Quote Originally Posted by Chickenfeed View Post
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.