GTX 285 or 295

[Mr Bigman]

Got a GTX 285 and was thinking of getting the new 295.

Should i get another GTX 285 for SLI or will one of these badboys take care of the trick?

I heard 2 285s are faster but 1 295 is sweet too.

[Xion X2]

Got a GTX 285 and was thinking of getting the new 295.

Should i get another GTX 285 for SLI or will one of these badboys take care of the trick?

I heard 2 285s are faster but 1 295 is sweet too.

2GB VRAM > 896MB VRAM

[Mr Bigman]

True on that.

I will just add another GTX 285 2gb and get on 4gb buit you know in SLI only 2 gigs is used so no biggy.

[Lfctony]

SLI is the anti-Christ. Stay away...

[Mr Bigman]

OH man gonna have to consider that one maybe use it for 4 lcd's instead of sli shaw.

[pakotlar]

2GB VRAM > 896MB VRAM

what? gtx 285 has 1gb effective vram, just like the 295.

edit: if 2 2GB 285's then you will have 2GB effective vram. SLI is not limited to any memory capacity.

edit 2: xion, ur totally right my man. I was under the impression that the gtx295 was a 1*2GB framebuffer card, but that's not true. yeah in this case, I would def stick with 2*285 2GB cards. future games will most certainly eat more thant 900MB ram. gta 4 can grab 1.5GB today.

[Xion X2]

what? gtx 285 has 1gb effective vram, just like the 295.

edit: if 2 2GB 285's then you will have 2GB effective vram. SLI is not limited to any memory capacity.

Biggie has the 2GB version.

If spending upwards of 500$ on a card, I would want it to have more than 896MB of VRAM. But that's just me. 896 will be a bottleneck in the near future.

SLI is transparent for me.. works nearly as hassle-free as a single GPU and scales well. It's necessary, for me, with games like Crysis and Clear Sky that need more GPU power to run well.

[K007]

neither?

new gpus out ><

[sammy sung]

neither?

new gpus out ><

Not yet.

[Xion X2]

Not yet.

And not for a while. ATI's won't be out until October, Nvidia's until Nov-Dec.

[top3koms]

I went with another 285 and it's worked out well for me.I finally get to play Crysis and all of it's single player mods with all highest settings and the Crysis texture mod without going slideshow.

[Mr Bigman]

Dropped in the other and its making a big difference but i noticed that the 2nd card doesn't have that red grill cover like the first one.

Evga guy says its fine just cosmetic so no biggie.

Games are totally tripped out to highest settings .

[Uberpwnage]

Just got two 2GB 285s as well, definetely worth it.

[Mr Bigman]

Oh i know im gonna slap my grandmother in her face now.

If you noticed it says 2048 video memory but it shows over 4096 of availble ram too so even with 2 gigs or ram per card, how much is really avaible now?

I did noticed some games see ram on 2nd gpu which i thought was cool.

[Uberpwnage]

Games may report different things, sometimes they even report virtual vram in Vista/7 as actual vram. There is still only 2GB usable regardless of what the games say. Even so, 2GB is enough for everything out today. GTA4 with 100% view distance @ 2560x1600 reports using only 1640MB. I also did some tests in XP on Oblivion with QTP3 and an ultra high view distance mod @ 2560x1600 with 16xQ AA and rivatuner showed between 1100-1200MB used.

[Mr Bigman]

Thats cool.

Atleast we know 2gb is golden for quite awhile.

Cris Webber digs and snacks too.

[Intel17]

What's the point? Everything is consolized anyway. Don't waste money on upgrades.

[Mr Bigman]

Damn Console fanboyz.

Go play on the monkey bars shaw.

[Intel17]

Oh, I hate consoles and don't use them. But I'm depressed 'cause everything is console-centric.

[Mr Bigman]

I heard that.

Yea it would be good to consider the pc when any game is released for console but hey why not mario? We know that one works not going anywhere with that one.

Yea running a good setup can effect ones ability and gets them off looking at the device manager too.

[Mr Bigman]

Got the other card and alls good.

I was debating a 295 setup but the frame buffer would be less cuz even though its quad sli you only get a real 896 framebuffer cuz even though its says 1786 its still 896 per core so in the end i like the 285's i have and they give me very large room to breath in super intense games like warhead or gta4.

I like eye candy all the way up as far as it goes vims.

good gaming is always the best gaming larry panm.

[bob saget]

I hope my 1.7gig GTX275 lasts a while :)

[john19055]

Another GTX 285 was the best choice ,if you can't wait until the new nvidia or ATI cards comes out.

[gstanford]

SLI is transparent for me.. works nearly as hassle-free as a single GPU and scales well. It's necessary, for me, with games like Crysis and Clear Sky that need more GPU power to run well.

Yep. Don't get all the SLI hate that goes on. its good technology. I was skeptical at first, but I'm on 3rd gen SLI now (G71, G80, GT200) and I wouldn't have a gaming rig without it, especially not one with a 30" monitor, like mine.

I'd definitely pick up a second 285 myself.

[Mr Bigman]

Im more patient now about what choices are out their too.

I run both those bastards idle at 45 46c and about 79 to 86c max which i thouight was weird but folks say it fine.

This is like the 5th time with sli and this time its ah good.