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REQ: Recommendation, Replacing my Nvidia GTX285

interested

Gawd
Joined
Feb 3, 2006
Messages
795
Hello.

Its been awhile since i have kept up with the latest video cards.

I currently have a Nvidia EVGA GTX285 Superclocked card which i have had for a year now.

I have read all the latest [H] reviews on the Nvidia 470, 480, and Ati 5870, 5850.
Unfortunately I did not find any [H] review that compares the older GTX285 series to the new fermi, and ati cards, while running on latest gen games

I was wondering if any of you have any good reviews that compare the older GTX285 to the cards above?
I have googled this, however outside of [H] I am not sure what other sites are reputable and worth checking out?

I will be selling my old GTX285 card soon, and i want to replace it with one (single gpu) card that offers a perceivable difference in performance/quality when running at 1920x1200, and i would appreciate any opinions or recommendations you guys have on this subject.

Thanks.
 
As thorough as Anand is, usually covering a very wide range of hardware in his reviews, I was shocked to watch him ignore the GTX 285 and GTX 285 SLI in his GTX 470/480 review. It was difficult to track this information down.

Use the article index drop down list at the top of each page:
http://hothardware.com/Articles/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-480-GF100-Has-Landed/?page=10
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=24000&page=9

Use the article index at the bottom of the page:
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1258/7/

Keep in mind there has been a performance increase since the beta release of NV's drivers. This increase is obviously not reflected in launch reviews. More information on the driver update is available here:
http://hardocp.com/news/2010/05/24/nvidia_beta_256_drivers_released/

My power supply wasn't up to the task of powering the GTX 285 in SLI. The limitation was the number of PCI-e plugs and its inability to provide enough amps over the molex connections for a PCI-e adapter. I got rid of the 285's and replaced them with one GTX 480. I am blown away by this card. Sure it's hot and loud, but it can very, very easily overclock. Who cares about a little heat and noise if you can have higher performance, amirite? The GTX 480 has the most potential of any single GPU card, today.
 
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Actually here is what you need to look at the cost of the card and what you have all ready component wise. The power supply for the 480 they recommend a 600 watt min, if you have that good. http://www.guru3d.com/article/zotac-geforce-gtx-480/1 check this article out it will show certain differences of the 480 to 285 in some spots gaming wise and spec wise. The 480 is a beast heat and power wise for sure for a single card. I myself was debating of getting rid of 2 of my 285s, but after looking at it I still get better performance than one 480. OK depending on youre motherboard have you gave a thought of maybe going sli with youre 285. Going sli will be cheaper buying used than buying a 480 new and more performance also dependent on the (power supply) you have. The only thing you are missing is DX11 a couple more little use full features is all, and a little less memory bandwidth and a little on the core. Another caveat would be what rez will you be running on youre monitor also 1920x1080 is the norm now like it or not (pushed on us). If you run the rez 1920x1080 the 480 will suffice easily and above youre needs im sure. I myself the only upgrade I could make on my sys would be 2 480s, a 5970,or a couple of 5870s actually to be better than where I am at. Ati has some good offerings actually they run cooler, suck less power. But as the norm as I see it, they do not compete in being feature rich cards like giving cuda, physics and excellent tesselation. The 480 is damn good card and right now is nvids flagship (go for it). People bitch and moan its hot, power hungry go Ati well if they were worried about power, they would have not bought that I7 at all and overclocked the shit out of it. If you do not go sli with youre 285 a 480 is a pretty damn good upgrade from a lone 285 and a little more feature rich than any of Ati,s offerings for sure. This is my 22 cents hope it helps a little. Check out guru3d.com they have some pretty good comparisons there with the 285,s and so forth. The only differences I see on the 480,s as of now is warranty thats it.
 
I also have two GTX 285's (in two different computers). I am actually waiting a while. I really suspect that there will be some new releasses that will be significent advances within the next six months. If you have a weak GPU that would be one thing but the GTX 285, while no longer top of the line, is still a really good GPU.
 
Well, I went from a GTX 280 to a 5870 and I'm quite happy with the performance improvements. Card is faster at every game I've tried basically.

However, I'm generally an nVidia type so if I were to buy today, I'd probably look at a 480. I'm not going to upgrade from the 5870 though, because there's not enough difference to make it worth while.
 
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