Vista - GTX 285 or GTX 295?

The Australian government is looking at giving all workers a $950 'economic' stimulus package. This is of course on top of the $1000 dollar economic stimulus package from December.

I for one would like to rip my shirt off to show you my 'ECONO MAN' tattoo right about now.

What I really want to know is should I buy the GTX 285 or the GTX 295?

The 295 is two cards smacked together (and we all remember 9800GX2) whereas the 285 is a single card solution.

285 = Lower power consumption, more memory (per GPU), 512-bit memory, higher clocks, less heat...

295 = More grunt, games need to support SLI (seems like a problem to me especially because of how shat GTA IV runs on SLI setups), 448-bit memory (per GPU), requires power sub-station to be attached to house

Ignore my current PSU for now as I will get a new one if I get a new card.

Any comments would be appreciated.

GTA4 doesn't run crap on SLI PCs, it just doesn't use SLI properly yet. Mine runs fine with two 8800s.

It all depends what you want, if you want to go down the quad-SLI route, then get the 295, or if you just want SLI without using too much space, then take the 295 as well. You can enable or disable SLI for certain games without disabling it altogether, so if a game doesn't run as well with it, then just simply turn on single card rendering for it.

Or if you want the single card, with less power consumption, and just a single card, then get the 285.

The 295 has an 896-bit interface as well.

448 x 2 = 896-bit memory interface. The 295 is essentially just 2 260's smacked together

The GTX285 is technically more powerful than the GTX295 on a per card basis but what I was really looking for is with experience with either setup to give their opinions. I do know that asking for personal opinion is flawed, as the person usually doesm't have another similarly spec'd card to compared it with in a day-to-day situation.

I am also looking for running temps, idle temps and such because sites that review these cards don't give, in my opinion, accurate day-to-day temp and performance results.

I missed the per GPU thing, but then you're not going to by a GX2 card to run it in single card, so you're most likely going to be running the 896-bit interface.

The cores on the 295 also as all the cores unlocked, so is running 2x 240core cores, as opposed to the 260 which has 216 cores. On a "per card" basis, the performance between the 285 and 295 isn't going to be noticable until the highest resolution really.

It's pretty much the same as choosing an SLI system, until it comes to temperature results. I only know people on here who use GTX260s on here.

OK. I don't think I am going to be playing at anything above 1920x1200 so I will go for the 285.

Thanks for your help. Repped

You're welcome, and thanks

A pair of GTX 285's is a bit faster than a single GTX 295 if both at the stock clock without OC...

while you look at the specs it will become obvious...

Both cards (285s SLI)still have 2 seperate GPU's on 2 seperate (for the most part) PCB's.

but you've to compare apple to apple...since you're choosing a single card between these two for the one card solution

For me...I just bought the Evga GTX 295 Plus w/backplate while it can free up one slot than SLI...and also can play the games in the high-res...that's all I need... JMHO

well if you have another economic stimulus package come along, you could always buy another 285GTX and run that SLI, if a game doesnt support SLI then all you need to do is configure it to be run as a physx card.

Thank you, I'll be getting a 285 due to the fact that I run at 1920x1200 and no higher.

I had this exact same question and was looking for opinions, this confirms my original choice! Repped Mat and Everlong.

Your welcome and thankyou Freelancer852