BFG's GTX 295 H2OC: Water-Cooled Graphics

In a market where dual-GPU, single-PCB graphics cards are readily available from most major OEMs, product manufacturers are increasingly turning to water cooling as a way to differentiate their products and out-maneuver their competitors. The superior thermal characteristics of liquid cooling allows companies like BFG to hit higher core / memory clocks than they might using air alone. However, H2O-reliant high-end video cards cater to an even smaller slice of the market—specifically, those enthusiasts with big money to spend and who are comfortable using water in their own PC.

BFG's GTX 295 H2OC CLE (aka the GTX 295 H2OC with ThermoIntelligence Advanced Cooling Solution) changes that. This particular flavor of H2OC is a self-contained cooling system that arrives fully assembled and can be plugged into the system immediately, provided your case meets the appropriate requirements. This last characteristic is by no means guaranteed. Consult our Thermal Analysis section for more information on how the cooler (designed by CoolIT Systems) integrates into a real-world, closed-case environment.

The H2OC CLE's "easy" setup is just one of its hooks; BFG clocks the card well above NVIDIA's baseline specifications. A standard GTX 295 has a GPU clock speed of 576MHz, a shader clock of 1242MHz, and DDR3 memory runs at 1,998MHz, give or take a tick. In contrast, BFG's water-cooled cards run a 675MHz core, 1458MHz shaders, and a memory clock of 2214MHz. That's 17.1 percent, 17.3 percent, and 10.8 percent above stock, and it's enough of a boost that we should see a practical performance difference...

BFG's GTX 295 H2OC: Water-Cooled Graphics