OC3D Review: XFX GTX295 PCIe Graphics Card

[w3bbo]

It's a tough one to call tbh. Anyone who spends that amount of cash on a GPU, be it the 4870x2 or the GTX295 would be mad not to first purchase a large screen and then apply large amounts of AA. With that respect then the GTX295 is the better card. However if you only have a mid size screen say 19-22" and like your AA then the 4870x2 would be more than enough but then so would many other cards.

[Jaster]

were not taking price performance ratio...yes the cost is an issue...but you dont play down the baddest boxer in the world cos his mrs says hes crap in bed...yes for most of us mortals this will be an issue...but when it comes to manufacturers reigning top spot performance is the only issue...bragging rights are everything...still I see no reason to shift from my gx2 yet...and yes that is a price related statement...but its a beast of a card...lets see how long nvidia can hold it...because AMD/ATI are seeming to be closing the gap in many many areas

[zak4994]

Originally Posted by name='Jaster'

were not taking price performance ratio...yes the cost is an issue...but you dont play down the baddest boxer in the world cos his mrs says hes crap in bed...yes for most of us mortals this will be an issue...but when it comes to manufacturers reigning top spot performance is the only issue...bragging rights are everything...still I see no reason to shift from my gx2 yet...and yes that is a price related statement...but its a beast of a card...lets see how long nvidia can hold it...because AMD/ATI are seeming to be closing the gap in many many areas

4970x2 anyone

[monkey7]

Yeah, I'm waiting on news on that too

[Rastalovich]

Originally Posted by name='zak4994'

4970x2 anyone

Nope. Unless I was given one perhaps.

I don't have any extreme prejudice against the ATI camp for the sake of it, for me it's all to do with confidence in the product in so much as I install it and anything else I do to it maintenance wize will be looking to improve the performance over an existing stable platform.

nVidias drivers do go through their rotations, but if the ccc were as-good, I'd have no hesitation. And to be fair I hear they've vastly improved over the last few years - needless to say, improved and being as-good are two different things.

Plastic benchmarks and claims of the likes of 4870x2 don't impress me tbh.

Time spent messing on a pc costs money too, more importantly time u can't get back for a priceless amount. Spend £150+ more for the card ? For me, if it means this priceless time is not lost - then yes.

[Allargando]

Cost per frame was a nice metric imo...but then again if you're going to shell out £400 for a card I guess that doesn't matter so much

CPF would push me towards a 4870x2

[zak4994]

Originally Posted by name='fruityness'

ATI then Nvidia, then ATi then Nvidia.. And the fight goes on.

Cant find the price of this specific card, not that I did a huge in depth search but:

Sapphire HD 4870X2 2GB GDDR5 £340

BFG GTX295 1792MB DDR3 £440

Zotac GTX295 1792MB DDR3 £420

EVGA GTX295 1792MB GDDR3 £433

All those prices from ebuyer. Are the 295's really worth THAT much more for so little performance boost - especially considering the only benefit of the 295 seems to be at high resolution with lots of AA?

For me if it were my bucks on the line, not that I am looking for new graphics right now, I'd say no way hosé.

Well if you are going to be running at those high resolutions, then we can expect you to have an expensive screenie and be willing to pay the £100-ish more for the higher AA capabilities.

[fruityness]

Originally Posted by name='Jaster'

were not taking price performance ratio...yes the cost is an issue...but you dont play down the baddest boxer in the world cos his mrs says hes crap in bed...yes for most of us mortals this will be an issue...but when it comes to manufacturers reigning top spot performance is the only issue...bragging rights are everything...still I see no reason to shift from my gx2 yet...and yes that is a price related statement...but its a beast of a card...lets see how long nvidia can hold it...because AMD/ATI are seeming to be closing the gap in many many areas

The thing is though, it is NOT the baddest boxer in the world. The x2 pimp slaps it in 3dmark`05 and 06, Its even holding its own in a physx enabled game - UT3 - quote "All the games above, even the PhysX enabled UTIII favoured the 4870x2, that was until the resolution was increased and AA applied".

More standard resolutions and the 295 looses out not by a little but by a lot, its only at 2560x1600 and 4AA that 295 seems to have a lead, and then thats not the case in Grid. And I'd be willing to bet that if you used those resolutions and that level of AA then the game would jitter and lag anyway - you know how it is, fighting away, hear a sound from behind so you spin about quickly - the game lags temorarily etc etc..

As for bragging rights? I'd chuckle if a friend say they bought this, its no performance gain really, it looses out by a big margin at resolutions the majority use.

Waste the £100 extra, many will, if it were me I'd wait for a card which blows the other out the water THEN cough up the money. Not for a trickle of extra (and I bet real world unusable) performance.

[Rastalovich]

People do need to take their regular resolutions into account. And perhaps resolutions they're gonna get soon.

24" is quality aspiration for most imo. Whilst 20" is a solid standard.

I do think it's about time the 1024x768, and possibly even 1280x1024 were less concentrated on for runs or standards for benching tools.

Believe OC3D use a pretty good range of resolutions for their tests. The 2560 ranges are quite silly to be fair, but interesting.

*peers at w3bb0's monitor*

[Diablo]

Bear in mind, the people likely to buy the highest end kit will probably have other high end kit e.g. that 30" monitor. If you think the 4870x2 drivers have had more time to mature, its not surprising the 295x2 drivers are a little behind