Where high-end cards are concerned, there hasn't been too much action lately, from either ATI or NVIDIA. Last month though, NVIDIA followed-up to their high-end GT200 series launch with two new boards, the single GPU based GeForce GTX 285 and their dual GPU based GeForce GTX 295. While both became just the highest-end cards on the market for their respective category, neither were architecturally new, but rather evolutionary upgrades. Now that's not to discredit NVIDIA's latest offerings though, because both are absolute screamers. Their GeForce GTX 285 became the fastest single GPU card available by a fair margin, and likewise did the GeForce GTX 295. So where we do stand now? - Techgage

EVGA e-GeForce GTX 285 (55nm) SSC Board Preview

Although neither ATI or NVIDIA have unveiled dates for their upcoming line-ups, what the near future holds is a few new mid-range video cards from NVIDIA, and another high-end single GPU card from ATI. In the coming weeks, we'll be seeing the GeForce GTS 250 from NVIDIA, which replaces the GeForce 9800 GTX+ and sometime in April, we should be seeing a Radeon HD 4890 single GPU card from ATI, which isn't likely to match the GeForce GTX 285's performance, but it may match the GeForce GTX 280. Unless ATI or NVIDIA decide to release new high-end cards we're unaware of, right now is a great time to consider a new build.

As a quick refresher, the GeForce GTX 285 is an upgraded GeForce GTX 280. Its clocks are higher all around, although its internal specifications, such as number of processors and memory density remain intact. The GeForce GTX 295 on the other hand, is NVIDIA's highest-end board currently and features two GPU's on one card, essentially an SLI solution that takes up less space. It's not as fast as the GeForce GTX 285 when it comes to games that don't take full advantage of SLI, but those that do, it doesn't stand a chance. And that's fine though, as the GeForce GTX 295 costs a little over $170 more for those who are interested.

Jus to say that no matter what GPU you pick up today, the performance is going to be incredibly good, compared to what you would have gotten for the same price just a few years ago. It's quite impressive when you can pick up a $150 GPU nowadays and see it run games at full resolution on a 30inch display. But for those who don't mind spending a little more for added performance, there are still many options available, from high-end single to dual GPU cards, such as the Radeon HD 4870 X2 or the GeForce GTX 295 versions. As mentioned in the intro though, the top-end of things belongs to NVIDIA at this point in time.

The GeForce GTX 285 in general is a great video card. As the fastest single GPU solution available, it offers great performance, allowing high settings at just any resolution. Plus, thanks to dropping prices, it has become a rather good choice for the best performance currently available with a single card. But what about the SSC edition from EVGA that we took a look at today? As we saw throughout all of our benchmarks, the SSC card proved to be noticeably faster than those stock clocked GeForce GTX 285's, on paper. During real game play, it would be very difficult to notice a difference, and that's an important fact to consider.

Take note also of the fact that this particular card currently retails for about $60 more than the standard version, so that's quite a price to pay for such a minor increase in performance. At this card's $400 price point, you might as well go the extra mile and just pick up a GeForce GTX 295 for $500. Regarding overclocking of this card, we omitted reports because we weren't able to push it much further. The card as it stands is one of the highest clocked GeForce GTX 285's on the market, so it's already at its breaking point.