GTX 295, 480 or a 5970??

[Modular]

A friend of mine has a pc with a GTX 295

He is an experienced gamer, tells me this GPU will not be beaten.

Unless you are analysing every microscopic frame-per-second detail, you will never ever tell the difference. the graphics are gorgeous and fast.


why would i pay more for these other cards?????

 

[rush_syndrome]

Er how about the warranty issue and future games?

 

[Skyrocket]

I guess your friend never heard of a thing called Moores law...

 

[opethdisciple]

Im sure the GTX 295 is still a very fast card, but it dosnt have support for Dx11, which means its missing out on all the latest graphics advances in modern games.

Is he trying to sell the card to you buy any chance? Becuase if he is, he's telling you fibs!

Unless he's giving the card to you cheap, then save your money and get a Dx11 capable card.

 

[arc@css]

The fact that your friend is an experienced gamer does not mean that a 295 can't be beaten / or automatically is the one you should go for. True, it still is a very, very good card but I'd try looking around at other models before parting with your cash.

What price tag has he attached to the card?

 

[mjones1]

5970 says hello.

 

[cmndr_andi]

The GTX 295 is a nice GPU and I am certainly happy I got mine back last year. However, as we all know technology is marching onwards and would not be my first choice of I were to buy a new card now.

For one thing, it is a dual GPU card, so you really need a decent SLI profile to make full use of the card in games, there are also many other issues associated with dual GPU arrangements that make them worse than a single GPU of the same power (eg. GTX 480). Also, it is relatively noisy, power hungry, hot and limited to directX 10.

The Nvidia GTX 580 is supposed to be coming out next week and the AMD 6900 series is to be released later this month. These cards should represent the modern top-end and are likely to put older cards like the GTX 295 in their place.

 

[Rroff]

Even the GTX470 will give smoother performance, possibly not higher absolute min/avg/max on paper but the avg fps will be made up of a more stable base line. Not that the 200 series in SLI is weak but their avg fps tends to be pulled up by silly high scaling in low complexity scenes while not doing quite as well in the more intense scenes.

 

[Gerard]

Also, it is relatively noisy, power hungry, hot and limited to directX 10.

Mine is very quiet and loads at around 70 c

 

[cmndr_andi]

Mine is very quiet and loads at around 70 c

You say "very quiet", obviously noise levels can be very subjective and depend on your individual system, but I think we can agree that compared to other graphics cards it is among the noisiest.

Ofcourse if you are using a custom cooler then the noise issue can be reduced.

When I said "hot" I not only meant the high temperature (mine goes much higher than 70C in furmark) but also the the large amount of heat that is dumped into my case and the room when using the card at full whack (TDP is 289W).

 

[Gerard]

You say "very quiet", obviously noise levels can be very subjective and depend on your individual system, but I think we can agree that compared to other graphics cards it is among the noisiest.

Ofcourse if you are using a custom cooler then the noise issue can be reduced.

When I said "hot" I not only meant the high temperature (mine goes much higher than 70C in furmark) but also the the large amount of heat that is dumped into my case and the room when using the card at full whack (TDP is 289W).

Mine is the single pcb version with the stock cooler. My case is the fortress ft02 so the card essentially has its own intake of cold air. ive yet to even notice it revving up to any kind of noticable extent, even when running that heaven benchmark.