The GeForce GTX 295 is impressive, we now know that, so we're at the point in time where we begin to see what other companies are doing with the card. This early in the game it's more the packaging, since it's just a bit too early to have overclocked models or something with different cooling. Now we're looking at the Gigabyte offering and we will follow the same formula we normally do. First we will have a look at their package before having a closer look at the board. What we're going to do this time is have a closer look at how the GeForce GTX 295 performs against the Radeon HD 4870 X2. Having a look at just the two cards actually makes it easier to break down the performance numbers. - TweakTown

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 295 Multi-GPU Design Review

The release of the GeForce GTX 295 doesn't bring anything new to Gigabyte's packaging. They actually only revised it a few months ago. The majority of the box is taken up with a picture of a female, while across the top we have the Gigabyte and NVIDIA logo. Moving down, we have the PhysX logo and below that we have the model and the amount of memory that comes with the card, in this case the GeForce GTX 295 and 1792MB of GDDR3 memory. Turning the box over, we have a bit of a blurb on the card and again the model and some NVIDIA logos across the top and some run down on what's needed to get SLI working.

As we mentioned in our look at the Gainward GeForce GTX 295, come launch day there isn't going to be much going on as far as overclocks and separate designs go. We see the same large cover that goes over the card and to the right a hole where our fan is. To the left side we have a sticker that lets us know the brand of the card and of course the model. Again we see the perforated holes in the cover that helps let the air escape and not get trapped in. Looking around the card we have two power connectors at the back, an 8-pin and 6-pin one while closer towards the front of the card we have a single SLI connector.

As you may have guessed, the Gigabyte video card carries with it the reference clock speeds. The core comes in at 576MHz while the shader carries a clock of 1242MHz and the two lots of 896MB memory come in at 1998MHz effective. Having a look at the GeForce GTX 295 against the Radeon HD 4870 X2 in a more one on one environment, our view of the card doesn't change. It really does truly kick butt and is going to be a force to be reckoned with. As far as the Gigabyte offering goes, it's exactly what you would expect. There isn't anything that moves away from the reference design and the package is a bit on the light side.

There's no denying though, that come time to purchase your GeForce GTX 295, you're going to be less worried about a game you don't want to play and more focused on getting that new card in your system. It's worth noting a few things when comparing the card to the Radeon HD 4870 X2, not every benchmark is a win. And we know it has the ability to beat the Radeon HD 4870 X2 due to the performance numbers we see under Vista. The GeForce GTX 295 from Gigabyte manages to impress and we're looking forward to what the company does with the card and if they will do something with the clock speeds in the near future.