Fastest setup? Quad SLI GTX 295 or Tri SLI GTX 285

[Amaury]

So now that both reviews of GTX 295 and 285 are in, it seems quad-sli GTX 295 is faster than tri-sli GTX 285. correct me if i'm wrong. GTX 285 wins in memory bandwidth and GTX 295 wins in shader processing.

[CaptNKILL]

285 also has more memory.

[walterman]

Shading power:

4 x 1242 MHz = 4968 MHz
3 x 1476 MHz = 4428 MHz

12% win for the quad SLI.


Bandwidth:

4 x 448 bit x 1000 MHz x 2 = 448000 MB/s
3 x 512 bit x 1242 MHz x 2 = 476928 MB/s

6% win for the tri SLI.

I guess that with some overclocking, the Tri GTX285 SLI could end faster in shading power too. It should be more easy for the driver to control 3 GPUs, rather than 4. And the larger frame buffer should help with high resolutions & AA levels.

[Amaury]

I was wrong. I compared guru3d's reviews of both quad-sli 295 vs tri-sli 285.

Far Cry 2 2560x1600 8xAA 16xAF HQ DX10. Quad 295 68fps, Tri 285 71fps
COD WAW 2560x1600 4xAA 16xAF HQ. Quad 295 92fps, Tri 285 90fps
Brother in Arms HH 2560x1600 HQ. Quad 295 79fps, Tri 285 81fps
Crysis Warhead 1920x1200 2xAA 16xAF DX10 HQ. Quad 295 58 fps, Dual 285 71fps
Mass Effect 2560x1600 HQ. Quad 295 181 fps, Tri 285 152fps
Fallout 3 2560x1600 8xAA HQ. Quad 295 91fps, Tri 285 92fps
Dead Space 2560x1600 4xAA HQ. Quad 295 256fps, Tri 285 243fps
Left 4 Dead 2560x1600 8xAA 16xAF HQ. Quad 295 93fps, Tri 285 110fps
3dmark Vantage GPU score: Quad 295 27,940 pts Tri 285 29,580 pts

Power: Quad 295 TDP 289 watts x 2 = 578, Tri 285 TDP 183 watts x 3 = 549
Price: Quad 295 $500 x 2 $1000, Tri 285 $380 x 3 = $1140.

Why didn't Guru3d test Crysis Warhead with Tri 285 rather than dual or was that a typo at 1920x1200? 2560x1600 is still unplayable.

Interesting to know which setup produces the least amount of microstuttering, if at all. To me, it seems having the chips share the workload right on the card's pcb rather than through the motherboard's pci-x slots would produce less stuttering?

[Amaury]

And then in 3-4 months it's outdated by the GT212 and trumped by the GT300 at the end of the year. We need CHFA - computer hardware fanatics anonymous :)

[Amaury]

F' that. I'm stickin my pair of Voodoo 2s back into my machine. Back to some Quake 2 CTF lovin.

[Amaury]

back on topic. so the uber "jackup" setup will be to get (3) EVGA SCC GTX 285s in Tri-SLI overclocked.

[slaWter]

I'd go with Tri-SLI because of mostly better scaling and more VRAM.

[Amaury]

I keep reading how how very overclocker friendly the evga ssc 285 edition is. Core up to 750 and 2.85 - 3ghz on the ram. Tri-SLI on these. Yep that's the uber setup to have.

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/evga_geforce_gtx_285_ssc_performance_review/images/01.jpg X 3

[Blkout]

I keep reading how how very overclocker friendly the evga ssc 285 edition is. Core up to 750 and 2.85 - 3ghz on the ram. Tri-SLI on these. Yep that's the uber setup to have.

Almost all the 285's are clocking in that range, not just the SSC's. Your'e paying almost $40-50 more for a BIOS with higher clock speeds with the SSC. Save your money, go with the vanilla and overclock it with many of the available software utilities.

[Monnie Rock]

Do the SSC has different voltage values?
Can you alter the voltage of the GTX 285 from within the BIOS?


Thank you,
Monnie

[Uberpwnage]

Do the SSC has different voltage values?
Can you alter the voltage of the GTX 285 from within the BIOS?


Thank you,
Monnie

I believe the SSC is indeed volt modded from EVGA, there's a thread over at XS (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=214572&page=3), and some users have tried the SSC bios with no effect. So it must have some hardware modification as jAkUp said. I haven't seen anything about BIOS vmods, judging from past cards and the GTX 295, I would assume not.

[Muppet]

Do the SSC has different voltage values?
Can you alter the voltage of the GTX 285 from within the BIOS?


Thank you,
Monnie

You can with this.

http://www.mvktech.net/component/option,com_remository/Itemid,26/func,fileinfo/filecatid,2944/parent,category/

[Muppet]

I was wondering the same thing myself. Because I can get 3x GTX285's for the same price as 2x GTX295's. Both sets of cards are pretty reasonably priced.

[Amaury]

get the tri gtx 285 setup. more memory, faster memory interface, and higher clocks for the cores and memory than the gtx 295, and less driver bugs in games. I heard some games don't work with quad atm, like grid.

[Blacklash]

If you play AoC with all on and AA @ 1920x or greater I'd put my money on an X2 + an HD 4870 1Gb vs anything save two X2s. Two HD 4870 1Gbs or an X2 will push that game fine @ 1920x with AA. Outside of Old Tarantia in heavy grass two HD 4870 1Gb cards lead my Tri-SLi setup by 25FPS or that is 35 vs 60. I switched the cards back and forth in my X58 rig three times and got the same result every time. In the city GTX 260 Tri-SLi leads by 2-5FPS. Indoor in dungeons Tri-SLi leads by 100FPS or 350 vs 250.

[Xion X2]

What does it matter which is faster? They're both useless for all practical purposes and could be argued are a significant waste of money.

Good for bragging rights only. That should be stamped on the retail box. Unless you're really into benchmarking you'll never get your money's worth. Best to stay with a single or dual GPU system until Hydra gets rolling (and then you'll still need more than 1-2 games among a population of console ports where it benefits.)

[walterman]

... Best to stay with a single or dual GPU system until Hydra gets rolling ...

Lets hope that it will work :)

[Woodelf]

I don't upgrade as often as most who post here, but when I do I tend to go for as much as I can afford at the time. It tend's to sit better with the wife to go all out every 2-3 years vs upgraging here and there every year/ all year long. I'm planning an upgrade to an I7 920 to overclock along with either sli 295's or tri 285's (as soon as my long overdue tax returns get here).
BTW I'm still running an x1900xt/sandiego @2.9GHZ and it's driving me batty.
It seem's that when ever I buy, people say "it's over kill". When I don't, they say "what are you waiting for". IMHO, the only thing wasted (under my circumstances), is that I sometimes miss out on the next DX in favor of a little speed insurance. I've said it before and will say it again. "There's no such thing as too much power". Nvidia and ATI will insure that you never have to worry about that. ;) So even though my new upgrade will be over kill on my 1400x1050 monitor now, a year from now when she say's NO!!, I'll be glad that I made the choice I did (as I always do). OOp's, I think I hear my wife calling...

[ChrisRay]

There is no difference between 3 Way SLI profiles and 4 Way SLI profiles. There is no driver benefit for 3 GPUS over 4 GPUS or Vice Versa. They use the exact same rendering mechanism except the driver determines there are 4 GPUS rather than 3. Some software is less AFR friendly like Crysis. But this equally effects both setups.

Otherwise these setups are really close in overall performance. GTX 285 will benefit more at 8x MS @ 2560x1600. But the 295 has better SLIAA than the 285 in 3 way which defaults back to 2 GPU SLIAA.

From a maitenence perspective. Quad SLI is infinately easier to manage than 3 way. And 3 Way requires some nice case cooling. I have used both pretty extensively and I tend to prefer setting up and maintaining a Quad SLI setup verses a 3 way. However in some cases 3 way can offer advantages due to the GPUS not being stripped of any performance features. ((memory))

[Woodelf]

Why even have both options if they are so close in performance?.
I expected a clear winner with the 55nm 285 3-way. What happened with the overclocking scalability of them, or did I miss something here?.

[Woodelf]

I wish there were more sli 295 vs tri 285's (overclocked) reviews.

[Woodelf]

I wish this web site would give me more time like they used to before they ask me for a reason as to why I might want to edit the post I just did. I'm getting old you know.

[$n][pErMan]

The Extra frame buffer of the GTX 285 might be better.... but at your resolution that may not matter much! :p Gaming at 1920x1200 myself and wanting to use as much AA as I can I went with the GTX285. I am also thinking in a few months when I upgrade the rest of my PC that they will come down in price and I can pick up a second card for much less :) Hoping it holds me over for now... looks like it will ;)

[ChrisRay]

Why even have both options if they are so close in performance?.
I expected a clear winner with the 55nm 285 3-way. What happened with the overclocking scalability of them, or did I miss something here?.

Different products, Different price ranges, Different upgrade paths. It's not the first time SLI configuration's have overlapped in performance. Why take away the option for 3 way just because another solution performs similar?