So now we come down to it, time to figure out what all that gameplay testing means and sum it all up. The question ringing in your minds right now is, “Which video card is the best performer?” That question can be answered in two parts. First, if you are solely looking at the performance based on apples-to-apples testing and good old fashioned framerates, the answer isn’t as easy as it seems.

In FarCry 2 it did pull in the fastest framerates in both highest-playable gameplay and apples-to-apples testing. In FallOut 3 though the Radeon HD 4870 X2 was faster in apples-to-apples testing, but the GTX 295 pulled ahead in the highest-playable gameplay. In Call of Duty: World at War the GTX 295 had higher framerates, also in Left 4 Dead. But in Crysis: Warhead the 4870 X2 was edging up the lead, and it was clearly leading in Stalker: Clear Sky. Looking back it seems some games the 4870 X2 is faster in framerates, and in others the GTX 295 is faster.

One thing is clear though, the GTX 295 was pulling in faster framerates than GeForce GTX 260 (216 Core) SLI consistently.

The next part of the question beyond framerates is, “What are the real-world gameplay advantages?” This answer is a bit easier to answer because for the most part it is a wash between the GTX 295 and 4870 X2. The table below simply shows “Wash” when the video cards were at the SAME playable settings or it shows the video card with the highest playable setting.

As you can see, most games are a wash with the same playable in-game settings. Overall, the gameplay experience is the same between the BFGTech GeForce GTX 295 and AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2. You would be hard pressed to find any big gaming advantages from card to card.

Prices are continually falling on video cards, even now that we are past the holiday season. AMD came to us, just a day ago in fact to inform us that they are dropping the price officially on the Radeon HD 4870 X2. It is now $449 and some add-in-board manufacturers will be offering a $50 mail-in-rebate off of that! Indeed, searching Newegg we see a Radeon HD 4870 X2 available for $399!

With the BFGTech GeForce GTX 295 being $499 that means there is now a $100 difference between the 4870 X2 and the GTX 295. That is fierce competition folks, and we love it.

Prices have also fallen quite a lot on GeForce GTX 260 (216 Core) video cards as well. They are down to $229.99 now with rebates. So two of them to enable SLI means it will cost you $40 less than a GeForce GTX 295. This is why we included that configuration in this evaluation. We found that GeForce GTX 260 (216 Core) SLI has the same gameplay experience as the GeForce GTX 295.

The Bottom Line

NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 295 simply costs too much in it's performance segment. The current price drops on Radeon HD 4870 X2’s make it the best bang for the buck currently. The performance gain just isn’t enough right now to warrant a price that is $100 more than the competition. Even if you scoff at the MIR, we are still talking about a $50 price difference. That is a lot of money to many of us.


One area where the GeForce GTX 295 might excel in is the ability to do Quad-SLI (4-GPUs). The performance advantages of that may or may not compete well with 4870 X2 CrossFireX using a total of 4 GPUs. We have not tested this yet, but it is certainly on the books for us. Stay tuned as we will be covering such things as Quad-SLI and power testing.


BFGTech has given us a very stable and worthy video card, and those loyal to NVIDIA will certainly find this video card of value in your system. It does offer a very high level of gameplay experience in all of today’s latest games. It allows you to maximize your in-game settings at 2560x1600 with high levels of AA. If you need a single-card solution that packs a ton of performance at high resolutions, then you might want to give the BFGTech GeForce GTX 295 a look. If you aren’t brand loyal, we suggest keeping an eye out on falling AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2 prices

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/art...?art=MTYwOCwxMSwsaGVudGh1c2lhc3Q=

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PLAYING:
GTA IV (PC)
Halo 3 (X360)
COD4: MW (PC)
Fallout 3 (PC)
Prince of Persia (PC)