Overclocking

While adequate cooling is merely a necessary requirement for a good overclock, and not a sufficient one (the IC itself must be able to clock at higher frequencies too), a graphics card with a good cooler will usually overclock more than a card with a rubbish one. So we immediately plugged in the overclocked frequencies of the BFG GTX 285 OCX to give ourselves a head start.

These involved increasing the GPU core frequency from 666MHz to 730MHz and pushing the stream processors running at 1,698MHz; settings the card and its cooler handled with ease. The BFG H2O was clearly still hungry for frequency. In the end, we managed to push the GPU core all the way to 783MHz and the stream processors to 1,844MHz. This is a huge overclock from the stock speeds of a 648MHz GPU core and 1,476MHz stream processors. We also managed to get a good bit of extra speed from the memory, which happily ran at 2,816MHz effective.

The overclocking increases amount to somewhere between 13 to 22 percent higher frequencies, which should give a bit of extra speed. However, we should point out that as ever, overclocking is hit and miss and we may have been lucky (or, even, unlucky) in getting a GPU that clocks to these frequencies.



The overclock translated well into extra performance in Crysis with between 5-8fps added. This was very welcome when using 4x AA at 1,680 x 1,050 with 16x AF as it turned as slightly suspect minimum of 24fps into a much more reassuring 33fps minimum.

Conclusions

Faced with a tricky product to position – the GeForce GTX 285 GPU – BFG has covered its bases with a standard card, the massively overclocked OCX and this ‘third alternative' water-cooled versions. BFG won’t compete with the likes of Palit for price and so adds premiums extras such as the 10-year warranty (or lifetime if you’re in North America), the 24/7 support line (which remains open on bank holidays) and the trade-up scheme in the States, to differentiate its products from the crowd.

The biggest and best extra you get with the H2O is of course the excellent Danger Den DD-GTX285 waterblock. This block cools all the major components of the card – from GPU and memory to VRMs and I/O chip – and also looks great. The block is easy to work with and cools very effectively.

However, the spectre of price has to raise its head somewhere, and the addition of the waterblock pushes the price up dramatically. When it comes to raw performance, the Radeon HD 4870 X2 outpaces the BFG in almost every game we’ve tested. As it costs over $100 less, you’d have to say that the BFG GTX 285 H2O isn’t the best value card on the market.

The HD 4870 X2 isn’t without its own foibles though. It’s loud for one and there’s always a question mark over the reliability and consistency of dual-GPU setups. To add more problems for the price-conscious buyer, a BFG GTX 280 OC2 can be had for £269.42 inc VAT and boasts essentially the same GPU design as the GTX 285 and only slightly slower clock speeds than the BFG GTX 285 H20.

However, the GTX 280 OC2 and the HD 4870 X2 are both air-cooled, and so not direct competitors. If you’ve got through to this part of the review, you clearly want a water-cooled card and are wondering whether you’d be better off buying a card and block separately.

Danger Den currently lists the DD-GTX285 at US$144.95 to which you’d have to add shipping and, if you're in the UK, import duty. The cheapest GTX 285 is the XFX on Newegg for $349.99 ex VAT. So, constructing the BFG GTX 285 H20 out of its two main parts yourself costs the same money. Add in the time (and potential for destruction) of removing the stock cooler and fitting the Danger Den block, and you might just want to go the easy route and get this pre-made card.

There’s also DX11 hardware to worry about, and the fact that the DD-GTX285 of this card probably won't fit whichever of the new DX11 cards turns out to be best. If you’re concerned about the wave of new hardware due at the end of summer, and if you’ve only got a 22in TFT, you’d be better off hedging your bets with a Radeon HD 4870 1GB. This has enough power for the foreseeable future and cards cost around $224.99 ex tax. It’s a smaller outlay, and therefore a smaller risk that in six months you’ll feel the need to upgrade again.

Final Thoughts…

Prices for GTX 285 cards are starting to slip, making basic cards more competitive with HD 4850 X2 cards and Nvidia’s GTX 280 and GTX 260 (216-core) cards.

BFG has taken another path with the H2O with the waterblock, and is pandering to a slightly different audience than people purely concerned with price vs performance. We’re unsure that the GTX 285 is the GPU to do this with however – BFG’s GeForce GTX 295 H2O looks a much better bet to get the water-coolers drooling over (we hope to have one in the labs soon).

There’s just something about the GTX 285 that underwhelms – yes, it’s the fastest single GPU going at the moment, but just like the GTX 280 before it, the situation really isn't that simple. When it launched, the GTX 280 just wasn’t fast enough given its specs, its transistor count and the size of its die, and it's a similar situation with the GTX 285. It doesn't help that Nvidia launched it at the same time as the GTX 295, which stole a bit of the GTX 285's thunder. While we'd be thoroughly happy if someone gave us a GTX 285 (and this BFG and its excellent waterblock in particular) we wouldn't spend our own money on it.

Ultimately, BFG has done everything it can to make the GeForce GTX 285 desirable, but the underlying GPU just isn't good enough; it needs to be faster, cheaper or both.

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