Now just a few weeks back, we took an in-depth look at the dual GPU powered NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295. Just to recap a bit, the GeForce GTX 295 is NVIDIA's current flagship graphics card that couples a pair of 55nm based GT200 cores with 1792MB of frame buffer memory, and culminating in what is ultimately the fastest, single graphics adapter on the market at this time. It appeared after just about five months of work and fine tuning, NVIDIA was sick and tired of letting AMD's Radeon HD 4870 X2 lead the pack as the fastest single graphics card in the market. In our initial article, we gave a glimpse of the EVGA e-GeForce GTX 295 Plus, but we weren't able to benchmark and fully evaluate it. - HotHardware

EVGA GeForce GTX 295 Plus Duo-GPU Board Review

We have since however, given the EVGA e-GeForce GTX 295 Plus a good once over, and are ready to shine the spotlight on it. Although it is, at its core, a straight-up reference design, EVGA worked a bit of their mojo and tweaked the GeForce GTX 295 Plus' clock speeds slightly to boost the card's performance over the stock models. EVGA's Plus offering has slightly increased frequencies across their board with 594MHz for the cores, 1256MHz for the shaders and 2052MHz for the memory. Each GPU on the GeForce GTX 295 is outfitted with 240 stream processor cores with the memory interface being 448-bits wide.

The card itself is reminiscent of the dual GPU powered GeForce 9800 GX2. There is a perforated shroud that surrounds the entire PCB, with an air inlet at one end near the barrel type fan. The fan pulls air into the interior of the card, where it is blown across heatsinks and then ultimately expelled from the system through vents in the card's case bracket. Outputs on the GeForce GTX 295 consist of a pair of dual link DVI outputs and an HDMI output. With the GeForce GTX 295, each GPU resides on its own PCB. And sandwiched in between the PCB's is a single, large heatsink and fan that cools the GPU's and memory chips.

Summarizing the EVGA e-GeForce GTX 295 Plus' performance couldn't be any easier, it was the fastest, single graphics card we have ever tested. It outpaced the reference GeForce GTX 295 across the board and edged the Radeon HD 4870 X2 in almost every test, occasionally by a significant margin. When we first took a look at the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 last month, we declared it the fastest graphics card on the planet. That still remains true today for the GeForce GTX 295 in general. More specifically though, that title belongs to the EVGA e-GeForce GTX 295, which is currently the highest clocked version on the market.

We should note that some other companies have announced GeForce GTX 295 products with higher memory clocks, though we have yet to see them for sale. Regardless, EVGA's offering is currently the cream of the crop. But their EVGA GeForce GTX 295 Plus' status also means the board commands a hefty price premium and availability is limited. According to our price search engine, it can be had for about $529-539, so a full $30 to $40 more expensive than reference GeForce GTX 295 cards. And it was only being offered by two retailers. Once other brands have their version out the pricing will certainly be changing.

If you don't plan to overclock on your own, the extra investment will yield some guaranteed increases in performance, and we can't just forget EVGA's excellent lifetime warranty. However, for a card that's already pricey, an extra $40 bucks can be a tough pill to swallow. Ultimately though, the EVGA GeForce GTX 295 Plus offers killer performance and stands out in a sea of stock reference cards. If you've got the funds and are looking for a graphics card in its class, do yourself a favor and check out the EVGA e-GeForce GTX 295 Plus edition.