Included on this page, are assorted photographs that show the product packaging, accessories, and software.

Packaging

EVGA offers 24/7 technical support, support forums and a limited lifetime warranty. The EVGA Step-Up Program is a strong addition to their feature set.

Box Front

The graphics card is rather heavy and occupies two case slots. The top of the enclosure consists of an attractive aluminum casing, with numerous vent holes.

Graphics Card

EVGA recently announced the availability of a 1mm thick anodized aluminum backplate, which keeps the device running cooler as it transfers heat from the backside of the GPU.

Backplate Kit

Accessories include the following items and a full version of 3DMark Vantage Advanced Edition is available after product registration.

Accessories

One possible drawback to using a GeForce GTX 295 is that you may need to upgrade to a more powerful power suppply.

Connector Accessories

The software on the installation CD contains EVGA's Precision Overclocking Utility, which provides real-time control of the GPUs core, memory, shader, and fan speeds.

EVGA Precision Software

Note that when the GPU is processing a light workload, such as Windows 2D operations, clock speeds are automatically reduced. When running a 3D application, clock speeds will then increase to their default values.

My test system was recently upgraded from a Core 2 Duo E8500, nForce 680i SLI chipset and DDR2 memory to a Core i7 940, X58 chipset and DDR3 memory. The previous operating system consisted of a Windows XP and Windows Vista dual-boot configuration and was updated to Windows Vista exclusively.

Other than a few minor quirks with powering up the motherboard, which are hopefully resolved with BIOS updates, the system has been stable.

Hardware and Operating System

• Intel Core i7 940 Nehalem Quad Core Processor @2.93GHz
• Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 X58 Chipset Motherboard
• 6GB Corsair Dominator DDR3 Memory @1600MHz (PC3 12800)
• Thermaltake ToughPower 1200W Power Supply
• Dell 3007WFP LCD Monitor
• Windows Vista 64-bit with Service Pack 1 / DirectX 10

Graphics Cards, Drivers, and Driver Settings

• EVGA GeForce GTX 295 - 594MHz Core / 1296MHz Shader / 1026MHz Memory (2052MHz Effective)
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 - 602MHz Core / 1296MHz Shader / 1107MHz Memory (2214MHz Effective)
• ForceWare Driver Version 181.20
• 32-Bit Color
• Vsync Disabled
• 60Hz Refresh Rate
• High Quality Texture Filtering
• Gamma Correct Antialiasing
• PhysX GPU Acceleration Enabled

Test Applications

• Call of Duty 4 - Timedemo
• Crysis - Internal Benchmark
• Crysis Warhead - Custom Timedemo
• Far Cry 2 - Gameplay
• Fallout 3 - Gameplay
• Lost Planet - Internal Benchmark
• Mirror's Edge - Flyby
• Oblivion - Gameplay
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Custom Timedemo
• Unreal Tournament 3 - Shangri La Flyby
• World in Conflict Demo - Internal Benchmark

Notes

• Antialiasing was set to "Override any application setting" in the driver for Oblivion, S.T.A.L.K.E.R and Unreal Tournament 3.
• Anisotropic filtering was forced to 8x in the driver for Oblivion.

Here is a photograph of the EVGA GeForce GTX 295 installed in the test system.

Graphics Card Installed

Note that the GeForce GTX 295 requires one 8-pin and one 6-pin PCI-Express power connectors. NVIDIA recommends power connectors that are native to the power supply, although EVGA includes a couple of adapters as accessories.

The performance of the EVGA GeForce GTX 295 was compared to a reference graphics card that is based on NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 280. The GeForce GTX 280 had been their most powerful GPU until the GeForce GTX 285 and GeForce GTX 295 debuted.

The Competition - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280

Performance is compared to a single GeForce GTX 280 and two GeForce GTX 280s running in SLI at the resolutions of 1680x1050, 1920x1200 and 2560x1600.

Next Page: Performance at 1680x1050 vs. GeForce GTX 280