Latest card

Is the GeForce GTX 295 currently the best graphics card Nvidia does? If so when is the next card due out? I would hate to buy one and then find out a better one comes out in a month or so.

The GTX 295 is currently Nvidia's fastest SINGLE graphics card, if you were to use 2x GTX 275, 2x GTX 280, or 2x GTX 285 you would see higher performance than a single GTX 295.

But also note that it is not worth buying a card like this unless you can actually utilize it...pairing a $500 graphics card of this level with a 19" monitor doing 1280x1024 is a waste of money...you wont see any better performance than the average $75-$100 card. Cards like the GTX 295, and any SLI/Crossfire set up are targeted and marketed to the high end gamer, meaning 2560x1600 as the native resolution. Even 1920x1200 (or 1080p) wont really tax a graphics sub system like this. There is no future proofing in the GTX 295 either, next generation stuff will be faster, cheaper, smaller, more energy efficient, and support newer technology. Buy the performance you need now, and upgrade later. You are better off buying a new $100-$150 graphics card every year or two then to expect a $500 video card to last you for the next 4-5 years.

With windows 7 shipping in Oct with DirectX 11 you will see new graphics cards following. ATI already has announced it will have 40nm DX11 SKUs shipping this year, and though Nvidia is always very tight lipped, I would expect nothing less from them. If you dont see the new video cards for this holiday season, expect them within Q1 2010. DX11 will be more of a revolution than DX10 had been, especially since the new requirements will grant more performance from multicore CPUs with the way workloads are to be split across multiple cores. So even before the GPU comes into play, DX11 has a lot to offer. Over the next year or so you will be seeing a lot more DX10 and DX11 games shipping, so higher end graphics cards are going to see more demand. And this is only going to be strengthened by the fact that DX10 hardware adoption has exploded, and according to the latest Steam hardware survey, about 60% of the systems today have DX10 ready hardware (on xp or vista).

But also note that once again, before choosing a video card you need to take note of your current system specs, what OS you are using, what games you are playing, and most importantly what resolution you are running. A weak point in any of this will make having such a high end card a waste of money.

Thank you for your reply. I thought the GeForce GTX 295 had 2 GPU on the card?

I think I will wait for directx 11 cards.

The GTX 295 is a dual gpu card, but its available in 2 different versions.

The first version uses 2 separate PCBs (basically 2 video cards) that are joined together. The second version (newer version) uses a single PCB, but with all the required components on that 1 board.

You can see a photo here that shows you what I am trying to explain. The new GTX 295 is pictured on the top, it is 1 PCB with both GT200 gpus on board and all the memory, pwm, and I/O controllers all on that one board. The older design, shown on the bottom, is different. That design essentially has 2x independent cards that are sandwiched between a large heatsink. Each card has its own gpu, memory, pwm, and I/O controllers on EACH card. This older design is just like running 2x single cards together, except only the first card connects to the slot, and the other connects to the first card. The new design is just 1 card, thats it.


But once again, if you are looking at a $500 GPU, you had better have the hardware to back it, because otherwise you may as well throw your money down the toilet.

It usually happens with me. I invest good money on something and soon a new advanced product is launched in the same category for even lesser price. I am not sure about the NIVIDIA card you are talking about.

**edited by IceDragon**