Asus ENGTX275 896MB PCIe Graphics Card

 

I had high expectation of the GTX275, especially as it was from Asus, one of the leading brands in PC components. The card was extremely well packaged with a very smart looking box and I seriously doubt any Asus GTX275 could be damaged accidently during transit thanks to the amount of padding the GPU has.

 

I have mixed feelings over the cards performance. On the one hand I believe it is safe to assume that the GTX275 is clearly the better card than an ATI 4890 given the results we obtained today – more so considering that the 4890’s included in our results were both overclocked editions. Job done then? Well not quite.

 

The problem, and this is a serious one if all GTX275’s behave the same, is that the card runs hot. Hotter than I would like. So much so that it affected both overclocking and even normal gameplay when running the card, especially at extreme resolutions. I would like to think that this was simply a result of this card being a one off, a sample with poor paste application. It happens I guess and when I re-applyed the paste the temperatures did improve and thus prevented thermal throttling. Looking around the net there are few cases of GTX275’s overheating so I can only assume the sample I recieved was a one off but it is certainly worth mentioning.

 

Aside from the temperature problems, the card breezed through the benchmarks, beating it’s main rival with ease in the majority of games and benchmarks. So how do the prices compare? Historically, NVidia cards have held a premium over their ATI counterpartsbut that is not the case here. The overclocked ATI 4890’s retail for around the £165 mark with stock versions available for a little under £150. The Asus ENGTX275 is available for £150 on the dot. Aggressively priced it is clear NVidia are hoping the GTX275 steals some sales from ATI who up until recently have had much better results from the enthusiast market.

 

To summarise, the GTX275 is a fantastic card for the money. It’s packaged very well, it certainly looks the business and can hold it’s own against any card on the market. While I was slightly concerned by the poor temps our sample emmited, I do feel that this is a one off and despite this short coming, even if you do not intend to overclock the card, it’s performanc is right up there with the best cards available and for a miserly £150, there is no better card on the market today at this price point.

 

– The price

– The packaging

– The performance

 

– No game included

– Thermal Paste was dry

 

– The temperature