GeForce GTX 285 Graphics Card Round-up

The ASUS ENGTX285 TOP, BFG GTX 285 OCX and Zotac GTX 285 AMP! look very similar to NVIDIA's reference GTX 285 card. The only physical difference is the sticker each company chose to apply to the cooler, and the only technical difference (clock speeds) are as we've noted on the previous page. All three cards, of course, feature 1GB of GDDR3 memory, two dual-link DVI connectors, and an HDTV-out connector. Additionally, they all require two 6-pin PCI Express power connections from your system's power supply.

ASUS ENGTX285 TOP

ASUS packs the ENGTX285 TOP in a black and green box. The box and the card are adorned with a horse-riding warrior. Like NVIDIA's reference design, the PCB and the fan shroud are black. Of the three GTX 285 cards, the ENGTX285 TOP has the slowest GPU clock speed at 670 MHz, but it has the second fastest memory and shader clocks at 1,300 MHz and 1,550, respectively.

In addition to the ENGTX285 TOP, ASUS fills the box with various CDs and accessories, including a SpeedSetup installation guide, a SPDIF cable connection guide, a driver CD, a multi-language manual CD, a CD case, a DVI-to-VGA adapter, a SPDIF audio cable, a dual Molex to single 6-pin PCI Express power adapter, and a dual 6-pin PCI Express connector to a single 8-pin PCI Express power adapter. We aren't sure why ASUS includes that second power adapter since the GTX 285 doesn't even have an 8-pin power connector.

BFG GTX 285 OCX

The BFG GTX 285 OCX box touts BFG's free 24/7 tech support and its lifetime warranty. Like the ASUS card, the imagery on the card and the box match. In this case, that imagery is a tattooed, energy-ball wielding fighter. It's a good-looking card with great specs and its clock speeds are the highest of the three cards in this round-up. The GPU clock is 702 MHz, the memory clock is 1,332 MHz, and the shader clock is 1,584 MHz.

The BFG GTX 285 OCX is accompanied by a handful of accessories: a card installation guide, a SPDIF cable installation guide, a driver CD, two BFG case badges, a SPDIF audio cable, a DVI-to-VGA adapter, a DVI-to-HDMI adapter, an HDTV/component cable, and a dual Molex to single 6-pin PCI Express power adapter.

Zotac GTX 285 AMP!

Zotac bucks the warrior trend and rocks a dragon on its box and card. The GTX 285 AMP! Edition card has the most interesting set of clocks of the three cards. Although it ties with the BFG GTX 285 OCX for fastest GPU clock at 702 MHz, it falls behind with the slowest memory and shader clocks at 1,296 MHz and 1,512 MHz, respectively. We appreciate that Zotac pushed the GPU so far but wonder why it couldn't have bumped up the other clocks as well to complement that high GPU clock better.

We were beginning to wonder where the games were in these bundles, but then we opened up the Zotac package and were greeted by a full-version of GRID. Zotac also throws in a copy of 3DMark Vantage. In addition to the software, the bundle includes a quick installation guide, a user's manual, a driver CD, a Zotac case badge, a DVI-to-VGA adapter, a DVI-to-HDMI adapter (not pictured), a SPDIF audio cable, and two power cables.