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Published: April 21, 2009 | Source: Zotac | Author: Rich Weatherstone

Zotac GTX285 Infinity Edition PCIe Graphics Card

Test Setup

To ensure that all reviews on Overclock3D are fair, consistent and unbiased, a standard set of hardware and software is used whenever possible during the comparative testing of two or more products. The configurations used in this review can be seen below:
 

i7 Rig

CPU: Intel Nehalem i7 920 Skt1366 2.66GHz (@3.8 Ghz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte EX58-UD5
Memory: 3x2GB Corsair DDR3 1600mhz @ 8-8-8-24
HD : Hitachi Deskstar 7k160 7200rpm 80GB
GPU: Zotac GTX285 Infinity Edition
Graphics Drivers: Supplied by Asus
PSU: Gigabyte ODIN 1200w
Radiator: Thermochill PA120.3 (3xYL DSL-12)


Pump: Laing DDC18w (XSPC top 1/2″)

 

During the testing of the setups above, special care was taken to ensure that the BIOS settings used matched whenever possible. A fresh install of Windows Vista was also used before the benchmarking began, with a full defrag of the hard drive once all the drivers and software were installed, preventing any possible performance issues due to leftover drivers from the previous motherboard installations. For the 3DMark and gaming tests a single card configuration was used.

To guarantee a broad range of results, the following benchmark utilities were used:

 
3D / Rendering Benchmarks
• 3DMark 05
• 3DMark 06
• 3DMark Vantage

3D Games
• Crysis
• Far Cry 2
• Oblivion


• Race drive: GRID
• Call of Duty IV
• Unreal Tournament III

Power Consumption

Power consumption was measured at the socket using a plug-in mains power and energy monitor. Because of this, the readings below are of the total system, not just the GPU. Idle readings were taken after 5 minutes in Windows. Load readings were taken during a run of Furmark.

 
 
Looking at the results makes for depressing reading until you consider that this is the full system draw, including the water setup (18w pump, 3x120mm fans and a fan controller) so consideration should be given to that fact. However, the GTX285 was never a power efficient card even in stock form so add the fact that this is a heavily overclocked edition and considering the added power consumption of the water setup and things start to look a little better.
 
Temperatures

Temperatures were taken at the factory clocked speed during idle in Windows and after 10 minutes of running Furmark with settings maxed out (2560×1600 8xMSAA). Ambient temperatures were taken with a household thermometer. As we use an open test bench setup consideration should be given to the fact that the temperatures would likely increase further in a closed case environment.

 
 
 
With a 24c ambient temperature, the Zotac GTX285 Infinity hit a maximum 35c when idle in windows Vista and 67c under Furmark load. The load temperature could have been better as 67c for a watercooled GPU is nothing remarkable, especially when you consider that the Asus GTX285 hit 82c under the same conditions and that was air cooled albeit lower clocked. I would think replacing the thermal pad with paste would result in better temperatures but the weak design of the GPU block could also have an effect.
 
Overclocking
 

For our overclocking tests I used Rivatuner which worked perfectly with our setup. More than can be said for the latest version of nTune which resulted in BSOD when we tried to run it. To test stability I ran 3D Mark 06 and a few runs of Crysisbench.

 
stock overclock
 
Pre-overclocked cards are frequently clocked just below their maximum so I was surprised the Zotax GTX285 Infinity still had a little more to give. While the Core was pretty much maxed out I did manage an extra 160MHz on the memory. The effects of the overclock can be seen below:
 
 
Not the best of performances from a GPU thus far with a high power draw, average temperatures (for a watercooled card) and meager overclocking due to the pre-overclocked condition.

Let’s see how the card performs in OC3D’s suite of 3D benchmarks…

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