PNY GTX-285 Performance Edition (+ SLI 285 Testing)

TEMPERATURES

To get our temperature reading, we ran 3DMark Vantage, looping for 30 minutes to get the load temperature. To get the idle temp we let the machine idle at the desktop for 30 minutes with no background tasks that would drive the temperature up. Please note that this is on an open test station, so your chassis and cooling will affect the temps you're seeing.

A small table showing the 30 minute Load and Idle temps just don't seem to cut it, we like pictures, so lets move on to the screenies of GPU-Z for Temperature comment.

You can see in the GPU-Z sensor panel that the PNY GTX-285 Performance Edition is going to Idle at about 41°C. We must have bumped the mouse or something during the test because we got a little spike right before we snapped the screen shot. You can see that the extraordinary power savings modes are working great on the PNY GTX-285. The core has downclocked to 300 and memory has downclocked to 300. At idle, the fan stays at 40% and is pretty quiet.

Under load we hit 78°C which isn't bad for GPU's these days. If you happened to read the last GTX-285 review we did you'll remember that the XFX model with its factory OCed nature hit 81°C. We'll explain that in a minute. While under load the PNY GTX-285 ramps up clock speed in the blink of an eye and the transition is so smooth that you won't even notice it. The fan is variable and working correctly because, as you can see, it topped out at 51% up from 40% at idle. Crank the fan up and temps drop drastically. For those in the know, that means more overclocking headroom.

The temperature differences in the two models can be explained by the default clock line in the picture above. The PNY GTX-285 is clocked to 648 MHz and the XFX GTX-285 is clocked to 670 MHz. The higher clock on the XFX Model generates a little more heat. Rest assured, the PNY GTX-285 can overclock, but to see those results you'll have to scroll down.

POWER CONSUMPTION

To get our power consumption numbers we plugged in out Kill A Watt power measurement device and took the Idle reading at the desktop during our temperature readings. We left it at the desktop for about 15 minutes and took the idle reading. Then, during the 30 minute loop of 3DMark Vantage we watched for the peak power consumption, and then recorded the highest usage.

Just like the XFX model being hotter from the OC, it also consumes a few more watts than the PNY GTX-285 Performance Edition. The lower clocks on the PNY model just use less power, and if you remember from the charts in gaming, usually a difference of about 1-2 FPS usually separated the two GPU's. You can always clock the PNY model up and produce the same results as the XFX model, then, at default clocks save a little cash on the electric bill.

OVERCLOCKING

For overclocking we used both Riva Tuner and EVGA Precision. Both worked equally well for our purposes. EVGA is a little easier and OC's SLI really well, so we went with that for our final OC and OC testing.

We were able to bump the PNY GTX-285 up from 648 to 734 MHz core, and from 1242 to 1343 MHz memory, giving us a nice little performance boost. Remember, should you decide to OC your PNY card and blow it up, we're not responsible and you'll surely void your warranty in doing so. Is there any more OC to get? You bet there is. We ran this OC with the fan left on variable speed. Crank that puppy up and you'll get some better results. Overclocking is a crap shoot. Your mileage may vary.

How did we do running this beauty in SLI? Pretty darn good for the limited time we had for testing. There's always a landslide of equipment spurring us on at Bjorn3D.

Single card, we hit 13540 in Vantage, not a score to sneeze at for a single core GPU. There's more to get but the infinite variations of clocking and tweaking well we'll leave those to you. We spent about an hour getting this result so that's a pretty typical score.

Slap two of these puppies together and you almost double your score after applying a moderate OC to the SLI setup. That's an almost 10,000 point gain for plugging in the second GPU and slapping on an SLI Bridge.

Then we ran the overclocked SLI setup with PhysX and almost hit 29k. With a little tweaking, a little bump to the PCIE voltage on the chipset, crank the fan up, and your posting 30k scores in Vantage and a member of the very elite 30k club. That's bragging rights of the first order.

Comparing the PNY and XFX models OC abilities, we see that the XFX GTX-285 clocked about 7 MHz more than the PNY model. Memory wise the XFX model also clocked 7 MHz higher. That's a really minute difference; the 7 MHz difference won't even get you a 1 FPS increase in gaming. Keep in mind this isn't the best OC we got from the cards. This is the best OC with the fans set on variable speed. Also, remember OCing is a crap shoot and your results might vary.