Let’s start with “rejuvenated” model GeForce 285 GTX, and see if there is actually something new because of latest nVIDIA practice to just rebrand products without any significant modification or improvements. New GTX285 uses GT200b GPU that is actually GT200 chip made in smaller 55nm manufacturing process. This “optical shrink” should result in, above all, lower temperatures, and this assumption has proved to be right. On the other hand power consumption is also decreased so GTX285 uses around 50W less then “old” GTX280 despite higher clocks. Basic characteristics aren’t changed compared to GTX280: 240 Stream Processors, 80 Texturing units and 32 ROP units. Support for DirectX 10.1, ShaderModel 4.0 and OpenGL 2.1 are also common factors between GTX280 and new GTX285. Memory bus is 512bit wide but DDR3 memory is, stubbornly, used again, compared to ATi’s 256bit memory bus and DDR5 memory. Usage of older memory standard allowed nVIDIA to use best memory chips available, with low latency of only 0.8ns that allows memory frequencies up to 1250MHz, real 2.2GHz that in combination with 512bit memory bus provides enormous memory “bandwidth” of 160GB/s. That is impressive 40% more than ATi HD 4870 can achieve and 15% more than GTX280. Memory subsystem is improved but could these improvements be done without radical GPU redesign? On paper GT200b is improved only in segment of frequencies that are raised to higher levels. GPU is operating at frequency that is for 50MHz higher than GT200 which results with final frequency of 650MHz. Stream processors are declared at 1476MHz (1300 at GTX280). In theory these setup should result in 15% performance increase. So let’s see how XFX model actually performed.

XFX is, as always, one of the first that came with their models of new nVIDIA chip. Graphics card came in big, well designed package that is dominated by nice FarCry2 sticker. Of course this means that retail game is included in package and we can only congratulate XFX on this gesture. Beside game and graphics card itself there are usual accessories: DVI-HDMI and DVI-VGA converters, drivers, cables and manuals. Card, actually, looks the same as all other referent GTX285 model only with XFX sticker on fan. Cooling solution is also the same and consists of: aluminum body, heat pipes and blower-type fan. Graphics card is actually very quiet because fan never reached maximum RPM when we used automatic fan control. There are two DVI connectors and one S-Video connector. This card needs two 6pin molex connectors to be inserted into appropriate connectors on the graphics card so it can work properly. This is slightly easier problem than solution that was used on GTX280: 8pin and 6pin molex. Performances are, as expected, higher than predecessors, so if you decide to purchase this model you can expect to play games in higher resolutions.