Today, few people will remember the GTX 295 graphics card. Its characteristics are useless today. She can hardly launch even the most undemanding game. However, it can still be found for sale on forums and marketplaces. What is remarkable for buyers?
Thorny path
The characteristics of the GTX 295 were developed very carefully. This approach of the company Nvidia was caused by unexpected "attacks" from the main competitor - ATI. The developers of the Reds decided to release a new architecture, which turned out to be in demand and popular among buyers. Nvidia was soon to solve this problem and launch a new leader on the market.
The first attempt to defeat the annoying competitor was the release of the G200 architecture paired with the GeForce GTX 260 graphics card. The new product was able to show excellent results in tests and acquire less power consumption. Nvidia was on the path to not only creating an equal rival to the new Radeon HD 4870 X2, but also adopting the title of the fastest graphics accelerator.
Decision
Before the characteristics of the GTX 295 became known to the whole world, it was necessary to develop its own strategy. Nvidia has decided to create a dual-processor adapter based on previously released architecture. Many experts were initially surprised by this decision of the manufacturer. Nvidia previously stated that it was ready to develop only single-processor models with powerful filling.
The company was prompted by such a deviation from its principles by the ardent offensive of a competitor. In addition, the development of a new architecture, which worked on the 55-nm process technology, largely predetermined further actions. Indeed, unlike the 65-nm pair of these chips produced much less heat. Although there were skeptics on this score who considered such a decision a failure.
Comparison
After the release of the Nvidia GTX 295, its characteristics were compared with the capabilities of the Radeon HD 4870 X2. It was for the sake of superiority over the ATI model that Nvidia made such a difficult path.
Both models use 55nm technology. Video cards look good, but still are in their own specific category. For example, Radeon HD 4870 X2 is good in that it has high computing power. Nvidia GTX 295 has much better texture and raster operations. The novelty has acquired a high frequency of executive units, support for hardware acceleration.
The ATI model turned out to be better due to the amount of local video memory. GTX 295 specifications received in accordance with the company's strategy. The developers wanted to create the fastest gaming video card, so they missed DirectX 10.1 support, an integrated sound core, decoder, etc.
Modifications
Like all video cards from Nvidia, this one got a reference model and modifications. The most interesting thing is that in fact, not one of the currently known manufacturing companies has taken up the modification of the novelty. As a result, there were only a few improved versions on the market from EVGA, Zotac, Inno3D, XFX GF. In general, all these GTX 295 graphics cards received the same characteristics, but the difference was still noticeable.
EVGA
One of the most popular modifications was the EVGA GeForce GTX 295. The characteristics of the video card did not differ much from the parameters of the reference model. But still, some differences could be noticed.
Externally, the model seems very bulky. But there is nothing surprising in this, since the manufacturer had to place two large chips and a pair of 448-bit buses on the board. Both boards inside the video card operate on a single cooling system.
The option, on the one hand, seems to be quite good, on the other, it raises a lot of questions, since the chip on the 55-nm process technology is still quite warm. So that the adapter was not too large and could later be connected to the ATX form factor case without problems, both boards had to be placed face-to-face. The developers tried to keep the slots and connectors in such a way that the cooling system could remove hot air from the case.
EVGA GeForce GTX 295 boards work with an independent four-phase power supply stabilizer. However, only the upper part is connected to the power supply and is designed for a load of up to 150 watts.
For the memory on the boards are 14 GDDR3 chips of 512 Mbps. The microcircuits operate with a voltage of 2.05 V and a frequency of 1000 MHz. Such indicators of the reference model in the EVGA GeForce GTX 295 were slightly improved: the frequency was raised to 1026 MHz.
Since we have a dual-processor video card, it has two GPUs. Each works with 240 shader and 80 texture processors. In the reference model, the chip operates at a frequency of 576 MHz in the main domain and 1242 MHz in the domain of shader processors. EVGA was able to overclock the frequencies to 594 and 1296 MHz, respectively.
Pros and Cons of EVGA GeForce GTX 295
The modified version is in fact practically no different from the reference version, and this is perhaps the main minus. Today, companies pamper us with unprecedented factory overclocking and the ability to increase frequencies at home. In the case of this modification, there were no noticeable improvements.
A good clone of the reference version appeared before the buyer. A unique design should not be expected, since dual-processor models are a priori difficult to visually change. But EVGA tried to independently increase the memory frequencies and processors. In 2009, users were convinced that this is the best graphics card for games.
Zotac
Modification from this manufacturer was released in a company box, which was no different from previously released ones. The company does not change its signature black and gold combinations to this day. The box contained a huge amount of information and drawings. The main characteristics of the Zotac GeForce GTX 295 were also written right there.
The design modification is no different from the previous model and the reference version. We are faced with the same two motherboards assembled “face to face” that work with a single cooling system. The latter, in turn, has several copper heat sinks and heat pipes.
Due to the fact that there is not enough space on the boards, it was decided to reduce the memory bus to 448 bits. This decision also affected the rasterization channels. But the developer managed to keep the number of unified processors - 240. The GPU runs at 576 MHz, and shader pipelines - 1242 MHz. The indicators do not differ from those presented by Nvidia in the reference version.
The video memory is set with microchips with a total volume of 1792 MB. They work with a voltage of 2.05 V at a frequency of 2 GHz.
To improve the performance of the GeForce GTX 295, specialists tried to overclock the processor and memory frequencies. Since the model can hardly be called cold, and with an increase in voltage and frequencies, a temperature jump is always observed, it was necessary to ensure stable cooling. Someone just opened the case for this, so that there was an air flow inside, someone put an additional cooler to increase the efficiency of CO.
Specialists managed to raise the main speed indicator to 670 MHz and the frequency of shaders to 1440 MHz. The growth averaged 15%, which in fact is an excellent result. It turned out to overclock the video memory to 2214 MHz.
Pros and cons of the Zotac GeForce GTX 295
Unlike the EVGA modification, this model went on sale with benchmarks. The only difference is a modified plastic casing that covers the boards, and a new cooling system. Otherwise, we have a reference model with the characteristics set by Nvidia.
Zotac's GeForce Nvidia GTX 295 wasn’t the most popular. Of course, buyers would like to see factory overclocking and surprises in the box. Instead, they got the usual equipment and standard parameters. Although the possibility of manual overclocking is a definite plus. And the result of overclocking was pretty good.
Other modifications
Against the background of its competitors, the Inno3D modification looks good. The first thing worth highlighting is a well-thought-out cooling system. An aluminum plate is placed on the board, in which there are cutouts for the chips. Two radiators were placed on top of them, between which there is one compact fan.
The memory capacity is 1792 MB, and the frequency at which it works is 2016 MHz. The processor speed was the reference. But overclocking helped to raise this figure to 684 MHz. It was possible to increase the memory frequency to 2376 MHz.
Modification of the XFX GF GTX295 576M 1792MB also did not receive any special parameters that could stand out among the rest. The only developer in the configuration provided the game Far Cry 2, which was undoubtedly a profitable marketing move.
findings
Many users believed that there is a video card Nvidia GTX 295 1860 Mb. The characteristics of this model cannot be found on the Internet, since such a version did not exist on sale. GTX 295 in any modification was released with a memory capacity of 1792 MB and a frequency of 2 GHz.
Despite the first attempts to launch a dual-processor model with two boards on the market, literally a few months later there appeared variations with a compact design and an efficient cooling system. And, nevertheless, this did not affect the characteristics of the model. She immediately occupied her niche in the hi-end class, having fulfilled her main task: to overcome the main competitor - Radeon HD 4870 X2.
Of all the modifications, the most successful was the EVGA GeForce GTX 295. This version of the video card became the most popular, since it already had factory overclocking from the box. And if now many buyers are focusing on acquiring an overclocking version, then this would undoubtedly be a huge advantage.
And while in fact the factory overclocking did not give a huge increase in productivity, as is the case with modern models, a slight increase still affected the overall system power. And if the EVGA GeForce GTX 295 fell into the hands of a specialist, then at home the processor frequencies could be increased even more, and, accordingly, the gaming potential of the accelerator could be increased.