The GeForce GTX 285 is the most powerful single GPU card, and EVGA's SSC edition is already established among the top GeForce GTX 285 graphics cards, and only the recently announced FTW version ends up faster. The card's clocks are much higher than reference, resulting in better performance of course, but it also comes at a high price. You can always find cards cheaper than EVGA's top models, but don't expect them to match EVGA's performance or warranty. The best, crème of the crop chips are chosen to run SSC cards, and these cards run at higher speeds and end up having a longer life than other cards overclocked to these speeds. Still, we don't expect you to simply take our word for it. - FudZilla

EVGA e-GeForce GTX 285 SSC Style Version Preview

You might have been expecting a different cooler design, but EVGA followed the if it ain't broken, it doesn't need fixing rule. This reference cooling performs well and isn't too loud, so EVGA decided to keep it. It's a dual slot design covering the entire face of the card, together with the fan underneath that pushes the hot air out of the case. Such a scenario is always nice, as it prevents other internal components from overheating. Looks wise, their SSC edition isn't any different from the rest of the GeForce GTX 285 pack, but after all it's the speed that sets it apart. And the EVGA version runs at 702MHz core clock speed.

We see that the far end of the card features small vents that let air in for power components in that part of the card. The fan is angled in order to blow air directly towards the GPU. Their design is efficient and looks nice. Apart from standard SLI, these GeForce GTX 200 series cards offer 3-way SLI support. This means that if your budget supports it, you can treat yourself to three identical cards and treat yourself to some serious 3-way gaming goodness. Of course, for such a feat you will need a special SLI connector usually provided with motherboards supporting this feature. And you can also use the step-up program to swap.

This new GeForce GTX 280 is called the GeForce GTX 285. The GT200 graphics processor is now built on just 55nm, which led to significant improvements on the fields of consumption and higher clock performance. This GT200 basically didn't change during the transition to 55nm, however the die shrink enabled higher reference speeds. EVGA jumped onto the overclocking wagon with their super GeForce GTX 285 video card, and the name suggests that this card received a significant boost. Now the e-GeForce GTX 285 SSC version runs at 702MHz, the memory at 2646MHz effectively and the shaders at 1584MHz clock speed.

The GeForce GTX 285 is one of the best single chip cards, and only the recently announced EVGA e-GeForce GTX 285 FTW edition has enough muscle to beat it. This EVGA e-GeForce GTX 285 SSC version packs 240 stream processors, enabling excellent gaming as well as CUDA supported application performance, which uses the GPU to process data. PhysX is also a part of the deal that you get with NVIDIA's GeForce 8 series generation video cards an up. Overclocking resulted in EVGA having the upper hand compared to the reference GeForce GTX 285, but the difference is also notable when compared to the GeForce GTX 280.

Although this card features great gaming and multimedia potential, the GeForce GTX 280 owners will find the main reason for the minor upgrade to be lower consumption. The card now needs two 6-pin power connectors and consumes around 183W. In the best case scenario, it will consume up to 53W less than the GeForce GTX 280. The only downside is the $60 price difference between these two cards. The SSC edition will provide pleasant gaming at all resolutions, but it will set you back about $425. If you want the fastest single GPU card NVIDIA can offer, then the e-GeForce GTX 285 SSC version is the card you're looking for.