GeForce GTX 490 exists!

[cx-ray]

But the GTX480 simply nearly overwhelms its cooler (and goes into turbine mode). Acoustics acoustics acoustics. I would never ever use a 5970 or a GTX480, and I probably wouldn't go for a 5870 or GTX470 either.

With the standard factory BIOS profile I don't find the noise of the GTX 480 worse than the 280 GTX for instance. During gaming it's not problem at all and at idle you won't hear much inside a case.

I think for the long term, if you could get them at the same price, a gtx 480 is a better card than a 5870 not so much for its directx 10 performance but its directx 11. Another benefit of Gtx 480 which is very real is they tend to do much better in the way it is meant to be played games.

For get about scaling. Both top-end cards are very fast and nice products. The problem ATi has is big Crossfire stutter problems in some good games. Sometimes they get fixed months later or not at all (GTA4).