GeForce GTX 295 Vs. GTX 275 SLI: When Two Are Better Than One

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[citation][nom]reasonablevoice[/nom]What the hell is up with the underclocked cards out performing the others in that H.A.W.X.Can the author of the article comment with what they think is going on there?[/citation]
This isn't anything new. Its often been found that when overclocking (even though thats not exactly the case here) you will sometimes end up with worse performance than with the slower clocks. Its could be a bug in the drivers, a system timing issue with info not arriving at the right moment in the clock cycle, or it could even be designed throttling built into the firmware or driver.
 
Few things, First off, not only do the downclocked GTX275's perform better, they run hotter?!?! - sure you didnt overclock something haha. Second, why wasnt it addressed that you probably get alot more headroom out of OVERCLOCKING the GTX275's vs. the GTX295 given that each GPU gets alot more cooling alotted to it. ALSO, WHO WOULD BUY 2 CARDS AND DOWNCLOCK THEM! It is an interesting comparison, but this has to be remembered, so the 2 card solution is pretty much a WIN. Especially with the lower price.

Interesting article as this has been the question I have been asking myself for a month because I plan to upgrade graphics this summer. Moving from 4850 in CF + PhysX Card to 2x GTX275 was the plan. I game at 1920x1200 and the 4850's just cant play crysis like I want them too at that res - usually at medium settings for good frame rates (and my cpu is an overclocked i7 920).
 
[citation][nom]JeanLuc[/nom]People who worry about their voiding there warranty, people who buy from HP/Dell etc.[/citation]

Dude, as if intel can know whether or not you OCed your cpu...

Well if if you are a masochist and OC without using say a cooler or something like that yeah.
 
I'm glad I grabbed an EVGA GTX 295 when they first came out and I saw it on sale at Microcenter for $480. I then bought the backplate for $20 online.... so for $500 it was actually cheaper than these GTX 275's anyway!

Nice article I always wondered what would do better between the two.
 
Have there been any tests where the memory to core clock ratio is tested? This article tests in the 1.73:1 to 1.79:1 range, 998 to 576 & 1134 to 633. What about testing at 1100:550 or 1200:600? A nice even ratio of 2:1.
 
The 295GTX can OC to 285GTX clocks or higher. If you are going to OC the 275 than the scores are valid only if the 275's can keep up with 285 clocks, otherwise the 295 on an OC'eing playing field will beat the 275.
 
I'm thinking that the low availability of 295s is because nVidia wants to release their rumored revised version. The new version is suppose to have two GPUs on the same PCB, like a Radeon 4870X2, instead of the two sandwich PCBs it has now. I'm sure board partners would like it if it's easier and cheaper to produce, but we'll see.
 
Good read. I wondered if it would be possible to benchmark the two GTX 275 in SLI using a more modest nForce 650i with a dual core processor and also with nForce 790i SLI with a quad processor. A lot of people out there (myself included) cannot afford buying a new computer system (i7) every 6 months or every year you know... Just a thought...
My "gaming rig" as it follows:
E2160 @ 3.24GHZ, nForce 650i SLI, GTX 260 Core 216, 4GB DDR800, 37" 1080p monitor... (Used to have 2x 8800GT SLI, but one GTX 260 works same/better in some games in my system).
 
I've been running my 275's in SLI since they came out (on a X58 platform). They replaced my two 8800 GTX's and I have to say they are performing brilliantly. What sold me was the attractive price point where two of them cost as much as a single 8800 did (back when I bought the 8800's).
 
Two quibbles with this article, one major, one minor.

The minor one, which has been addressed by others, is that this should've been done w/ a higher clocked processor, just as a matter of course to remove bottleneck possibility. Granted, it's the same proc for both setups so it should've affected both equally, but ... this is still not the proper way to do a test like this when you have that much gfx power.

The major one, surprised it's not been mentioned ... WHY did they not test both setups at both sets of clocks? The GTX295 has no problem running at gtx275 stock clocks (mine is 100% stable at 675/1476/2484 on stock volts/cooling), so why not test it overclocked? That way we could've seen whether the GTX295 suffers from the same slowdown at higher speeds that the SLI275 does. Personally I think that answer would've had the potential to change the overall recommendation (at least for those who like to overclock) if it were found that the 295 overclocked didn't have the same perf losses.

Anyways, for my money, I'm still very happy to have my 295, wouldn't trade it for 2x275's if was netting
 
10% performance increase for a 25% increase in power consumption? No thanks. I'd rather spend the extra $20 up front, and save $ in the long run.
 
Could you guys benchmark some non-gaming applications, namely photoshop cs4 and 3dsmax 2010. Thanks!
 
why on earth would you sli 2 gaming cards for photoshop?

as long as your card has decent ram and open gl 2 you dont need much gpu power for photoshop
 
Excellent Article. Wish I had waited a month or so....could have had 2 GTX 285's in SLI and SMOKED my GTX 295!!!! Course it would have cost me a pretty penny too. =0)
 
It's a great article with no doubt but I missed the "old" 280 1GB cards, which are cheaper now, and perhaps adding a pair of the new 285 2GB would tell something about the performance drops with very high resolutions and AA.

The only thing that the conclusion should also stress is that these cards (and especially the 295) are underclocked because of heat/fan noise issues and that's also the main reason watercooled solutions are getting popular.
 
A single GTX 275 should have been included to show SLI performance comparison to the base card. Especially with some of these games in which SLI makes little difference.

 
Chris can't you try limiting the 295 to 8 pathways and see what happends? I wouldn't dare try, but I've heard that you can simply mask the last 8 on the pci express connector with some tape.
That might at very least give a hit as to wether the bandwidth is a real limit. And it would also show people with 'old' p35 and 965 systems wether or not their old q6600 would be happy with a 295 or not.
 
I kept reviewing the comment in the hope that Chris or one of the readers post an explanation about the odd performance issue..I'm disappointed..I was looking forward to another editor's corner from Chris..
 
I ended up having to do something very similar to this because I could not find a 295 in stock anywhere. Instead of going with two 275s I went with two 280s. Too bad the review doesn't include that setup as well because it would be nice to see how it scales.
 
[citation][nom]avatar_raq[/nom]I kept reviewing the comment in the hope that Chris or one of the readers post an explanation about the odd performance issue..I'm disappointed..I was looking forward to another editor's corner from Chris..[/citation]

I'm working on it with Nvidia right now, and we have several people involved. Stay tuned avatar--we didn't just drop the issue :)
 
I would like to at least have the REASON WHY the avatars were taken away.I can't remember any other site doing this.ASo how about it?
 
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