GTX 480 and GTX 470 Reviews

[cegras]

Very well. However, I think we made it very clear that the GTX 480 is a disappointment for all intents and purposes while the GTX 470 is a great value (power consumption and heat aside). I'll stick to that as well.

But .. how is that great value? From a consumer experience standpoint, won't the extra power consumption, and heat generated impact my experience? What if I have bad airflow, or a borderline power supply? The noise will certainly be a problem - for someone being used to a 5850 / 5870 noise level (or someone with a really quiet low end card) - how much ear rape will we get from something significantly noisier?

The 470 may be great value ... if you have the infrastructure set up for it. 5850's in canada can be had for close to 300, while preordering the GTX470 is around 360. That is not a small margin.

[eva2000]

There is an important note in regards to stock cooler GTX480 vs 5870 comparison.
5870 can reach 1000MHz GPU clock fairly easily (with 40% fan speed or so), which improves the performance by 17.65% over the stock card. Since GTX480 is around 15-20% faster than stock 5870 and is not quite overclockable on stock cooling (92C in Crysis at sock clocks? 1GHz 5870 is running cooler than that for me...), it might be worth considering going 5870 instead.

Yeah not to mention Fermi loses on price alone! In Australia

HD5850 = AUD$369-399
HD5870 = AUD$489-519
HD5970 = AUD$999-1099
GTX 470 = AUD$549-589
GTX 480 = AUD$829-899

2X HD5850 > GTX 480

[Lifthanger]

maybe I missed this, but were there any reviews with closed cases? If load temp is 95C with 20C ambient, then it could go into throttling in a normally ventilated case *shrug*

[Firestrider]

So the 470/480 are 10-15% inc. performance for 12.5/25% inc. price and 50% inc. power consumption?

The 470 might be a good buy in terms of perf/$ but the inc. power consumption ruins it for me.

[SKYMTL]

The 470 may be great value ... if you have the infrastructure set up for it. 5850's in canada can be had for close to 300, while preordering the GTX470 is around 360. That is not a small margin.

Unfortunately, there is no way to take into account every situation. Yes, some HD 5850s are closer to $300 but the average price is still around $325 USD to $335CAD. As for the GTX 470, you can't really get a good idea of pricing right now since all we see are the pre-order prices.

But yes, power consumption is going to be an issue for some people.

[aqualab]

I'm very worry about thoses temps, especially knowing they was take on a bench, not in a case. I worry even more as I see everyday customers computers heatsinks pack with dust. Those 480 owners, are better to keep it clean.

[Olivon]

Yeah not to mention Fermi loses on price alone! In Australia

HD5850 = AUD$369-399
HD5870 = AUD$489-519
HD5970 = AUD$999-1099
GTX 470 = AUD$549-589
GTX 480 = AUD$829-899

2X HD5850 > GTX 480

Here in France :

HD5850 : 260-275€
GTX 470 : 349€

HD5870 : 360-375€
GTX 470 : 479€

Availability is really bad for 5870/5850 at the moment in our country.

HD 5970 : 579€ but really really rare

[hyperdoggy]

The funny part is, if this was out 6 months prior and ATI/AMD didn't have its dx11 part ready this would of been a winner even with its power consumption. Sadly for nvidia there's the 5000 series with better performance per watt, HDMI true DTS-HD and Dobly-HD lossless passthrough, and a better IQ overall.

Frankly the 480/70 is a hazard buy if you don't plan to watercool the beast. I can't believe some people are willing to sli this crap for their e-peen for what...a 3months brag that they have the fastest gfx setup?

[Helloworld_98]

Here's one with closed system. In NZXT Hush Silent case, went up to 105°C

http://translate.google.fi/translate...C2&sl=fi&tl=en

doesn't surprise me, it only has 2x 120mm fans and the inside is covered with sound dampening foam.

[kemo]

But yes, power consumption is going to be an issue for some people.

Most of us Here own BIG PSUs , and comparing the 5850 to the 470 , 11W on ideal and 72W on Load , say you run your PC 12 hours per day , 8 ideal and 4 load , that is 137KW per year and with 80% efficiency on the PSU that is roughly 165W per year of power over the HD5850 , that is what 35Euro for Europe and or 20$ for USA , at least i know that it is only 6$ for me here in Egypt , 5870 vs 480 will be like 50 Euro , 29$ USA , or 8.5$ for me

[cegras]

Unfortunately, there is no way to take into account every situation. Yes, some HD 5850s are closer to $300 but the average price is still around $325 USD to $335CAD. As for the GTX 470, you can't really get a good idea of pricing right now since all we see are the pre-order prices.

But yes, power consumption is going to be an issue for some people.

While the following opinion may seem a bit biased, I think I will be surprised to see any normal gamer (such as myself, e.g. not those who will use headphones to ignore noise issues) buy a GTX4xx series and be satisfied with it in the long run.

[freeloader]

if you ran your lights for 6 hours per day, 7 days a week (so 42 hours a week) and you wanted to compare 24/7 SLI 480gtx (using anand's number of ~850watts for the total system at peak), you'd basically spend 8kwh on your lights versus 632kwh on your computer. In terms of money, that'd be 1$ vs 95$ (assuming about 14.5cents per kwh). If you are in Europe, you can double those numbers to accommodate for the ridiculous electricity prices. Using your initial example, that would mean you could run your lights for something like 8 years before you spend the money you would've spent on crunching.

I sure hope HPC people are looking at this and wondering if there's a way they could potentially get fission reactors ready to power a cluster of these...

So anyway, this card is so hot it'll take it's own dedicated water loop, it's so bad in price/perf that it won't be attractive to anyone making less than 100000$/year and it'll get re-released in 6 months with all the bits unlocked when they finally figure out how to make it work properly.

I'm going to pass on that crapola.

Thanks for taking the time to do some actual math figures for consumption.

Definitely won't be adding this to my mini folding farm anytime soon.

[Firestrider]

Did anyone see some benchmarks on some consumer GPGPU applications?

[HelixPC]

why nVidia made the same mistake with this chip as they did with the GTX 280, remember all the heat and 100c + cards that died and throttled down on people, the GTX 285 fixed it, used less power and put out less heat, i wouldnt jump on this card. nVidia is making the same mistake here and things arent looking so good for them, i dont see these cards selling much, 5850 on par or better than gtx 470 but it costs less, 5870 on par or 10-15% slower. GTX 480 is an epic fail, enless your into software which support CUDA of F@H. I would either get a 5870 now, or wait for the GTX 485 if it ever sees the light of day.

[jmke]

Are there any 3-sli reviews? I am interested in the numbers

you can find a few here: http://www.maingearforums.com/entry....-Buy-A-GeForce

Look at TPU review, a 10% overclock doesn't bring any temperature increases.

yes & now... but the fan is just running faster to keep the temp below 100°C ;-)

[Eastcoasthandle]

While the following opinion may seem a bit biased, I think I will be surprised to see any normal gamer (such as myself, e.g. not those who will use headphones to ignore noise issues) buy a GTX4xx series and be satisfied with it in the long run.

The problem is that you are not going to get some people to see past the performance even though it wins some and loss some. That's were the buck stops and they don't care about anything else and consider anything else as trivial at best. There is a enough evidence to conclude that the noise level, power requirements, cooling required (I've not found any that reviewed this card in a closed PC case setup), currently availability, and price level doesn't make it ideal for most gamers or enthusiast.

[initialised]

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/201...-5gb-review/12

[Eastcoasthandle]

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/201...-5gb-review/12

Exactly, I can't be the only one that sees this.

[DBZ33]

why nVidia made the same mistake with this chip as they did with the GTX 280, remember all the heat and 100c + cards that died and throttled down on people, the GTX 285 fixed it, used less power and put out less heat, i wouldnt jump on this card. nVidia is making the same mistake here and things arent looking so good for them, i dont see these cards selling much, 5850 on par or better than gtx 470 but it costs less, 5870 on par or 10-15% slower. GTX 480 is an epic fail, enless your into software which support CUDA of F@H. I would either get a 5870 now, or wait for the GTX 485 if it ever sees the light of day.

Yes they run hot and use more power than any other card out there. But they will sell like crazy. People will still want them. I know I want one.

[iTravis]

Yes they run hot and use more power than any other card out there. But they will sell like crazy. People will still want them. I know I want one.

Sure a lot of people are going to get one but for those who want 2 or add another down the road will have to reconsider since obviously they don't wanna upgrade to a 1200W PSU.

[aver]

But .. how is that great value? From a consumer experience standpoint, won't the extra power consumption, and heat generated impact my experience? What if I have bad airflow, or a borderline power supply? The noise will certainly be a problem - for someone being used to a 5850 / 5870 noise level (or someone with a really quiet low end card) - how much ear rape will we get from something significantly noisier?

The 470 may be great value ... if you have the infrastructure set up for it. 5850's in canada can be had for close to 300, while preordering the GTX470 is around 360. That is not a small margin.

5850 goes on sale for $279 fairly regularly in Canada from what I have seen. At that price I don't think there is a much better choice for your money.

[Trigger5521]

Did anyone review 470SLI? so many to go through.

[spursindonesia]

My impression out of the reviews so far -and only some gets my respect, the performance is pretty decent, good indeed, but the power consumption is just over the top. These cards are must buy products only for guys who already encamped in nVidia's realm (PhysX, 3D Surround) and folding frenzied.

SKYMTL seems very sunshine bright & optimist regarding these puppies, but his result is well done, and i respect his POV. Anandtech, [H]OCP, and ComputerBase give a more toned down compliment, and well within my way of thinking. These cards are certainly not HD 58xx killer as nVidia boyz hope & want them to be, friggin power hog & hot as hell, but they do give progess in 3D gaming performance. I hope this will spur more competition, whether in a form of price cut from ATi or the launch of a refresh, or even better, the combo of both.

Regards.

[massman]

FYI, gathering review at hwbot as well ~ 51 now.

http://hwbot.org/article/news/gpu_1684

[Blacky]

I really don't see Fermi-Dual card in sandwich design, unless they put gold or something to transfer heat more efficiently than copper