A meet and greet with the GTX 295 Single PCB

When we look at connectivity, we see two DVI ports supporting simultaneous HDCP and they are of course dual link capable. Dual link means you can hook up a high resolution monitor up to 2560 x 1600, and likely even higher.
A thing from the past now is the 7-pin analog HDTV-out mini-din, and S-video connector, or YPrPb (component) or composite outputs. Well, the last time I used that connector was before 2004, so I made my peace with that one.

I'm missing a HDMI port here. That's a bit of a loss on the new design really. No biggy though, Point of View will include a DVI to HDMI adapter you can use.

You can see the GTX 295 single PCB is thick and is thus a dual-slot based graphics card. The card has the same length as the previous GeForce GTX 295 card. That's 27 cm / 10.6 inches of pure unadulterated silicon right there.

High-end cards need a lot of power. The GeForce GTX 295 comes with a 289 watt TDP (peak wattage). Since your motherboard can only deliver 75 watts, you'll need to hook it up to a PSU with enough AMPerage and as such you will need to connect both the 8-pin and 6-pin PCIe power header.

289W / 12v = 24 AMPs. So bear in mind that you'll need a 6-pin and an 8-pin 12V power connector with enough power (preferably 20 AMPs per 12v connector and thus rail). Don't go cheap on your PSU. They are important. In combo with a fairly high end system I recommend a 650~700W PSU.
 

One last look at the card's cooling. It works really well, and and it seems that this new single PCB based model is running slightly cooler and makes less noise than the previous model. Both are close though.

Bragging rights: alive and working in the test system. Seriously, these are always the coolest photos, aren't they? Now admittedly, the old design with the mesh cover... personally I figure was looking a little nicer. Taste differs though! Let's head over to some actual benchmarks and see what the GeForce GTX 295 has in store for us performance wise.