BFG Tech GeForce GTX 285 H2O

How we tested

As always, our aim is to deliver a clean set of benchmarks. Each test repeated three times and an average of those results is what we’re reporting here. In the rare case where performance was inconsistent, we continued repeating the test until we got three results that were consistent.

The tests performed are a mixture of custom in-game timedemos and manually played sections with FRAPS to record the average and minimum frame rates. We strive to not only record real-world performance you will actually see, but also present the results in a manner that is easy to digest.

Water-cooling setup

To test this card we fashioned a graphics card-only water-cooling loop from components that we had in the Lab. We settled for a single 120mm radiator, a small reservoir, a powerful pump and 1/2in inner diameter tubing. Here’s the full setup:

• Danger Den Black Ice Pro radiator (single 120mm)
  
• Laing D5 pump
  
• Swiftech MCRES-Micro reservoir
  
• 1/2in inner diameter tubing
  
• De-ionised water with Swiftech Hydrex additive

The components of the test rig were:

Intel Core i7 Test System

Intel Core i7 940 processor (operating at 3,709MHz – 22x168.6MHz); MSI Eclipse SLI motherboard (Intel X58 Express with three PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots); 3x 2GB Corsair TR3X6G1333C9 memory modules (operating in dual channel at DDR3 1,349.4MHz 9-9-9-24-1T); Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 250GB SATA hard drive; Enermax Galaxy DXX 1000W PSU; Windows Vista Home Premium x86-64 (with Service Pack 1); Intel inf 9.1.0.1007 WHQL.

Nvidia graphics cards

• BFG Tech GeForce GTX 285 H2O 1GB – operating at 666/1,512/2,484MHz using Forceware 181.20 WHQL
  
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 1GB – operating at 648/1,476/2,484MHz using Forceware 181.20 WHQL
  
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB – operating at 576/1,242/1,998MHz using Forceware 181.20 WHQL
  
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB – operating at 602/1,296/2,200MHz using Forceware 180.84 beta
  
• Dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB in SLI – operating at 602/1,296/2,200MHz using Forceware 180.84 beta
  
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB – operating at 576/1,242/1,998MHz using Forceware 180.84 beta
  
• Dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB in SLI – operating at 576/1,242/1,998MHz using Forceware 180.84 beta

ATI graphics cards

• AMD ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB – operating at 750/3,600MHz using Catalyst 8.12 WHQL
  
• Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB – operating at 625/1,986MHz using Catalyst 8.12 WHQL
  
• AMD ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB – operating at 750/3,600MHz using Catalyst 8.12 WHQL
  
• Dual AMD ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB in CrossFire – operating at 750/3,600MHz using Catalyst 8.12 WHQL
  
• AMD ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB – operating at 750/3,600MHz using Catalyst 8.12 WHQL

Games Tested

• Crysis, version 1.21 (64-bit) with DirectX 10 and DirectX 9.0
  
• Call of Duty: World at War, version 1.1 with DirectX 9.0
  
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, version 1.5.07 with DirectX 10/10.1
  
• Race Driver: GRID, version 1.2 with DirectX 9.0