BFG Tech GeForce GTX 285 OCX 1GB

Overclocking

Since BFG Tech has already clocked the pants off this card, which was originally supposed to be clocked at 712/1,620/2,664MHz and then later lowered down to 702/1,584/2,664MHz following some yield issues at the higher clocks, we weren't expecting a great deal when it came to overclocking. What's more, the GDDR3 memory is running at the highest speed we've seen to date for this memory type and we were unsure whether there'd be any additional headroom.

Our concerns were quickly washed away as soon as we started overclocking, though, as we did manage to squeeze some additional performance out of the card. The GPU core and shader speeds were unlinked and we managed to increase these to 730MHz and 1,698MHz respectively. The memory increase was the one that impressed us the most though - we pushed it all the way to 2,795MHz before we ran into the stability wall.

They represent some decent increases over the stock GeForce GTX 285 speeds of 648/1,476/2,484MHz - figuratively, the core speed is 13 percent higher, the improved shader clock is a 15 percent enhancement and the memory is a 12.5 percent boost. All in all, this was pretty impressive and depending on the settings you test at and in which game, you'll see increases over the stock GeForce GTX 285 ranging from five percent right the way up to almost 15 percent! The biggest improvement was in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, a game we've come to learn responds very well to almost any increase in GPU clocks.

Conclusions

BFG Tech has introduced some excellent clock speed enhancements on its GeForce GTX 285 OCX graphics card and in some scenarios they do genuinely make a difference - that can't be said for a lot of pre-overclocked graphics cards these days, but it is at least true to some extent here. The days of massive improvements from a factory overclock on the core and GPU are fairly limited in our opinion, but significantly bolstering the memory performance can have a very noticeable impact - like it did here.

These improvements come at a price though and it's not one we find easy to swallow. At around £368, including VAT, it's not an affordable card for most people and it's not that much cheaper than a GeForce GTX 295 or Radeon HD 4870 X2. Moreover, the Radeon HD 4850 X2's price has now dropped down below £250, which makes BFG's card £120 more expensive and slower in the majority of scenarios.

Of course, the 4850 X2 is much louder and even with the latest VGA BIOS applied to it, it's still not as quiet as we'd expect a modern graphics card to be at idle - it's no longer offensively loud at idle, though. Whether or not that is a good option for you is another thing altogether - AMD has now released Catalyst 9.1 and although the 4850 X2 isn't supported by the main package, AMD has at least listened to us and offered a WHQL certified Catalyst 9.1 driver on its website.

The cheapest Radeon HD 4870 X2 is around £340 and that's again £28 cheaper than the BFG Tech GTX 285 OCX. If you've got your heart set on spending almost £400 on a BFG GeForce GTX 285 OCX graphics card, we'd say it's well worth spending the £420 or so required to get BFG's GeForce GTX 295 card - it's faster and although it's more expensive, it actually looks like much better value. What's more, it's also the fastest graphics card on the planet at the moment.

With all of that said though, we're only comparing to multi-GPU solutions here and they're not exactly everyone's cup of tea - there are limitations, after all - but that's just the way BFG Tech has priced this card unfortunately. Moving further down the pricing matrix, Zotac's GeForce GTX 285 AMP! Edition is on sale for over £35 less than the BFG OCX card we're looking at today and, judging from the performance differences, is it really worth spending more? You'd be a little crazy to if we're frank, but you do get BFG's improved warranty and proven track record.

But then, just to throw another spanner into the works - what about the decent offers there are on the GeForce GTX 280s at the moment. Take this one, for example. Its default clock speeds aren't far behind the stock GeForce GTX 285's and it's a whole lot cheaper than even the cheapest GeForce GTX 285, which will set you back around £300. I'd bank the £40, if I were you. And compared to the BFG, it's 40 percent cheaper and only about 15 percent slower... and it's not as if the GTX 280 struggles to run any of today's games at 1,680 x 1,050 and 1,920 x 1,200.

Final Thoughts...

BFG Tech has ticked most of the boxes on our checklist with its GeForce GTX 285 OCX graphics card - its clock speed increases are impressive, there's still headroom for overclocking, performance is excellent, the after sales service has a proven track record and it's the fastest single GPU graphics card we've ever tested. But all of this comes at a price and sadly that cost is just too much when you look at the wider market in the UK.

There are still a bunch of bargain GeForce GTX 280s on the market and if I were you, I'd snap one of those up while I can. Following that, your next best bet is the Radeon HD 4850 X2, but be wary of its fan noise - it's not offensively loud with the latest BIOS, but it's not anywhere near as quiet as the Nvidia competition. Moreover, the Radeon HD 4850 X2 has potential limitations that stem from its dual-GPUness and many don't want to swallow that pill - it's also not going to set the world on fire in Folding@Home. Typically, Nvidia's cards can deliver more points per day and so they're better suited to that task.

The market has shifted and Nvidia needs to lower the prices of its GeForce GTX 285 GPUs so that partners can compete with the competition that's out there from AMD. At the moment, most of the GeForce GTX 285s are competing against the Radeon HD 4870 X2 and I think we all know who wins that battle.

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