Leadtek GeForce GTX 285 1024 MB Review

Name: Leadtek GeForce GTX 285 1024 MB
Brand: Leadtek

W1zzard

on Jan 19th, 2009,

in Graphics Cards.

Manufacturer: Leadtek

(37 Comments) »

Introduction

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 260 and 280 are based on the GT200 GPU which is made in a 65nm process. Now NVIDIA has performed a die shrink on this design, to 55 nanometers. This results in a lower power consumption allowing new models to be built. The first two cards based on the 55 nm GT200b are the GTX 295 and the GTX 285. While the GTX 295 is a dual GPU design, the GTX 285 follows the traditional single GPU approach. With a marketing name improvement of only 5, the question has to be answered if this card is a worthy upgrade or if you are better off trying to find a great deal on a GTX 280 or GTX 260.
In essence the GeForce GTX 285 is a GTX 280 with about 10% higher clocks and slightly changed PCB and cooler. The cornerstone specs like number of shaders, ROPs, bus width and memory size have remained the same.

The Leadtek GeForce GTX 285 that we have on the testbench today follows the NVIDIA reference design specifications to the letter. I'm certain Leadtek is already working on an overclocked version of the GTX 285.

	GeForce 9800 GT	Radeon HD 4850	GeForce 9800 GTX	GeForce 8800 GTX	GeForce GTX 260	Radeon HD 4870	GeForce GTX 280	Radeon HD 4870 X2	GeForce GTX 285	GeForce GTX 295
Shader units	112	800	128	128	192	800	240	2x 800	240	2x 240
ROPs	16	16	16	24	28	16	32	2x 16	32	2x 28
GPU	G92	RV770	G92	G80	GT200	RV770	GT200	2x RV770	GT200b	2x GT200b
Transistors	754M	956M	754M	681M	1400M	956M	1400M	2x 956M	1400M	2x 1400M
Memory Size	512 MB	512 MB	512 MB	768 MB	896 MB	512 MB	1024 MB	2x 1024 MB	1024 MB	2x 896 MB
Memory Bus Width	256 bit	256 bit	256 bit	384 bit	448 bit	256 bit	512 bit	2x 256 bit	512 bit	2x 448 bit
Core Clock	600 MHz	625 MHz	675 MHz	575 MHz	576 MHz	750 MHz	602 MHz	750 MHz	648 MHz	576 MHz
Memory Clock	900 MHz	993 MHz	1100 MHz	900 MHz	999 MHz	900 MHz	1107 MHz	900 MHz	1242 MHz	999 MHz
Price	$120	$140	$160	$220	$240	$200	$330	$430	$400	$500

Packaging & Contents

Leadtek has put a fast race car on the front of the package which certainly does this card justice. On the back you find the usual product specs and features highlighted.

You will receive:

Graphics card
Documentation + Driver CD + Neverwinter Nights full game
HDMI to DVI adapter + DVI adapter
2x PCI-E power cables (1 missing in the picture, but it's in the box)
SPDIF audio cable
TV out cable

The Card

The GTX 285 card can be described as normal sized by today's standards. Its total length is 10.5" (26.7 cm). Like all other high end cards it uses a dual slot cooling solution.

The card has two DVI ports which the standard output configuration nowadays. In case you need an analog VGA output, you can use a DVI adapter (included). To connect big digital TV screens you can use an HDMI adapter (also included). The HDCP output then features the usual HDCP+Audio, which allows easy setup of a media PC. For HDMI Audio, NVIDIA requires you to feed an external audio source, for example from your motherboard's on-board audio, to the card via SPDIF cable. AMD on the other hand has integrated a sound device inside their GPUs which is the easier solution for most users.

Here are the front and the back of the card, high-res versions are also available (front, back). If you choose to use these images for voltmods etc, please include a link back to this site or let us post your article.