*** NVIDIA 470/480 Series Thread ***

[Systemlord]

Zotac GTX480
Afterburner: 1.6 Final
Bios: 70.00.21.00.02 @ maxvolt 1.213
Core: 900 @ v1.185
Memory: 2050
Cooling: EK-FC480 @ 360rad, Scythe 120 fans (running @ 1300rpm)

I plan on water cooling my GTX 480 once I can learn how to get extra voltage, everyone seems to be getting higher voltages than AB will allow. I've never flashed a videocards BIOS before and am waiting for a visual guide to show how to do it as instructions can sometimes lead me down the wrong path! Then I'm stuck with a paper weight.

[TurboDiv]

Im sure it can go more but temps go almost to 90 degrees C. I have it 850/2000 at 1063mV which is OK i think with only 5 errors per 15 mins of test...

[mk-ultra]

systemlord you need afterburner extreme to be able to set more than 1138mv, no need to flash bios if you don't want to. But you have to be careful, AB extreme can set up to 1.5v on vgpu you wouldn't want to try that

[Systemlord]

systemlord you need afterburner extreme to be able to set more than 1138mv, no need to flash bios if you don't want to. But you have to be careful, AB extreme can set up to 1.5v on vgpu you wouldn't want to try that

I'm assuming that that is a bug in AB Extreme that hasn't been fixed yet right? I mean if I set maximum voltage at 1.25 it shouldn't go any higher than set...

[mk-ultra]

of course if you set 1.25 it's 1.25v, just have be careful with the slider

the program have been unlocked and leaked, this is the kind of apps that put the saying "use at your own risk" at good uses, there's a version of evga voltage tweaker unlocked too floating around.

[marxviper]

the new update is out.. Should I uninstall the old drivers and install the new one?

last time, I installed the new over the old and it gave me problem.

what do you guys recommend?

[Systemlord]

the new update is out.. Should I uninstall the old drivers and install the new one?

last time, I installed the new over the old and it gave me problem.

what do you guys recommend?

First you should never install a new driver over an old one, you are asking for trouble. You should have first uninstalled the old drivers, control panel and physx drivers and delete Nvidia folder in your C: drive, then use a driver cleaner in Safe Mode to remove the old registry entries from the old drivers in your system. Now you install the new drivers.

[Systemlord]

of course if you set 1.25 it's 1.25v, just have be careful with the slider

the program have been unlocked and leaked, this is the kind of apps that put the saying "use at your own risk" at good uses, there's a version of evga voltage tweaker unlocked too floating around.

Which one is more reliable and without bugs? I've heard there are issues with both, but that's just what I've heard.

[M_T_M]

I have a GTX 480 and 240 gt of Physics, I wonder if it should install drivers for gt240?

[VoodooProphetII]

First you should never install a new driver over an old one, you are asking for trouble. You should have first uninstalled the old drivers, control panel and physx drivers and delete Nvidia folder in your C: drive, then use a driver cleaner in Safe Mode to remove the old registry entries from the old drivers in your system. Now you install the new drivers.

Funny.... I've never ever done this, and I've never had a problem with installing new drivers or having performance problems after installing the new drivers. I just install it over the current drivers and it works without a problem.

[donmarkoni]

What do you guys think of EK-VGA Supreme? Should it be good for these hot summer days? I don't like full cover blocks, cause they are expensive and I just can't sell them here when I decide to sell the card.

Funny.... I've never ever done this, and I've never had a problem with installing new drivers or having performance problems after installing the new drivers. I just install it over the current drivers and it works without a problem.

+1

[Systemlord]

Funny.... I've never ever done this, and I've never had a problem with installing new drivers or having performance problems after installing the new drivers. I just install it over the current drivers and it works without a problem.

Nvidia will tell you to do the same thing, this has helped many with performance issues that go away once cleaning out the old registry entries. This driver cleaning is to prevent problems from occurring, some would rather ask for trouble. Tell me this, how many Nvidia folders do you have under your C: drive or wherever the drivers are installed?

[donmarkoni]

Anyone in possession of Tesla-or-something 512 cores BIOS?
Does it even exists?

[VoodooProphetII]

Nvidia will tell you to do the same thing, this has helped many with performance issues that go away once cleaning out the old registry entries. This driver cleaning is to prevent problems from occurring, some would rather ask for trouble. Tell me this, how many Nvidia folders do you have under your C: drive or wherever the drivers are installed?

About 10 or more. I gone through about 3 graphics cards with my current setup. If I go from Nvidia to AMD (ATI) I will uninstall my current driver, but that's about it.

[p2501]

Guys, can anyone help me identify the exact screw size for the stock cooler on a GTX480?! Is it M3? M2.5?

[DuraN]

I always thought they were wood screws?

[zalbard]

I always thought they were wood screws?

LOL, guess this comment was expected!
Sorry, couldn't resist!

[p2501]

Yeah lol...

I'm asking about the screws for the heatpipe cooling block, not for the cold plate btw. Those seem to be made from metal...

[Sodapopjones]

Heh so much for 1.050 for 800/1600/1950

My MSI 470GTX needs 1.087 for 800/1600/1940 using BFBC2 as my benchmark atm, lower voltage causes artifacts or just plain crashes heh.

Seems the memory sucks on my card, 1.050 works fine at 800/1600/stock though.

Temps are 75-80c though, with fan % matched with temps to the T!

I take it back 1940 didn't work either lol...

[luke997]

Did a lot of testing and was surprised to find out the sweet spot for my 3x 480s:

860 core / 1950 mem / 1.025v (!)

That's the stock voltage for 1 of my cards and just notch higher for 2 others.

I was very impressed with the overclock for the voltage.

Sweet spot Vantage P Result

Max OC Vantage P Result

More results & power consumption in my worklog.

[luke997]

guys (and gals), sorry for double post.

Anyone else with 2 or 3 SLI got better Vantage results with slightly lower clocks but with much less volts?

I have some theory about too much power demand for the board under heavy OC with hungry 3 cards and CPU but it's just a theory

[p2501]

No I don't have any vantage results to compare but I'd really like to know your stable clocks before you went water on them!!

[luke997]

No I don't have any vantage results to compare but I'd really like to know your stable clocks before you went water on them!!

Sorry, never tried any OC or Vantage on air, just stuck 2 of them for couple hours NFS Shift to test and throwed 3rd during the build so last one not even tried on air

But I guess they were quite ok with low stock volts at the start.

[p2501]

Oooh well, it can't be helped then, ty. I'm just asking because my first card is running 850/1700/2100 @1138 while the second one only reaches 823 at the same volts, on air mind you. I thought I might get an idea if going water would fix that or if I've gotten a lemon.

[Systemlord]

Oooh well, it can't be helped then, ty. I'm just asking because my first card is running 850/1700/2100 @1138 while the second one only reaches 823 at the same volts, on air mind you. I thought I might get an idea if going water would fix that or if I've gotten a lemon.

My maximum overclock on air is 850/1700/2100 @1.138v, I can't push 20MHz more on Core, Shader and Memory without errors and artifacts! I've heard of someone in my clock range (852MHz on air) getting 900MHz Core at the same voltage switching to water cooling, read 3DGuru's 16 watts less power under water!

>> Right here.

Well, the end result is that we are consuming LESS power on water-cooling. Two things are responsible for that, the colder GPU (better conducting) and thus that reference cooler.

Check it out:

Setup IDLE WATTS FULL WATTS
GeForce GTX 480 203 428
GTX 480 Liquid Cooled 201 412
GTX 480 Liquid Cooled 900c|1800s|4400m 215 506

Now granted it's not a lot. But yeah... we are using 16 Watts less all of a sudden. Overclocked obviously changes that and the card starts to consume much more current quickly, but that's also because we overclocked rather insanely and added the voltage tweak.

- Systemlord