While the release of the GeForce GTX 295 card back in January regained NVIDIA the crown of fastest single graphics board. The GeForce GTX 295 hasn't been the success it perhaps could have been, with high production costs due to their dual PCB design keeping prices close to $500 and out of the reach for many. So with AMD's Radeon HD 4870 X2 priced around $125 cheaper and offering comparable performance in many games, it is hard to look beyond the red team. However, all isn't lost for NVIDIA's latest dual GPU monster, with the GeForce GTX 295 having just received an significant redesign six months into its life cycle which is aimed at slashing production costs and making it much more competitive. - Bit-Tech

Gainward GeForce GTX 295 Single PCB Style Review

Although, just to keep customers guessing, NVIDIA won't be officially rebranding the card since the underlying belly is much the same. The biggest difference with the remixed GeForce GTX 295 is they move from a twin to a single PCB design, which is a first for NVIDIA since it started doing them so back with the GeForce 7950 GX2 all those years ago. And this has brought with it an entirely redesigned cooling system, with an single 80mm fan mounted into the centre blowing down and over the twin GPU's either side. However, this change means that only half of the card's heat is directed towards the rear vents and out of your case.

Now with the drastically improved cooling solution we were hoping some serious overclocking were to be had with this revised GeForce GTX 295 and we were not disappointed in the slightest. While those original GeForce GTX 295 cards are no slouch when it comes to some post purchase performance tweaks, allowing us to increase the core clock to 680MHz, the revised design went even faster, with the core topping out at 710MHz on our review sample. While the newly revised GeForce GTX 295 might perform just the same as its predecessor and overclock a little better, it's economics that have been the driving force in the re-release.

As such we are happy to see the new price sitting close to $425, a decent $75 cheaper than their older revisions of the GeForce GTX 295 have been selling for. However, ATI's Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics card can still be had for a good $50 cheaper at $375, although its stock is becoming increasingly thin on the ground. While the Gainward GeForce GTX 295 is certainly a major improvement over the original in terms of cooling and pricing, NVIDIA has perhaps missed a trick in the opportunity to re-release the card with slightly higher clock speeds and combine the price cut with a performance boost to make it even a better deal in the end.

Though as it stands, this GeForce GTX 295 is still an ferociously fast board albeit still dependent on the driver support for its continued performance in newer titles. With its new lower price, it is now an more attractive choice in comparison to the cheaper, slightly slower Radeon HD 4870 X2, for those looking into the ultra high-end graphics market.