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- Date:
- Tuesday , February 10, 2009
- Author:
- Mark Warner
- Editor:
- Brent Justice
- Google +1
XFX GeForce GTX 285 Black Edition
The XFX “Black Edition” GTX 285 is shipped with clock frequencies well above GTX 285 reference clocks. It is faster than anything XFX has previously produced and is poised to deliver an experience beyond what the GTX 280 could deliver. Does it have value, or is it just faster for the sake of being faster?
Introduction
XFX is a well-known manufacturer of video cards to most gamers. A division of Pine Technology Holdings, XFX specializes in motherboards and video cards for PC gamers and hardware enthusiasts. XFX was formerly exclusively partnered with NVIDIA to deliver GeForce-based video cards, but recently added AMD/ATI Radeon-based video cards to their product lineup. In doing so, they became one of the few vendors of ATI branded GPUs to offer lifetime warranties and video cards with high clock frequencies.
XFX will be providing us with AMD GPU powered video cards with high clock speeds soon. In the meantime we are going to take a look at XFX’s latest NVIDIA GPU powered offering with a high clock speed, the XFX GeForce GTX 285 Black Edition (P/N: GX-285N-ZDBF).
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 GPU
The GeForce GTX 285 was launched on January 15th, 2009 as a refresh of the GeForce GTX 280, which launched in June of 2008. The most notable change is the use of a 55nm manufacturing process, down from the 65nm process of the GTX 280, which is a 15% die shrink. This enables the GTX 285 to run at higher clock speeds while still maintaining lower power consumption. The reference NVIDIA core clock speed is up 46MHz to 648MHz and the reference shader frequency is up 180MHz to 1.476GHz. NVIDIA's reference memory clock speed has also been increased by 270MHz to 2.484GHz. However, the GTX 285 features the same 240 streaming processors, 32 ROPs, 80 texture filtering units, and the same 1GB of GDDR3 on a 512-bit memory bus.
The lower power requirement has also done away with the need for an 8-pin and 6-pin power connectors. Replacing them are only two 6-pin connectors on the GTX 285. The total max board power is now 183 watts, which is down by 53 watts from the GTX 280 rating of 236 watts.
XFX GeForce GTX 285 Black Edition
XFX's "Black Edition" branding designates this video card as their highest-clocked model, above the “XXX” series, and well-above their standard clocked models. This video card comes with the GPU core clocked at 690MHz; (reference GTX 285 core clock is 648MHz), therefore the core enjoys 42MHz more worth of performance. The streaming processors (shaders) are clocked at 1.552GHz up by 76MHz from 1.476GHz. Finally, the memory is clocked at 2.6GHz which is 116MHz higher than the reference memory clock speed of 2.484GHz. Compared to their GeForce GTX 280 XXX product line (which consists of three separate models), that is a difference of +20MHz on the GPU core, +44MHz on the shaders, and +100MHz on the memory. Meaning the XFX GTX 285 Black Edition surpasses anything their GTX 280 line provided in terms of clock speeds. So right out of the box we should expect to experience performance greater than any GTX 280 previously offered by XFX.
The XFX GeForce GTX 280 Black Edition came to us in a small, sleek package. The box itself is big enough to safely contain everything it needs to contain, but not so big as to make shipping a chore. We like this kind of minimalist packaging. On the front of the box, a glossy watermark indicates that this is the "Black Edition" model, but your eyes may miss it at first. All of the appropriate information about the product is shown on the front, and on the top right side, there is a small sticker declaring that the video card comes with the full version of UbiSoft's Far Cry 2. The inclusion of a full version game such as this popular title is surely a big plus.
The back side of the box contains the usual feature list, marketing materials and canned screenshots, as well as a photo of the actual video card. The left side of the box displays the video card's system requirements, recommending at least a 630W power supply with a 12VDC current rating of 40A.
The video card itself looks just like every other GeForce GTX 285 we've evaluated ( an EVGA and a BFGTech). It features a 10.5" long PCB covered on the front side by a glossy black heat-sink shroud with a 70mm variable-speed blower fan taking up the active cooling duty. Affixed to the plastic shroud are two stickers, with a third sticker covering the fan's hub.
Unlike the GeForce GTX 280s and GTX 260s before it, the XFX GeForce GTX 285 Black Edition shows its bare PCB on the backside. Their plastic casing covers only the front of the PCB. Additionally, this video card requires two 6-pin auxiliary power supply connectors, instead of the 6+8 design of the GTX 280.
At the business end of the video card, we find two dual-link DVI connectors and a NVIDIA HDTV output power for use with the included component video dongle. There is also a very small illuminated power LED on the bracket.
The XFX GeForce GTX 285 Black Edition's bundle comes packaged in a sleek cardboard tray labeled "play hard." The left side of the tray opens up, revealing a DVI to VGA adaptor, a DVI to HDMI adaptor with an included S/PDIF digital audio cable, an HDTV component video output dongle, and a single dual-Molex to 6-pin auxiliary power adaptor. If your PSU has only one six-pin plug, you are covered here. If it doesn't have one at all, you need to upgrade.
In the right hand side of the tray, we found two installation guides, a driver CD, our promised DVD-ROM copy of FarCry 2, and an XFX "Do Not Disturb" door-hanger for those of you wishing you could be picked on a little more.
The Focus
The goal of this evaluation is to determine what value the XFX GeForce GTX 285 Black Edition offers over a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280. Additionally, we want to find out if it offers any advantages over the competition, an AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2. Hopefully, what we discover will allow our readers to determine whether or not they wish to invest in an "upgrade", and if so, what their best upgrade path is.