think of more than just frame rates because now transcoding, rasterization, and graphics ripping will occur in thin percentiles of the time it previously took with older products. With the power of CUDA technology and the new CUDA runtime for Windows Vista (and soon for Windows 7), intensive computational tasks can be offloaded from the CPU to the GPU making this an outstanding product worthy of graphics-heavy Enterprise computing environments.

The GT200 processor was already a remarkable achievement for NVIDIA, and the B1 revision at 55nm along with the revamped PCB layout have earned my highest recommendation; but it's not without some reservations. It's nice that the GTX 200-series offers HDMI video output (via adapter) along with digital audio output through the attached S/PDIF audio cable, but I think that a product of this level should also be looking at native DisplayPort connectivity to fully secure the idea of future-proof hardware. If multimedia transcoding is a selling point, than connecting to the equipment that cutting-edge professionals will be using should be just as important.

Pros:

+ Outstanding AA/AF performance from demanding games
+ 1 GB GDDR3 512-bit video frame buffer
+ 670 MHz GPU/1550 MHz Shader/1300 MHz GDDR3
+ Parallel Compute ability for CUDA applications and GPU physics
+ Ultra-efficient 55nm GT200^B1 processor
+ Unprecedented single-GPU performance - outperforms GTX 280
+ Double-precision floating-point support
+ 240 Compute-capable processing cores
+ HDMI Audio and Video supported for HDCP output
+ Contoured enclosure offers improved airflow and cooling
+ 16x Coverage Sampling Antialiasing (CSAA) algorithm
+ Supports triple-SLI functionality
+ Extremely quiet fan under full load
+ Supports DirectX 10, OpenGL 2.1, and Shader Model 4
+ Enables NVIDIA HybridPower technology

Cons:

Ratings:

• Presentation: 8.75
• Appearance: 9.25
• Construction: 9.75
• Functionality: 9.75
• Value: 7.50

Final Score: 9.0 out of 10.

Excellence Achievement: Benchmark Reviews Golden Tachometer Award.

Questions? Comments? Benchmark Reviews really wants your feedback. We invite you to leave your remarks in our Discussion Forum.

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