Test System Setup

Processor(s): Intel i7 920 @ 3.8GHz (190MHz x 20)

Cooling: Noctua NH-U12P (Supplied by Noctua)

Motherboard(s): GIGABYTE EX58-UD5 (Supplied by GIGABYTE)

Memory: 3 X 2GB OCZ Technology PC-12800 DDR-3 8-8-8-24 (OCZ3G1600LV6GK)

Hard Disk(s): Western Digital 300GB Velicorapter (Supplied by Western Digital)

Operating System: Windows XP Professional SP2, Windows Vista SP1 64-Bit

Drivers: Catalyst 8.12, Forceware 180.47 (GTX 280), Forceware 180.87 and 181.20 (GTX 285)

Just as we did with the GTX 295 last week, we tested the card initially with what came on the CD. Once we got some updated drivers we then saw what kind of performance increase they offered. We'll today be comparing the new GTX 285 against the GTX 280 along with ATIs top cards, the HD 4870 and HD 4870 X2.

3DMark Vantage

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.0.1

Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com

Product Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmarkvantage/

Buy It Here

3DMark Vantage is the new industry standard PC gaming performance benchmark from Futuremark, newly designed for Windows Vista and DirectX10. It includes two new graphics tests, two new CPU tests, several new feature tests, and support for the latest hardware.

3DMark Vantage is based on a completely new rendering engine, developed specifically to take full advantage of DirectX10, the new graphics API from Microsoft.

Straight away, in our first test we see a nice bump in performance when compared to the GTX 280. The new GTX 285 manages to have no problems against the HD 4870, while it does lag slightly behind the dual GPU behemoth from ATI.