Asus GTX-295 (ENGTX295)

INTRODUCTION

It's that magical time of year again when CES is just hours away and new products to excite and tempt the computer enthusiast are popping up all over the place. One of the most exciting products out there is the Nvidia GTX-295, reported to be the fastest single GPU (Single PCI-E slot connection, dual slot cooler, Dual GPU) out there. We've chosen the Asus GTX-295 for our lead out article. Asus has been a major player in the computer industry for a long time and viewed as one of the premium brands. They were kind enough to ship us their Asus GTX-295 (ENGTX-295) to run against our battery of tests and considerable selection of GPU's. We'll run our usual battery of tests against this graphics behemoth, and step outside the box and throw in some additional testing to see if it is indeed the fastest single GPU on the planet.

The Asus GTX-295 is one single GPU physically in that it is all in one casing and connects to a single PCI-E slot, but it's actually two GPU's each on it's own PCB and connected with an internal SLI bridge. That gives you SLI on one card and only uses one PCI-E connector but occupies two slots. That offers different advantages for different computer setups. If you have a Crossfire board then you can run SLI in a single slot. If you have an SLI board and Vista you can run Quad SLI. Quad SLI, now there's a though fit to make computer enthusiasts drool. We'll have a slight preview of Quad SLI later in the review. Then we'll be bringing you a Quad SLI review full blown a little later.

We've seen the face of graphics goodness, and it's good, really good. Get your drool towels ready your going to need them.

About Asus

ASUS, a technology-oriented company blessed with one of the world's top R&D teams, is well known for high-quality and innovative technology. As a leading company in the new digital era, ASUS offers a complete product portfolio to compete in the new millennium.

In 2007, one in three desktop PCs sold was powered by an ASUS motherboard; and the company's 2007 revenues reached US$6.9 billion.

ASUS products' top quality stems from product development. It's like learning Chinese Kung-Fu; one must begin with cultivating the "Chi" and inner strength. Besides innovating cutting-edge features, ASUS engineers also pay special attention to EMI (electromagnetic interference), thermal, acoustics and details that usually go unnoticed to achieve complete customer satisfaction. ASUS notebooks are the first TCO'99-certified notebooks worldwide.

The requirements for this honor include radiation emission control, energy (battery consumption), ecology (environment friendly) and ergonomics. To succeed in this ultra-competitive industry, great products need to be complimented by speed-to-market, cost and service. That's why all 8,000 over employees of ASUS strive for the "ASUS Way of Total Quality Management" to offer the best quality without compromising cost and time-to-market while providing maximum value to all customers through world-class services.

With unyielding commitment to innovation and quality, ASUS won 2,568 awards in 2007, meaning on average, the company received over 7 awards every day last year. BusinessWeek has ranked ASUS amongst its InfoTech 100 for the 10th straight year; and the company is ranked as No.1 in quality products and services by the Wall Street Journal. ASUS has also achieved the number one title on the annual league table of Taiwan Top 10 Global Brands with a brand value of 11.96 billion US dollars.