GTX 480 and GTX 470 Reviews

[overclocking101]

so nvidia was not lying! amazing!

[joshd]

On a serious note has anyone seen the Folding at home numbers,fermi is supposed to be the gpgpu "king" ?

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3783&p=6

[Helmore]

You can actually cook stuff on the grill.

That's the ultimate reason for getting one of those Lian-Li 'upside down' cases, then you can bake your bacon while gaming in the morning.

[Chickenfeed]

So after reading a good dozen or so reviews I think I have a decent summary.

GTX480
+Price / Performance level very near 5870
+Price is fair in regards to price based on the available alternatives (again point 1)
+Indisputably faster than the 5870, often with noticeable better minimum framerates
+Respectable clock headroom ( although I didn't see enough info on the increases in power / noise at overclocked settings )
+Very nice SLI scaling with 2 cards for a new release

- 100watts more power draw at load over a 5870 ( aka not power efficient at all ) Do note that load power draw of *2* 5870 is often similar to the 480 according to many of these reviews*
- 25watts more idle draw ( not terrible but not impressive either by any stretch )
- Hot as the lava in metroid ( pure pwnage reference )
- Loudest reference card
-Underwhelming performance at 2560x1600 ( although there are multiple mentions of this being driver related... which strikes me as odd )

So assuming they don't combust down the road ( of which Nvidia attest to not happening... ) if you have the power supply, cooling (ie adequete case) and money and don't mind the noise, the 480 is a decent card @ its intended MSRP. Now there is still the question of availability and potential price gouging.

All that said, a 512sp part on a smaller node would probaley be epic. Now wether we can expect to see this before ATI brings out a new line... doubtful. And as far as a dual gpu part, all I can say is good luck. Given Nvidia's claimed TDPs are easily reached ( quite interesting ), they'd have to pull some serious voodoo magic to manage a dual gpu card that works AND makes sense at its price and performance level ( a very difficult prospect I'd say )

[fatguy1992]

Not too bad, over a 10% OC is nice on a stock cooler considering how hot the card runs. I want to see some sub zero results.

[takamishanoku]

So not great but not bad. Pretty much what most thought > 5870 but < 5970. But 480 sli is easily king. Drivers would not doubt improve performance further and the oc (770 or 800 on evga) would prob bring it within 10% of 5970. Stll think a shrink would make this scream. Best thing is that this whole mess is over!

[Biker]

Texture fillrate is way down on a 5870... maybe that is what is gimping 2560 x 1600 performance?

GTX 480:




HD 5870:

[cegras]

So after reading a good dozen or so reviews I think I have a decent summary.

GTX480
+Price / Performance level very near 5870
+Price is fair in regards to price based on the available alternatives (again point 1)
+Indisputably faster than the 5870, often with noticeable better minimum framerates
+Respectable clock headroom ( although I didn't see enough info on the increases in power / noise at overclocked settings )
+Very nice SLI scaling with 2 cards for a new release

- 100watts more power draw at load over a 5870 ( aka not power efficient at all ) Do note that load power draw of *2* 5870 is often similar to the 480 according to many of these reviews*
- 25watts more idle draw ( not terrible but not impressive either by any stretch )
- Hot as the lava in metroid ( pure pwnage reference )
- Loudest reference card
-Underwhelming performance at 2560x1600 ( although there are multiple mentions of this being driver related... which strikes me as odd )

So assuming they don't combust down the road ( of which Nvidia attest to not happening... ) if you have the power supply, cooling (ie adequete case) and money and don't mind the noise, the 480 is a decent card @ its intended MSRP. Now there is still the question of availability and potential price gouging.

All that said, a 512sp part on a smaller node would probaley be epic. Now wether we can expect to see this before ATI brings out a new line... doubtful. And as far as a dual gpu part, all I can say is good luck. Given Nvidia's claimed TDPs are easily reached ( quite interesting ), they'd have to pull some serious voodoo magic to manage a dual gpu card that works AND makes sense at its price and performance level ( a very difficult prospect I'd say )

Nowadays acoustics is a huge proposition. Using the good old 'headphones' excuse doesn't count - for one to cancel out the 50 dB fan one must turn up the sound to achieve 50 dB or higher constant noise levels, not including transients which may very well spike to the loudness of a real gunshot.

I will simply never buy it based upon the acoustics.

[munim]

The hardocp videos are eye opening, the cards are fricken loud! And it was an open air test, I can only imagine how loud/hot they get inside a case, lol.

[Lestat]

complete and total failure by nvidia in my eyes.... who the hell would buy one when they arent much better than the current line of cards,,, and i am not even talking about ATI cards...

[Arrowyx]

Fermi is a huge disappointment. Here I was hoping NV's cards would be a bit more powerful to maybe spark some minor price drops on ATI's cards but I don't see that happening any time soon. The 470 is a complete flop. It only beats the 5850 by a few percent but will cost considerably more, generates a lot more heat, uses a lot more power, and runs a good bit louder. That's before you consider overclocking both which would give the 5850 the performance lead. NV specific extras (CUDA, PhysX, etc) aren't worth the price premium since they wont have much impact on the average gamer. The 480 is a bit better, it's performance lead over the 5870 is more apparent than the 470's lead over its competition. Still though, like the 470 it generates a lot more heat, uses a lot more power, runs a lot louder, and will cost more. Maybe NV can sort out some of these issues with their B1 rev and give us some good competition. Though by that time ATI will be close to launching their next series of cards so who knows what will happen.

H has a video of the cards so you can hear the fan noise
source

GTX480 SLI sounds like a damn jet engine.

[Chickenfeed]

Using the good old 'headphones' excuse doesn't count - for one to cancel out the 50 dB fan one must turn up the sound to achieve 50 dB or higher constant noise levels, not including transients which may very well spike to the loudness of a real gunshot.

I will simply never buy it based upon the acoustics.

Sadly, I fully agree. This 5870 is as loud as I'll cope with. My 4870 x2 was too loud and my short experiance with a 295 was only marginally better noise wise.

Its kind of funny actually, AMD took the rough performance of their previous flagship and offered a solution at roughly half the power consumption. Nvidia put out a card slightly better than their flagship ( more often than not it seems ) but at a similar power envelope. The only conclusion that would be fair to reach in my mind is that GF100 has great potential but it isn't an ideal solution at 40nm ( although how much performance per watt could be gained at a smaller node is beyond my mathimatical abilities )

[zanzabar]

...
GTX480
+Price / Performance level very near 5870
+Price is fair in regards to price based on the available alternatives (again point 1)
+Indisputably faster than the 5870, often with noticeable better minimum framerates
+Respectable clock headroom ( although I didn't see enough info on the increases in power / noise at overclocked settings )
+Very nice SLI scaling with 2 cards for a new release
...

im not sure that its indisputably faster then the 5870. it (480) looses in a few games, its not as good in vantage, and it has a lower OC potential (atleast until there is liquid and if there is voltage control it may change). most sites also used 10.2 isntead of 10.1 or 10.3 that are 5-10% faster.

its an exact repeat of the last gen just with a 6 month delay from NV, NV is hotter larger and louder, ati is smaller, less wattage and clocks better.


they dont need to go lower than 40nm they need a fab that can use single voltage trenches, ati had the same problem the 5870 (and the other 40nm and the yields with the 4770) was supposed to be 130-150W and clocked higher, but when u have a larger die it has a much large effect to change the power delivery to make it have some redundancy.

[grimREEFER]

he 470 is a complete flop

thats interesting, im getting a completely different vibe.
i feel the gtx 470 makes the 5850 irrelevant basically.
its trading blows with a 5870, but well ahead of the 5850 was the impression i got.

[zanzabar]

thats interesting, im getting a completely different vibe.
the gtx 470 almost makes the 5850 irrelevant to me.
its basically a 5870 but cheaper in my eyes.

but the 5850 clocks way higher than the 470 will, the 5850 will clock even higher than the 5870 so its within a couple percent points, if u have voltage control. and then there is the power draw. without ocing its in a perfect spot though and should for the 5850 to $250-275 again

[MrMojoZ]

but the 5850 clocks way higher than the 470 will, the 5850 will clock even higher than the 5870 so its within a couple percent points, if u have voltage control. and then there is the power draw. without ocing its in a perfect spot though and should for the 5850 to $250-275 again

Those are just numbers, they mean nothing to the fanboy.

[onethreehill]

Bit-tech
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/201...1-5gb-review/1
TechReport and Xbitlabs is still MIA

[zerazax]

Those are just numbers, they mean nothing to the fanboy.

I believe the saying goes... don't let the facts get in the way of the truth!

thats interesting, im getting a completely different vibe.
i feel the gtx 470 makes the 5850 irrelevant basically.
its trading blows with a 5870, but well ahead of the 5850 was the impression i got.

Most reviews have the 5850 and 470 trading blows, with the 470 occasionally creeping towards the 5870 range, but usually on average just above the 5850. However, the 5850 overtakes it at higher resolutions.

Oh and it also uses 80-100W more than the 5850 (while being louder!)

I'd say the 5850 will be quite relevant, and if it gets back to MSRP, will really hurt Nvidia there

[annihilat0r]

Those are just numbers, they mean nothing to the fanboy.

Without any sort of voltage tweaking teh GTX 470 can be overclocked from 600 to 730mhz or something. I wouldn't call this bad.

[Sadasius]

Those are just numbers, they mean nothing to the fanboy.

You have to admit though it does make a nice grill addition to any case! Always wanted to make pizza at a LAN party and game at the same time. Those stands charge too much!

Seriously though.....The heat is a little much! That to me is a real deal breaker. Even if I put it on it's own loop, I mean if the pump stops something is going to catch fire or something. Fermi is the perfect name for this card. Let's hope it does not adopt the name Chernobyl.

[Nintendork]

So this summarize fermi heat efficiency.

[grimREEFER]

i might be bias to both the 5870 and gtx 470 since i do tend to spend $400ish for a card, and coincedentally, i feel those are the 2 best cards atm with all things considered.

[Nintendork]

One fact is the wide range of models on the Cypress family. For example the whisper-silent PowerColor HD5870 PCS+ both in idle and load which is impressive.

[annihilat0r]

its funny how nearly all benchmarks in different websites show differing results..........

especially in BC 2 and Dirt2, MOST especially in BC2... at one site 480 is significantly faster, at others they are equal, at others 5870 leads by a good margin. just look at all the reviews and tell me that they add up.

[kazuyakun]

Wow the damn card is LOUD, anyone without 3rd party cooling can throw their speaker sound system out the window.

I like that the 480 gtx is faster but sound + 100W over the 5870 is a definite no buy.

Any reviewers taking apart the card to see how big the coolers are and compare the two?