gt285 or gt295?

[QuantumPion]

I'm upgrading soon from my old rig which is a 680i/E6600/8800GTX setup. Right now I'm planning on going with an i7 setup, but I can't decide whether to get a gt285 or 295.

The 295 seems to be only ~$100 more then the 285, but a big concern of mine is fan noise. Reviews on newegg say that the 295 is "very loud" but I don't really know loud it is relatively. I think my 8800GTX is about as loud of a card as I would tolerate. The fan on it is tolerable at 50%, and luckily it never revs up to 100% except when booting up. Does anyone know how this compares to an 8800GTX?

FYI the game I am upgrading my rig for is E:TW (and also to go back and play other FPS's that I missed out on recently like fallout 3).

 

[alcoholbob]

The eVGA 285 SSC (with the newest nvidia forceware drivers, no evga drivers ever installed) the fan will ramp up all the way during heavy gaming). The card runs a lot hotter than the 8800GTX, but it makes sense because its a monolithic card with more transistors.

Even if the GTX295 was twice as loud the aggregate noise level would only be an increase of 3db in SPL. I don't have the 295 myself and I'm not sure but I think there's only one fan for both cards?

I came from an 8800GT single slot cooler and I thought *that* was noisy but the 285 is a whole new level.

The raw SPL is pretty high on the 285 but the sound is more of a "whoosh" than a "whirl" since its a fairly large fan. Still even if you used the stock i7 cooler which typically will contribute to 70% of your system noise, the 285 will definitely drown the hell out of the stock cooler. My system noise goes up probably in the 20+ db range (if not more) when the 285s start spinning up.

I had a G80 for a while (a 320MB 8800GTS) and that card was nigh in audible during gaming. The 285 is definitely a complete 180 degree turn in that regard.

 

[QuantumPion]

I kind of doubt that a 55 nm gt285 would run hotter then my 8800gtx, which reaches 100 C while heavy gaming (and the fan runs around 70% at this point).

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: QuantumPion
I kind of doubt that a 55 nm gt285 would run hotter then my 8800gtx, which reaches 100 C while heavy gaming (and the fan runs around 70% at this point).

I've gotten the GTX 285 to around 105ºC using Furmark.

 

[QuantumPion]

Originally posted by: Zap

Originally posted by: QuantumPion
I kind of doubt that a 55 nm gt285 would run hotter then my 8800gtx, which reaches 100 C while heavy gaming (and the fan runs around 70% at this point).

I've gotten the GTX 285 to around 105ºC using Furmark.

with stock clocks and fan speeds?

 

[alcoholbob]

I would imagine under load a stock 285 would run pretty hot since its clocked higher than a stock 280.

 

[cmdrdredd]

You can always use rivatuner to tweak fan profiles and ramp it up when you want, how you want.

 

[Hauk]

do let us know what you decide..

 

[alkalinetaupehat]

I noticed the GTX285 was quieter than the GTX260, which itself wasn't too loud really. This card does heat up more than the 260, probably a combination of a 666Mhz core clock speed and a cheaper cooler.
With the fan at 40% (not particularly noticeable over Scythe S-Flex 1200rpm fans) idle was 51c and load in L4D was 82c. The single fan on the 295 is cooling two GPU cores, so presumably noise was sacrificed somewhat to keep cooling performance acceptable. Aftermarket coolers are out there for the GTX260 - GTX285, with a nice one from Arctic Cooling due out in spring. I don't think there'll be an aftermarket cooler available until late summer for the 295, unless you do watercooling.

Edit: IIRC the cooler on the 8800GTS 640 was the same as the 8800GTX...if so the 285 will be MUCH quieter than the 8800GTX, night and day kind of difference. The 295, I think, will be closer to your 8800's sound levels.