Inno3D GeForce GTX 275 OC Graphics Card

Inno3D has decided to spruce up the new and already quite popular GTX 275 with an overclocked verion. Let's see how it performs.

Published
Updated
Manufacturer: Inno3D
12 minutes & 24 seconds read time

Introduction


Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card



The funny thing about the GTX 275 is that it does kill a bit of the value for the GTX 285, which ultimately means that it's not the best model for NVIDIA. For the user, however, it's a different story. What you're able to get is performance similar to the GTX 285 without having to spend GTX 285 money.

Today we're going to be looking at a GTX 275 from Inno3D which has that lovely overclocked word printed on the front of the box. What we'll do before we have a closer look at the card and its performance is see what Inno3D have done with the package and bundle.

Let's not delay any longer and get straight into it and see if Inno3D are able to make a GTX 275 which stands out from the pack. Considering we've seen a few it's going to be a tough fight, but hopefully there's something that helps the card stand out.

The Package




Having a look at the front of the box we can see the Inno3D logo down the side of it and in the top right corner. Moving to the left we can see the word Overclock while most of the box is taken up with a picture of a female warrior.

Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


Moving down we have the NVIDIA and HDMI logo along with mention of some games. Below that we have GeForce GTX mentioned and across the bottom we have a bit of information on CUDA along with the model, being 275 and some of the main features like 896MB of GDDR3 and a 448-bit bus.

Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


Looking at the back of the box we have a typical run down of information ranging from features, a blurb along with what's needed to get SLI and Tri-SLI up and running. Nothing too out of the ordinary here, so let's get inside the box and see what Inno3D are doing.

Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


Inside we have a few discs, one is in a bit of a wallet which doubles as a quick setup guide and as for the others we have what was mentioned on the front of the box which includes a full version copy of Warmonger and Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts. It's nice to see that all companies haven't abandoned the package and some still choose to not only include one game, but two.

Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


Looking at the cables, we have a component out dongle, DVI to VGA connector, DVI to HDMI connector, S/PDIF loop back cable, duel molex to 6-pin PCI-E connector and a S-Video to RCA connector.

The Card




Having a look at the card we can see the Inno3D hasn't chosen to move away from the stock cooler. While not a bad thing, we have seen a few companies move away from it and it has bought some superior cooling numbers. This isn't the end of the world, though, as on a whole the stock cooler does a good job of keeping temperatures under control.

Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


As for making it unique Inno3D have of course stickered it up. We can see the model and another showing of what we saw on the front of the box. On the fan we have the brand and again Inno3D make mention that the card is an overclocked model here.

Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


Carrying the reference cooler and PCB design there isn't anything we haven't seen before when it comes to looking around the card. Towards the back of the card we have two 6-pin PCI-E connectors along with another connector for the S/PDIF loop back cable that is included in the bundle. Closer to the front of the card we have two SLI connectors giving us the ability to run up to three of these cards together.

Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


As far as the I/O department goes we've got two Dual-Link DVI connectors along with a single TV-Out port. Above these we have some vents that let the hot air escape out the back of the card.


Specifications

As we've mentioned a few times, this particular model from Inno3D comes overclocked out of the box. Inno3D have really ramped up the core clock from the stock 633MHz to a massive 700MHz.

Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


As you can see above, this has in turn increased the shader to 1474MHz from 1404MHz. As for the 896MB of GDDR3, that's gone from 2268MHz to 2380MHz DDR. This is a nice overclock and should yield some good performance gains in our tests.

Test System Setup and 3DMark Vantage


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: ForceWare 185.85, Catalyst 9.4


We'll today check out the nicely overclocked GTX 275 from Inno3D against the stock clocked model from Gainward along with seeing how it compares against the top single GPU card from ATI, the HD 4890.


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.


Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


Straight off the mark we see the overclock gives us a nice little boost in performance.

Benchmarks - PT Boats: Knights of the Sea


PT Boats: Knights of the Sea

Version and / or Patch Used: Benchmark Demo
Developer Homepage: http://en.akella.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.pt-boats.net/





PT Boats: Knights of the Sea is a naval action simulator that places gamers in charge of a mosquito fleet of the Allied Forces, Russia or Germany during the height of World War II.

Using the latest Direct X 10 technology PT Boards - Knights of the Sea manages to apply a lot of stress to the components of today which in turn gives us quite an intensive benchmark.


Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


Moving into PT Boats we see the performance increase over the stock model, again thanks to the overclock on offer from Inno3D.

Benchmarks - CINEBENCH R10


CINEBENCH R10

Version and / or Patch Used: Release 10
Developer Homepage: http://www.maxon.net/
Product Homepage: http://www.maxon.net




CINEBENCH is a real-world test suite that assesses your computer's performace capabilities. MAXON CINEBENCH is based on MAXON's award-winning animation software, CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Spider-Man, Star Wars, The Chronicles of Narnia and many more.

MAXON CINEBENCH runs several tests on your computer to measure the performance of the main processor and the graphics card under real world circumstances. The benchmark application makes use of up to 16 CPUs or CPU cores and is available for Windows (32-bit and 64-Bit) and Macintosh (PPC and Intel-based).


Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


Under CINEBENCH we see that all three cards sit quite close together.

Benchmarks - World in Conflict


World in Conflict

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.0.0.5
Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Test
Developer Homepage: http://www.massive.se
Product Homepage: http://www.worldinconflict.com





World in Conflict is a real-time strategy video game by Massive Entertainment and to be published by Sierra Entertainment for Windows (DX9 and DX10) and the Xbox 360.

The game is set in 1989 where economic troubles cripple the Soviet Union and threaten to dissolve it. However, the title pursues a "what if" scenario where, in this case, the Soviet Union does not collapse and instead pursues a course of war to remain in power. It is an intensive new game is sure to put plenty of stress on even the latest graphics cards and we use the built-in benchmarking for our testing.


Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


Across the board we see the performance increase again for the Inno3D card with it breaking that 30 FPS minimum at 2560 x 1600.

Benchmarks - Crysis Warhead


Crysis Warhead

Version and / or Patch Used: unpatched
Timedemo or Level Used: Airfield
Developer Homepage: http://www.crytek.com
Product Homepage: http://crysiswarhead.ea.com/
Buy It Here




Crysis Warhead updates and refines the gameplay of the original game through a sidestory plot involving Psycho, one of previous protagonist Nomad's allies. The game is a parallel story that follows Sergeant Michael "Psycho" Sykes, a character from the original Crysis, as he faces his own trials and challenges on the other side of the island during the time period of the first game.

It also showcases a new, enhanced and optimized version of CryEngine 2 using full DX10 extensions and is the first game developed by Crytek's Budapest studio.

Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


We again see the Inno3D card come out ahead, though performance like most other cards under Warhead isn't great due to poor coding on the developers side.

Benchmarks - Far Cry 2


Far Cry 2

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.01
Timedemo or Level Used: Ranch Long
Developer Homepage: http://www.ubi.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.farcry2.com/
Buy It Here




The Dunia Engine was built specifically for Far Cry 2 by the award-winning Ubisoft Montreal development team. It delivers the most realistic destructible environments, amazing special effects such as dynamic fire propagation and storm effects, real-time night-and-day cycle, dynamic music system, non-scripted enemy A.I. and so much more.


Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


At all resolutions we see a bump in performance and again this is due to the nice little overclock Inno3D have put on the card.

Benchmarks - S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Clear Sky


S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Clear Sky

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.5.07
Timedemo or Level Used: Custom Timedemo
Developer Homepage: http://www.gsc-game.com/
Product Homepage: http://cs.stalker-game.com/en/
Buy It Here




S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, is the stand-alone prequel for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, a first-person shooter computer game by Ukrainian developer GSC Game World.[3] The game consists of a roughly 50/50 mix of new areas and old, remodeled areas from the previous game. The X-ray graphics engine has been updated to version 1.5 and includes DirectX 10 support (later patch 1.5.06 included DirectX 10.1). Additionally, the AI received an overhaul to accommodate the new faction wars feature.

Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


Under Clear Sky we see performance here is in favor of the ATI offering. We do see the Inno3D offering come out ahead again compared to the stock clocked offering from Gainward.

Benchmarks - Left 4 Dead


Left 4 Dead

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update
Timedemo or Level Used: Custom Timedemo
Developer Homepage: http://www.valvesoftware.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.l4d.com/
Buy It Here




Left 4 Dead uses the latest version of Valve's Source engine, with improvements such as multi-core processor support and physics-based animation to more realistically portray hair and clothing, and to improve physics interaction with enemies when shot or shoved in different body parts. Animation was also improved to allow characters to lean realistically when moving in curved paths.

Rendering and artificial intelligence were scaled up to allow for greater number of enemies who can navigate the world in better ways, such as climbing, jumping or breaking obstacles. Lighting has been enhanced with new self-shadowing normal mapping and advanced shadow rendering that is important to convey information about the environment and player actions.

Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


Left 4 Dead continues to show the GTX 275 from Inno3D perform well with a nice increase when compared to the stock model. We also see it continue to outperform the HD 4890 for the most part.

Benchmarks - High Quality AA and AF


High Quality AA and AF

Our high quality tests let us separate the men from the boys and the ladies from the girls. If the cards weren't struggling before they will start to now.


Far Cry 2

Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


We see the GTX 275 shines here and the light on the Inno3D version is just a bit brighter.


World In Conflict

Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


WIC sees a little bump and it's enough to break that 30 FPS minimum we want and need.


Left 4 Dead

Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


L4D puts all the cards quite close together with the Inno3D getting a slight bump in performance compared to the stock model.

Benchmarks - World in Conflict - XP


World in Conflict

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.0.0.5
Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Test
Developer Homepage: http://www.massive.se
Product Homepage: http://www.worldinconflict.com




World in Conflict is a real-time strategy video game by Massive Entertainment and to be published by Sierra Entertainment for Windows (DX9 and DX10) and the Xbox 360.

The game is set in 1989 where economic troubles cripple the Soviet Union and threaten to dissolve it. However, the title pursues a "what if" scenario where, in this case, the Soviet Union does not collapse and instead pursues a course of war to remain in power. It is an intensive new game is sure to put plenty of stress on even the latest graphics cards and we use the built-in benchmarking for our testing.

Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


Moving to XP we continue to see the Inno3D get that nice little bump in performance at all resolutions.

Benchmarks - Far Cry 2 - XP


Far Cry 2

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.01
Timedemo or Level Used: Ranch Long
Developer Homepage: http://www.ubi.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.farcry2.com/
Buy It Here




The Dunia Engine was built specifically for Far Cry 2 by the award-winning Ubisoft Montreal development team. It delivers the most realistic destructible environments, amazing special effects such as dynamic fire propagation and storm effects, real-time night-and-day cycle, dynamic music system, non-scripted enemy A.I. and so much more.


Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


Like we've seen all along the Inno3D get's that nice increase in performance when compared to the stock model from Gainward.

Benchmarks - S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Clear Sky - XP


S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Clear Sky

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.5.07
Timedemo or Level Used: Custom Timedemo
Developer Homepage: http://www.gsc-game.com/
Product Homepage: http://cs.stalker-game.com/en/
Buy It Here




S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, is the stand-alone prequel for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, a first-person shooter computer game by Ukrainian developer GSC Game World.[3] The game consists of a roughly 50/50 mix of new areas and old, remodeled areas from the previous game. The X-ray graphics engine has been updated to version 1.5 and includes DirectX 10 support (later patch 1.5.06 included DirectX 10.1). Additionally, the AI received an overhaul to accommodate the new faction wars feature.

Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


Clear Sky again favors the ATI offering, though we do see the Inno3D card get a boost in performance when compared to the reference clocked model.

Temperature and Sound Tests


Temperature Tests



With the TES 1326 Infrared Thermometer literally in hand we found ourselves getting real-world temperatures from the products we test at load (3D clock speeds).

There are two places we pull temperature from - the back of the card directly behind the core and if the card is dual slot and has an exhaust point we also pull a temperate from there, as seen in the picture.


Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


Heat between the two GTX 275s is similar which is no surprise; we do see them being a fair bit lower than the HD 4890, though.


Sound Tests



Pulling out the TES 1350A Sound Level Meter we find ourselves quickly yelling into the top of it to see how loud we can be.

After five minutes of that we get a bit more serious and place the device two CM away from the fan on the card to find the maximum noise level of the card when idle (2D mode) and in load (3D mode).


Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


Sound levels between all three cards are quite similar.

Power Consumption Tests






Using our new PROVA Power Analyzer WM-01 or "Power Thingy" as it has become quickly known as to our readers, we are now able to find out what kind of power is being used by our test system and the associated graphics cards installed. Keep in mind; it tests the complete system (minus LCD monitor, which is plugged directly into AC wall socket).

There are a few important notes to remember though; while our maximum power is taken in 3DMark06 at the same exact point, we have seen in particular tests the power being drawn as much as 10% more. We test at the exact same stage every time; therefore tests should be very consistent and accurate.

The other thing to remember is that our test system is bare minimum - only a 7,200RPM SATA-II single hard drive is used without CD ROM or many cooling fans.

So while the system might draw 400 watts in our test system, placing it into your own PC with a number of other items, the draw is going to be higher.


Inno3D GTX 275 OC Graphics Card


At load we see all three cards are pretty similar while the GTX 275s idle about 15% lower than the HD 4890.

Final Thoughts




The GTX 275 continues to be an excellent performing card and the Inno3D version helps give us even more performance. While the company hasn't chosen to change the cooler of the card, there's really nothing wrong with the reference one and while it's a little louder than some of the aftermarket ones, it's more than reasonable for most users.

If the performance the card offers wasn't enough, though, Inno3D have done a great job with the package by including not only one full version game, but two. This combined with the overclock means we've really got a great purchase here for people who want more than just your standard clocked card which doesn't come with much of a bundle.

Inno3D have put a really good card together and the decision to go with the reference cooler keeps price down which is always nice for people who want the performance but don't want to pay the extra money of an aftermarket cooler.

If you want a GTX 275 that comes with a nice bundle while offering some good performance and don't mind the extra DBs that come out of the stock cooler, the Inno3D version of the card we have here is extremely impressive.

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Shawn takes care of all of our video card reviews. From 2009, Shawn is also taking care of our memory reviews, and from May 2011, Shawn also takes care of our CPU, chipset and motherboard reviews. As of December 2011, Shawn is based out of Taipei, Taiwan.

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