Zotac GeForce GTX 285 Infinity Edition
Our Summary and Conclusion
Performance Summary: Zotac's Infinity Edition GTX 285 arrived in the lab touting the fastest clocks we've seen from this class of NVIDIA-based videocard. Our benchmarks showed how it narrowed the performance gap between the stock GTX 285 and the dual-GPU Radeon HD 4870 X2. Although the GTX 285 was unable to match the graphics processing power of the dual-GPU based cards we used for comparison, it only trailed them by a few frames per second in every benchmark. Furthermore, the Infinity Edition GTX 285 consistently performed 11% faster than the reference clocked GTX 285 and it ran cooler and quieter too.
The advantage of buying a videocard with a pre-installed GPU water block is that you'll usually pay less for the total package than you would when purchasing the card and water block separately. While we don't have actual street prices available for Zotac's Infinity Edition GTX 285 because the card hasn't shipped just yet, we're told the price will be roughly $100 more than reference models. That's not bad considering high-end, copper GPU water-blocks for the GTX 285 typically sell for about $100 to $130 on their own. Strictly looking from the performance angle, however, it would make sense to put that extra money towards a higher performing card, like the GTX 295 for example, and call it a day. But it would be wrong to assume the target market for this videocard would follow that line of thinking. This product was made for watercooling enthusiasts who want the best performing single-GPU coupled with a preinstalled waterblock. With that in mind, there are only two other options we could find. And out of all three cards, Zotac's Infinity Edition has the highest core clock.
To close things out, we think it's fair to say that this card is not for everyone--obviously. Remember the niche market we mentioned at the beginning of this article? Well, within that specific group of consumers looking at high end GPUs, there is an even smaller subset of people looking for a videocard with these specific features. But for those looking for a water-cooled GTX 285, we feel the Zotac Infinity Edition GTX 285 will fit the bill quite well. Maximum clocks and extraordinary cooling are the prominent characteristics of this card. Therefore, we have no problem recommending the Zotac GTX 285 Infinity Edition to anyone looking for the fastest single-GPU based videocard almost on the market. Expect availability in the next few weeks, in the later part of May.
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