BFGTech GeForce GTX 285 OCX @ [H]

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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BFGTech GeForce GTX 285 OCX - Today we have the BFGTech GeForce GTX 285 OCX on the table: The fastest of the four GTX 285 models that BFGTech offers. We see how it stacks up against a reference GeForce GTX 285 and an AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2 in CoD: WaW, Fallout 3, FarCry 2, L4D, and by popular demand GTA IV.
 
dumb question but why are you guys still using the Catalyst 8.561.3 driver for the 4870X2? Or did I miss something here?
 
But why aren't you guys using the new 965 i7 for your processor in your benches?

Either way, great review [H]. :)
 
I suppose I've been spoiled by your previous reviews, but I would like it if there were charts comparing the power draw/temp of the GTX280, GTX285SSC and this card. I wouldn't have to click as much (looking through past reviews to see this), at least its not hard to find.

-Thank you
 
Is nice, but the un-OC'd XFX card is now only $350, making it just nuts to go 4870 X2 or even get an OC'd 285...

Yes, I just ordered the XFX card...can't wait!
 
No Crysis??? I thought that Crysis is still the most demanding game available.
 
Awesome review! Very enjoyable to read.


There was one thing I noticed though. For Left 4 Dead I noticed that GTX 285 and GTX 285 OCX had framerate dips around the same time. I read earlier on that page that there were random spawning moments for zombies.

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTYxNSw3LCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==


Does this mean that the framerates on those cards go down that much each time that happens? Or was this just a coincidence?




Too bad Crysis wasn't included, still a worthy and demanding game. But again, very enjoyable review.
 
Is it me or is the economy causing the enthusiasm for new hardware to be less exciting??
 
Is it me or is the economy causing the enthusiasm for new hardware to be less exciting??

Are you referring to the lack of comments ?
Because there's hardly much to comment on an overclocked version of an already reviewed card...
 
I don't think anyone games at BFG anymore, that by gamers for gamers was relevant about 2-3 yrs ago. I think they have lost their way. Do we really need 4 versions of the same vid card?
That said I do have BFG cards in all my comps, and their warranty is great.
 
dumb question but why are you guys still using the Catalyst 8.561.3 driver for the 4870X2? Or did I miss something here?

These were the latest beta drivers that AMD sent us. For the list of improvements over Catalyst 8.12 go to this page.

But why aren't you guys using the new 965 i7 for your processor in your benches?

Either way, great review [H]. :)

Because I don't have a i7 to test with. :)

I suppose I've been spoiled by your previous reviews, but I would like it if there were charts comparing the power draw/temp of the GTX280, GTX285SSC and this card. I wouldn't have to click as much (looking through past reviews to see this), at least its not hard to find.

-Thank you

The point of the article was not to compare it with GTX 280, if you want to see that go here, the point was to see just how much better a OC GTX 285 was over a reference card.

Is nice, but the un-OC'd XFX card is now only $350, making it just nuts to go 4870 X2 or even get an OC'd 285...

...

Yup prices change, theres nothing we can do about that. However the main point which you summed up nicely is still valid.

....
There was one thing I noticed though. For Left 4 Dead I noticed that GTX 285 and GTX 285 OCX had framerate dips around the same time. I read earlier on that page that there were random spawning moments for zombies.

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTYxNSw3LCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

Does this mean that the framerates on those cards go down that much each time that happens? Or was this just a coincidence?
...

No it was just a coincidence that both with both GeForce cards we had to fight the Hulk right around there and with the 4870 X2 we had the Witch instead. We did try a few more times to get a Hulk around there however once we got the Hulk way past there in the corn field and once we only got a boomer. It just didn't want to cooperate with our run through.
 
dumb question but why are you guys still using the Catalyst 8.561.3 driver for the 4870X2? Or did I miss something here?

As Matthew Mentioned, they were the latest Catalyst at the time of evaluation, and contain the improvements in 9.1.
 
No Crysis??? I thought that Crysis is still the most demanding game available.

What is that game going to show that the others didn't? I don't think it would change the outcome. We made way to spend more time on GTA4 in this evaluation.
 
^ Doh! Time to put the posh on Kyle and have him get you one. ;)

We are working on getting all video card editors i7 systems now. Ad revenue is down 50% since December. Should you like to pony up the cash for the boxes, I will make it happen.
 
Is it me or is the economy causing the enthusiasm for new hardware to be less exciting??

Let's go beyond the obvious, k?

1) Most games, and you can count on one hand the ones that are not, are adequately served by today's hardware...so there is much less pressure, if any, to upgrade.

2) Nvidia has nuked whatever reputation it had with the RoHS fiasco with their chip packaging. Worse yet, the failed (and still to fail) chips created a future and current financial liability that basically bankrupted nvidia's partners, so there's less 'excitement' from the VARs.

3) There is precious little that needs to be communicated about changes in hardware to experts from experts. What took 1000 words to explain, now takes 100. Shaders up by X, Core up by X, min/avg./max FPS increase 10%, etc. All the rest is fluff.

4) There is massive pressure to DESTROY the PC gaming industry, and shift everyone to consoles. It won't happen naturally, but it is another obstacle to hurdle for free-flowing enthusiasm.

5) Hocp has issues and isn't as well traffic'd, hence.
 
Maybe [H] should do an article about how to disable ad-block-plus on websites people like to read and wish to remain available.

Great article though. It's funny. There seems to be an ebb and flow to demanding games. At a given time the available hardware is either enough to make existing games amazing, or existing games bring current hardware to it's knees.

I would hope that H users would do that in order to support the site. but I am wondering if this is more of advertisers tightening their belts that the actual amount of eyeballs H gets.
 
I would hope that H users would do that in order to support the site. but I am wondering if this is more of advertisers tightening their belts that the actual amount of eyeballs H gets.

There's no doubt that advertising is getting cut in a serious way. Though Google beat expectations its profit was down significantly year over year.
 
Maybe [H] should do an article about how to disable ad-block-plus on websites people like to read and wish to remain available.
While I haven't tested any of them, there are solutions out there that claim to defeat AdBlock. Of course, these work by way of JavaScript, so NoScript users are still very much "in the clear" when it comes to ad-free surfing. Obviously, it's a pretty serious problem.
 
While I haven't tested any of them, there are solutions out there that claim to defeat AdBlock. Of course, these work by way of JavaScript, so NoScript users are still very much "in the clear" when it comes to ad-free surfing. Obviously, it's a pretty serious problem.

I would also imagine banner blockers (like those included in Kaspersky Internet Security) would compound the difficulty in getting those ads seen.(Yay for having both!)
For some reason, though, I really doubt that's the reasoning for the drop in ad revenue.

I know it's maybe not the best attitude to have, but I like to be ad-free. I actively seek ways to not have my real-estate(which of late has been a 10" MSI Wind monitor) taken up by ads I most likely will never click on.

My apologies for being "part of the problem".
 
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=760666

The [H]ard|Forum Rules:
(23) Any discussion of AD BLOCKING software or instruction for using ad blocking regarding this forum or any other discussion in general of attempting to block advertisement will result in a no questions asked permanent ban on your account. This is not done lightly, rather deliberately to deny access to those who choose to utilize this forum, but not support our sponsors. It takes money to finance the cost of bandwidth, especially a forum of this size and if you don't care enough to support us through our advertisers, then we don't need your business. This will be the only warning with no discussion.
 
Let's go beyond the obvious, k?

1) Most games, and you can count on one hand the ones that are not, are adequately served by today's hardware...so there is much less pressure, if any, to upgrade.

2) Nvidia has nuked whatever reputation it had with the RoHS fiasco with their chip packaging. Worse yet, the failed (and still to fail) chips created a future and current financial liability that basically bankrupted nvidia's partners, so there's less 'excitement' from the VARs.

3) There is precious little that needs to be communicated about changes in hardware to experts from experts. What took 1000 words to explain, now takes 100. Shaders up by X, Core up by X, min/avg./max FPS increase 10%, etc. All the rest is fluff.

4) There is massive pressure to DESTROY the PC gaming industry, and shift everyone to consoles. It won't happen naturally, but it is another obstacle to hurdle for free-flowing enthusiasm.

5) Hocp has issues and isn't as well traffic'd, hence.

Can you provide a link to this fiasco that apparently did so much to ruin Nvidia's reputation, I hadn't heard anything on this and would love to read up on it, even though it seems a little exagerated.

I think the more obvious answer that this is a respin of a exsisting card is more likely than some of your points (though they are appreciated!) In my opinion I think the hardware is always changing enough to be interesting, like Adaptive AA, HDMI with sound integrated, Hybrid SLI, chip architecture streaming processors, Cuda and physixs etc. Even when games run well on common hardware, you can always push for the high end, like 30+ inch pannels with physix on and all settings on high, though I do agree with you here.

Do you think there is really massive pressure to destroy PC gaming, and by who, game developers or console manufaturers? I would agree that there is a large misconception out there that console games provide more revenue than PC gaming, but many times the numbers on this are skewed, like not allowing any PC hardware sales to be included in the total.

No offense, but some arguments in your post seem to repeat statements that are commonly heard, and often easily accepted without critical evaluation: like Edison Invented the Lightbulb, or Nero Fiddled while Rome Burned.
 
What is the point of comparing single gpu boards to dual gpu boards?

Don

Showing what you can expect for around $400 from each vendor. Could you imagine if people compared cars cylinder by cylinder, Turbo vs supercharger, instead of 230hp and zippy acceleration, while achiving 25MPG. I drive a 5cyl volvo with turbo, though I dont think it is unfair to ever compare it to another car just because they have 4 or 6 cyl.
 
While I haven't tested any of them, there are solutions out there that claim to defeat AdBlock. Of course, these work by way of JavaScript, so NoScript users are still very much "in the clear" when it comes to ad-free surfing. Obviously, it's a pretty serious problem.

is their anyway of making people turn off no script for a web page? its not like its hard to do, just click on the S and select allow Hardfourms.com. Its not like banner ads are that big of a deal.
 
Not sure if it has been mentioned yet, but the price mentioned in the [H]ard News blurb and on page 1 of the article states $280 but it links to a card at NewEgg for $380.

Thought it may want to be updated for accuracy.
 
So basically the vanilla 648mhz and the 702 'ssc' types are really not distinguishable by much in the way of performance, so why pay out anywhere from 25-75 difference?

unless I'm missing something here ?(home sick with the flu so I'm a bit fuzzy today).
 
Can you provide a link to this fiasco that apparently did so much to ruin Nvidia's reputation, I hadn't heard anything on this and would love to read up on it, even though it seems a little exagerated.

(blah blah)

No offense, but some arguments in your post seem to repeat statements that are commonly heard, and often easily accepted without critical evaluation: like Edison Invented the Lightbulb, or Nero Fiddled while Rome Burned.

I'm going to be nice, because I just re-read this thread and learned that H traffic is up while revenues are significantly down and I'm going to give H the benefit of the doubt and not say mean things to scare off noobs.

I find it interesting that you are challenging degrees of impact of the given assertion while simultaneously probing for any information about it at all. "I hadn't heard anything about this" is all you needed to say, save the opinions until after you read up about it.

If only there was a web site that specialized in computer technology, particularly as it pertains to graphics cards and the unique ability graphics cards have to go beyond rated specifications and subsequently measure their performance along with any ancillary and direct consequences and system wise impact of such firmware manipulations.

But then we would know you were uninformed and incapable of making any informed commentary on the subject and then, by golly why bother posting!

Edit: And furthermore, even though H has pissed me off in the past by dropping XP reviews and basically lying about why, and being forearm-shaving drama queens, they have done a few notable things and they deserve consideration.

1) They are still here kicking and working for US. (most of the time).

2) They have increased the technical merit of their reviews a great deal over the years, their results are reproducable and generally their methodology has merits. translation: I like the charts.

3) They give cash where and when it counts.

4) Made in the USA.

Look at how crappy other sites have become, H hasn't been hit by that same affliction. With clever ideas and simple execution, H could maybe take up some of the slack left by the glaring crappyness of other game sites. <cough firing squad cough>
 
I'm going to be nice, because I just re-read this thread and learned that H traffic is up while revenues are significantly down and I'm going to give H the benefit of the doubt and not say mean things to scare off noobs.

I find it interesting that you are challenging degrees of impact of the given assertion while simultaneously probing for any information about it at all. "I hadn't heard anything about this" is all you needed to say, save the opinions until after you read up about it.

If only there was a web site that specialized in computer technology, particularly as it pertains to graphics cards and the unique ability graphics cards have to go beyond rated specifications and subsequently measure their performance along with any ancillary and direct consequences and system wise impact of such firmware manipulations.

But then we would know you were uninformed and incapable of making any informed commentary on the subject and then, by golly why bother posting!

Edit: And furthermore, even though H has pissed me off in the past by dropping XP reviews and basically lying about why, and being forearm-shaving drama queens, they have done a few notable things and they deserve consideration.

1) They are still here kicking and working for US. (most of the time).

2) They have increased the technical merit of their reviews a great deal over the years, their results are reproducable and generally their methodology has merits. translation: I like the charts.

3) They give cash where and when it counts.

4) Made in the USA.

Look at how crappy other sites have become, H hasn't been hit by that same affliction. With clever ideas and simple execution, H could maybe take up some of the slack left by the glaring crappyness of other game sites. <cough firing squad cough>

...dang!

"I'm drinkin' in the woods"

I don't want to
do we have to
 
Nice review. It seems that the BFGTech overclocked the core by 10 Mhz over the EVGA SSC, but was short 25 Mhz on the shaders. The EVGA card also got higher framerates in every single game that was tested with the BFGTech. In L4D and Fallout 3 the SSC card completely stomps the BFGTech. 20 fps greater minimun framerate. Is that the work of the 181.22 drivers over the .20? Anyways theres an error in some of your review. On the framerate graphs when you run your tests with each game, you have the stock GTX 285 marked as a GTX 280 :p
 
s[H]aqFU;1033679988 said:
Do we really need 4 versions of the same vid card?

THIS!

I totally agree, they're just confusing the already-confused market where they're still selling 8-series, 9-series, old 200-series & now NEW 200-series.

I mean come on, choice is good, but if you want ppl to jump to you, make it simple...nothing wrong w/ good, better, best...stick to that...

(yes I do have BFG cards, but have since moved to XFX-only since the 6-series)
 
But then we would know you were uninformed and incapable of making any informed commentary on the subject and then, by golly why bother posting!

Oh, sorry, I thought this was a casual forum where I could ask a question. Didn't know I couldn't have any opinions before I know everything. :)
By the way, I had heard about the problem Nvida had with mobile chipsets, I also know about the issues the 7900GTXs were having thus the underclocked 7900GSO, not sure if that was what you were refering to, and had not seen anything on the angle of how it was scaring off OEMs, which sounded interesting.
I agree I have not done enough research to say you are wrong, just meant to say it sounds like you are exagerating the impact when you say:

Nvidia has nuked whatever reputation it had with the RoHS fiasco with their chip packaging.
I have worked in the semiconductor industry for over 10 years now, and do know about providing product to customers and how unforseen impacts in manufacturing can happen while trying to satisfy new qualifications, so actually I do know something about it. Perhaps it would be wise to not assume that you are the only expert, and that everyone who dosen't swallow everything you post without question is not neccesariy a novice.
 
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