Testbed
Motherboard: MSI P45D3 Platinum ( Provided By: MSI );
Processor: Intel Core 2 QX9770 Extreme edition na 3.6GHz ( Provided By: Intel );
Memory: Corsair Dominator 12800 7-7-7-24 ( Provided By: Corsair);
HDD: WD VelociRaptor 300G 10,000RPM ( Provided By: SmoothCreation );
Vista 32
Drivers: AMD ATI CCC 9.2, Nvidia Geforce drivers 182.06
EVGA GTX 285 FTW runs at 720MHz, and we can’t help but wonder how many chips had to be thoroughly tested for these speeds. If you’re worried that EVGA might’ve not done a good job, then rest assured that you’re wrong, as the company includes their warranty on these babies.
Vantage test at extreme settings reports the EVGA GTX 285 FTW to be 11% faster than the reference cards, but lower settings report the performance difference to be about the same as well.
Older 3DMark06 tests don’t reflect the true advantage over the reference 648MHz, and it only shows the EVGA FTW 720MHz to be 2,2% better. However, gaming will show that FTW is better by about 11%, just like in the Vantage tests.
Gaming
Far Cry 2
Overclocking the GT200 core on GTX 285 FTW card does a world of good, and EVGA’s card runs by about 9% better than reference.
Left 4 Dead
At lower resolutions, the reference GTX 285 can lock horns with GTX 285 FTW, but starting from 1680x1050, EVGA starts leaving the reference card behind. 1920x1200 sees the FTW leave the reference card behind by more than 9%, whereas the highest resolution again introduces the 11% advantage.
World in Conflict
Radeon HD 4870 X2 loses at quite a couple of resolutions, and it’s only the highest ones that show the true power of joint RV770 chips. RVGA GTX 285 FTW is again up to 9% better than the reference GTX 285, and it’s quite a feat at 2560x1600 and filters on, where it scores a decent playable framerate, and lags behind the HD 4870 X2 by only 3 frames.
Temperatures
We had no trouble with temperatures during gaming. As far as overclocking goes, you’ll hardly beat EVGA’s feat, and our cards ran unstable at higher clocks.
Conclusion
EVGA GTX 285 FTW is without a doubt the fastest single GPU card – and its only competitor is the same company’s Hydro Copper 16 that comes with a water block and same-clocked GPU. The GTX 285 comes with 1GB of GDDR3 memory running at 2772MHz. Reaching these speeds is no easy task, and it proves that EVGA used the crème of the crop chips for the aforementioned cards.
The card is not cheap, but at least it offers a lot of quality for the price. This is what Evga tries to do with its cards, unconditionally the fastest but sometimes this effort comes with a price burden.
The reference GTX 285 runs up to 11% slower, and we’ve seen that GTX 285 FTW shows its true muscle at higher resolutions, and it’s intended for exactly those. If you’re gaming at 1920x1200 or even 2560x1600, and you don’t want a dual GPU card, then the best single GPU card around, EVGA GTX 285 FTW, is the card for you.