NVIDIA has announced its latest dual-GPU graphics card and just like the last model, GeForce 9800GX2, it has a sandwich design. It has more or less taken two circuit boards with a graphics processor on each board and put them together with a big heatsink in between. GeForce GTX 295 is the name of the first card of NVIDIA's GTX series using the new 55nm GT200 circuit. The shrink from 65nm has made the chip smaller and less power hungry power efficient enough to work in tandem.
NVIDIA has one very clear goal with GeForce GTX 295 and that is take down ATI Radeon HD 4870X2. Even if NVIDIA has had the fastest single-GPU graphics card in GeForce GTX 280, AMD has been able to brag about the fastest graphics card on the market through its HD4870X2 with dual RV770 circuits.
GeForce GTX 295 vs. Radeon HD 4870X2
The graphics circuits used with GeForce GTX 295 is a somewhat tweaked version of GeForce GTX 260 with more shaders but the same clock frequency and memory bus. The latter seems to be the biggest weakness of the card. With a whole bunch of available shaders, a total of 480, it is the memory bandwidth that is lacking. AMD has its GDDR5 memory to fall back on with Radeon HD 4870X2, but GeForce GTX 295 has it tougher at extreme resolutions and image quality settings.
NVIDIA's "sandwich" design
Overall it looks like NVIDIA has managed to achieve its goal of developing a card that can beat Radeon HD 4870X2 in most tests. As usual it comes down to which games you play the most and the remaining components of your PC.
NVIDIA's launch of GeForce GTX 295 is just a paper launch though as regular consumers will not be able to buy cards until after January 8th. Until then you can find an assortment of previews below;
:: HardOCP :: Firingsquad :: Bit-Tech :: PC Perspective :: Guru3D ::
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