NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 Unveiled

by Marco Chiappetta — Thursday, January 15, 2009, 09:06 AM EDT

One short week ago, NVIDIA unveiled the GeForce GTX 295, and with it reclaimed the overall 3D performance crown from a resurgent AMD. As you may know by now, the dual-GPU powered GeForce GTX 295 features a pair of re-worked GT200 GPUs, manufactured using a more advanced 55nm fabrication process than its 65nm predecessor. Looking at the specifications for the individual GPUs used on the GeForce GTX 295, however, revealed something interesting. You see, the GPUs on the GeForce GTX 295 featured a full complement of 240 shader cores, like the former flagship GTX 280, but they had "only" a 448-bit memory interface. The GeForce GTX 280 had a 512-bit interface.

NVIDIA didn't simply lop off a memory partition to create the GPUs for the GTX 295 though. The 55nm GT200B GPUs are fully capable of utilizing a 512-bit interface. NVIDIA chose to implement a 448-bit memory interface per GPU on the GTX 295 to decrease board complexity, and quite frankly because they didn't need to go any wider to have the fastest graphics card on the market. But that meant the GT200B GPU, as it's implemented on the GTX 295, wasn't being used to its fullest potential. This changes today.

Although the GeForce GTX 285 we'll be showing you here hasn't exactly been a well kept secret, its final specifications and performance have been. As its name implies, the GeForce GTX 285 is a step up from the GTX 280. Just how large of a step up remains to be seen, however. Hopefully, we'll be able to find out in the pages ahead as we take the GeForce GTX 285 for a spin through a complete battery of benchmarks...

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 Unveiled

Tags: Nvidia, GeForce, graphics, GTX, video cards

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com