ASUS GeForce ENGTX295 Graphics Card (Page 18)

Final Thoughts

The GTX 295 continues to be a dominant card. The main thing to remember, though, is unless you've got the right equipment, this is one card that you're really not going to be able to make use of.

There are two key pieces of equipment that are needed to really make this card shine. First of all, you want a monitor that does at least 1920 x 1200, but preferably a 30" monitor that can output 2560 x 1600.

The other item you want is a CPU that has some serious MHz on offer. The good news is that you can achieve this by overclocking a i7 920; there really is no need to go out and buy an i7 965 at over three times the price. Even at 3.2GHz you're going to see a CPU limitation.

As far as the ASUS version of the GTX 295 goes, there aren't any real surprises here. The added bonuses as far as extra software and the CD wallet go are nice, though not necessary for a lot of people. At around $500 the card isn't cheap and is even more expensive than some of the other GTX 295s on offer. If you can justify the increase in price, though, with the bundle and after sale support ASUS offers it shouldn't be too hard to decide.

The GTX 295 continues to be a very fast card and if you find yourself with deep pockets you're not going to be disappointed with the card. If you have the necessary equipment to let the card really shine, your games are going to be better than ever before. If you don't, however, a GTX 285 could well be a better option.