GeForce GTX 285 from Gigabyte Appears in Hong Kong

[alexp999]

Though no official information from NVIDIA has been released on the GeForce GTX 285, through leaks over the past month we know that this is a 55nm version of the GTX280. Although the 55nm GTX 260 has kept its name, it seems that the same cannot be said of the GTX 280. This Gigabyte card is said to use the same reference clock speeds as seen in the review from Computerbase.de which we covered just a few days ago. With a product code of GV-N285-1GH-B, it has 1GB of GDDR3 at 2484 MHz, 240SP's at 1476 MHz and a core at 648 MHz. According to TechConnect the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 285 has been found with prices as low as $412.8 (€296.3).



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[ShadowFold]

Only 400$? Nice!

 

[lemonadesoda]

Launch price EUR 300, means EUR 250 once stocks in stores aplenty. That's great news.

I do agree with the comment about SKU numbering. How inconsistent and what a mess.

 

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

400 bucks.. wait till you see an Inno or palit's.. must be on a 380 bucks.

 

[qubit]

Nice

Wow fantastic, I can't wait to replace my GTX 280 with this!!!

 

[kid41212003]

Bad bad prices, this should be ~$350 when it launched, the GTX295 gonna beat the shit out of this at $499 if this card gonna stay at that price.

 

[ShadowFold]

Bad bad prices, this should be ~$350 when it launched, the GTX295 gonna beat the shit out of this at $499 if this card gonna stay at that price.

Why not milk it at 400$ till then? People are gonna buy it obviously. Why not make it as high as you can? I would much rather get a HD 4850X2 for a lot less tho. I don't know how these cards survive!

 

[btarunr]

I can see two six pin power inputs instead of 8+6 pin.

 

[alexp999]

I can see two six pin power inputs instead of 8+6 pin.

GTX280 uses 8+6 then? I didnt think it used that much more power than a GTX260.

 

[btarunr]

GTX280 uses 8+6 then? I didnt think it used that much more power than a GTX260.

Indeed

 

[alexp999]

Indeed

You wouldnt think that would be necessary. If the GTX260 can cope with 2x6pin, surely the GTX280 can?

Is the 216SP GTX260 still 2x6pin?

 

[3870x2]

is the 285 an overclocked 280? if so, there wouldnt be much reason for us at TPU to get it. If not, could someone enlighten me on the differences?

 

[alexp999]

is the 285 an overclocked 280? if so, there wouldnt be much reason for us at TPU to get it. If not, could someone enlighten me on the differences?

Its an overclocked version of the GTX280, but with a new fab process of 55nm. Its much like the 9800GTX vs 9800GTX+
Basically vs the GTX 280, the GTX285 will be cooler, quieter (in theory), more energy effecient and be able to clock higher.

 

[3870x2]

soic, probably better overclocking potential then...

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Why did'nt they call it a gtx280+? its all getting very confusing for nvidia buyers.

 

[btarunr]

You wouldnt think that would be necessary. If the GTX260 can cope with 2x6pin, surely the GTX280 can?

Is the 216SP GTX260 still 2x6pin?

GTX 280 PCB:

GTX 260-216 PCB:

Spot the differences. Two additional memory chips on the 280, two additional vGPU phases on the 280. Higher clock speeds and the GPU using all its available ALU clusters, ROPs and TMUs. The 2x 6-pin just narrowly missed the power requirements of the GTX 280. In other words, the GTX 280 could have made do with 2x 6pin, if it wasn't for its peak and average power consumptions being just 36W more (peak) and a whole 70W more (average) than GTX 260 (216 SP). 293W is a lot of power to ask from two 6-pin connectors + 75W (max) from the slot, not to mention, at stock speeds. Charts provided here.

 

[ShadowFold]

Why did'nt they call it a gtx280+? its all getting very confusing for nvidia buyers.

I don't think they care anymore

 

[BrooksyX]

Meh, i think ill stick to my 4870. It is treating me just fine right now.

I sure would be mad if I bought a gtx280 recently.

 

[alexp999]

Why did'nt they call it a gtx280+? its all getting very confusing for nvidia buyers.

Know what you mean, lol.
There was the 8800 series that went to 9800
You have the 9800GTX going to a 9800GTX+ after die shrink
Then GTX 260 going to a GTX 260 55nm after die shrink
Then the GTX 280 going to GTX 285
NVIDIA really should be more consistent, lol.

 

[Valdez]

Know what you mean, lol.
There was the 8800 series that went to 9800
You have the 9800GTX going to a 9800GTX+ after die shrink
Then GTX 260 going to a GTX 260 55nm after die shrink
Then the GTX 280 going to GTX 285
NVIDIA really should be more consistent, lol.

gtx260 (192) became gtx260 (216) then became gtx260 (55nm)

 

[lemonadesoda]

GTX 280 PCB:

GTX 260-216 PCB:

Thanks for the snaps!

Look! Same resistor layout in the PSU area. There are redundant resistors to the missing MosFETS/voltage regulators. I wonder if we could just solder a couple in for extra power stability/OC. Certainly with an identical layout, and what we hear about the worse cooling performance of the GTX260, then a "dead" GTX280 might be worth buying off ebay just to swap over the cooler.


Q. On the 6pin power connector, which 2 pins are missing? Is that a 0v (GND) and 5v? or some other combination?

 

[btarunr]

There's no 5V connection in a PCI-E aux power input. You only have ground and 12V. The extra 2 pins have to be...an extra 12V and ground connection.

 

[lemonadesoda]

Indeed! http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connectors.html#pciexpress8

Hmm, what a design fail on behalf of PCI-E aux power spec. It would be much better if it was on a high current 5v rail. That way the power/voltage regulators wouldnt be having such a hard time getting everything down to sub 2v for the GPU and RAM. I guess this is all a legacy of the 12v PSU design and the general division of power across 3.3v, 5v and 12v rails. Since every other device (CPU, HDD) is using 3.3 and 5v there's only the 12v rail left that can deliver sufficient current to keep the GPU happy.

Oh well. Gotta work with what you've got!

 

[newtekie1]

GTX 280 PCB:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zotac/GeForce_GTX_280_Amp_Edition/images/front.jpg

GTX 260-216 PCB:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Leadtek/GeForce_GTX_260_Extreme_Plus/images/front.jpg

Spot the differences. Two additional memory chips on the 280, two additional vGPU phases on the 280. Higher clock speeds and the GPU using all its available ALU clusters, ROPs and TMUs. The 2x 6-pin just narrowly missed the power requirements of the GTX 280. In other words, the GTX 280 could have made do with 2x 6pin, if it wasn't for its peak and average power consumptions being just 36W more (peak) and a whole 70W more (average) than GTX 260 (216 SP). 293W is a lot of power to ask from two 6-pin connectors + 75W (max) from the slot, not to mention, at stock speeds. Charts provided here.

Those power numbers are for the whole system, not just the graphics card. The GTX280 doesn't need an 8-pin plug, it is only there for looks, and I've seen GTX260's with the 8-pin plug also.

The 6-pin can provide 75w each officially. That means that with 2 6-pins and the PCI-E slot, the card has 225w max to use. With the whole system peaking at 293w, I don't think the GTX280 is actually even coming close to 225w.

There's no 5V connection in a PCI-E aux power input. You only have ground and 12V. The extra 2 pins have to be...an extra 12V and ground connection.

http://www.spodesabode.com/articles/pciepower/7.jpg

The 8-pin only adds 2 ground wires, I don't think adding 2 ground wires really ups the amount of power it can provide that much, but officially they support double the 6-pin, giving 150w.

I'm sure the 6-pin can actually provide at least 100w.

 

[Hayder_Master]

nice shown details btarunr