TWO 295 VS. THREE 285 - WHICH HAS MORE POWER?

[seerwan]

Gentlemen, i was wondering which graphics solution had more THEORETICAL Graphics Processing power - TWO 295's or THREE 285's...

i checked on http://www.nvidia.com/HelpMeChoose/fx/HelpMeChoose.asp and did some basic calculations, and the combined power of these SLI solutions, in theory, are:-

2 X 295's 3 X 285's
Graphics Performance (X) 134 147
Standard Memory (GB) 3.5 3
Texture Fill Rate (Billion) 184.4 155.4
Max Mem. Bandwidth (GB) 447.6 477


Now, as the 295s have a 18% advantage in Texture Fill Rating, and the 285s have a 6% advantage in Max. Memory Bandwidth, i think the 295s win...

what do u guys think...?

 

[Bluescreendeath]

3xGTX285s

The GTX295s don't scale as well.

Here is my rudimentary chart:

1 GTX285 = 1.5
2x GTX285 SLi = 2.7
3x GTX285 SLi = 3.66

1 GTX295 = 2.34
2x GTX295 = 3.64

1 GTX260 216core = 1.3
2x GTX260 216core SLi = 2.34

 

[megamanx00]

Most modern games are not limited by texture fill rate, but by Shading power and memory bandwidth.

 

[B-Unit]

While theoretically the 2xGTX295 is superior, in practice the 3xGTX285 will destroy them in most scenarios due to poor SLi scaling.

 

[paranoidmage]

You could also overclock 3 cards better than 4 dies put into 2 cards

 

[blackhawk1928]

As B-unit said, 2 GTX285's are technically more powerful in terms of specs and cores and stuff like that, but current SLI technology interferes in some ways apparently.

-Blue Screen of Death, maybe I am wrong but i thought that a GTX295 was 2 GTX275s and not GTX260, maybe I am mistaken...

 

[Bluescreendeath]

As B-unit said, 2 GTX285's are technically more powerful in terms of specs and cores and stuff like that, but current SLI technology interferes in some ways apparently.

-Blue Screen of Death, maybe I am wrong but i thought that a GTX295 was 2 GTX275s and not GTX260, maybe I am mistaken...

Specs are similar to 2 GTX275s, but performance doesn't come anywhere close. The GTX295 is about equal to two GTX260 216s.