GTX480 / GTX470 Reviews and Discussion

[RealityRush]

I don't care about fan noise. My volume always surpasses any noise comming from the PC, especially when I have my phones/headset on so that is not an issue. People who complain about fan noise comming from thier PC should have thought about that before the purchase so that is irrelevant IMO.

You don't like noise then watercool, you can't watercool then don't buy the product to begin with...

Even watercooling makes noise though, which is why I never understood why people are like "if you want silence go watercooling!!!". You still need fans to cool the radiator the water is travelling through. In fact, my water cooling loop makes far more noise than pure air cooling would... far more. Because 1 230mm fan is replaced by 3 120mm fans spinning a hellavu lot faster to cool the radiator in the top of my case.

If you wanted complete silence you'd need a monstrosity of a passive heatsink on your video cards/CPU... and then some.

When I get rich.... cough cough... I'm gonna have a separate case that my water loop runs through that has like 10 radiators in it and a couple gigantic fans to cool them all, and this loop will cool everything in my comp....at which point my cooling would actually be quiet. That could be a ways off though 😛

 

[OvrClkr]

Even watercooling makes noise though, which is why I never understood why people are like "if you want silence go watercooling!!!". You still need fans to cool the radiator the water is travelling through. In fact, my water cooling loop makes far more noise than pure air cooling would... far more. Because 1 230mm fan is replaced by 3 120mm fans spinning a hellavu lot faster to cool the radiator in the top of my case.

If you wanted complete silence you'd need a monstrosity of a passive heatsink on your video cards/CPU... and then some.

When I get rich.... cough cough... I'm gonna have a separate case that my water loop runs through that has like 10 radiators in it and a couple gigantic fans to cool them all, and this loop will cool everything in my comp....at which point my cooling would actually be quiet. That could be a ways off though 😛

My point is that if you want 100% silence then get yourself a Dell, but dont complain about the performance. It's either one or the other, you cant have both unless you are rich just like you pointed out...

 

[shadow187]

Ovrclkr, it's not always about you (the person buying the compy, not you!). Perhaps their computer could wake up a sleeping child? Annoy friends and family? Many situations where the noise, though it bothers you not, would bother others.

 

[OvrClkr]

Ovrclkr, it's not always about you (the person buying the compy, not you!). Perhaps their computer could wake up a sleeping child? Annoy friends and family? Many situations where the noise, though it bothers you not, would bother others.

I know buddy 😉 , im just trying to give a hard time to those who complain about fan noise but yet they still buy the product 😀

I have a buddy that purcahsed the H50 because he thought it was DEAD silent, well I had already told him that dead silent does not exsist but he didnt want to take my advice so now he wishes he had purchased a high end sink w/o a fan since he runs his xeon at stock clocks with an ambient of 67F 24/7.

Some people are just hard-headed :lol:

 

[AMW1011]

When it comes to noise, I have an aluminum case (not good for isolating sound) with 6 Antec tricool fans on high, 2 Scythe Slipstream 110 CFM fans, 2 70 CFM 92mm fans, and 2 8800 GTS 512mb cards with the fan speed at 80%. I've had this configuration for years. I'm also into highend audio equipment and have VERY good hearing, and I have very picky hearing as well. My case doesn't bother me at all, its a low hum beside me nothing more.

 

[RealityRush]

Ovrclkr, it's not always about you (the person buying the compy, not you!). Perhaps their computer could wake up a sleeping child? Annoy friends and family? Many situations where the noise, though it bothers you not, would bother others.

I think you aren't understand what he's trying to say. If you want performance it is going to make a little noise, and you have to deal with that. If you want a "silent" computer, you either use a punch card or get really rich and invest in a computer cooled entirely by water with the rads cooled by a couple very large fans moving slowly in push-pull config.

Now, you can get automatic fan controllers like myself, so all my fans in my case throttle down to about 60% until stuff starts getting warm, then they usually ramp up to 80%. But when you are doing high performance work on your computer... benching, crysis, whatever, your fans are GOING to be loud. I doubt at any point loud enough to wake a sleeping child unless your comp is powered by a gas turbine generator.

And you keep making it sound like these cards are massively louder than your already in place computer, they aren't. As I just pointed out, if you have a computer you designed for performance, it is going to make some noise, not necessarily a ton, but some. A 400 series card or any GFX card for that matter will not make the computer all that much louder than it already is, especially depending on position of your computer.

And if your family/friends are annoyed by your computer noise, they are either pressing their head against the side of the case, standing annoyingly over your shoulder while you play, or have hyper sensitive hearing.....

Stop trying to make something that is a small issue (it is an issue yes, but noise isn't a HUGE issue with the 400's, the fan rarely goes above 80% unless you put it there for whatever reason, which is no louder than a 280) a huge frickin' issue, it is getting somewhat aggravating. Look at reviews of people that have the card, I have yet to see one owner complain about the noise at all.

 

[Guest]

Noise is a personal choice, for some it is important, for some not, Im sure people who buy the 4xx already knows it either has to be noisy and running low temps Vs less noise but higher temps which was done on reviews.

Again its peoples taste, myself, I would go water for +1 less noise(not silent but still less) +1 higher OC.

Talking about the huge issue with Fermi is its delay of 8 months. I myself expected it to beat the 5970 overall or at least be on par considering the time gap, for the 5970 it is 7 months.
Not the same situation when GTX280 Vs 4870X2 which were out around the same time. More time = More performance. Time is the master of everything related to technology.

 

[scirishman76]

The problem is s76, it's not going to be $100. It'll end up being $200, or $250. ATI's MSRP is $260 and $370 for the HD5850 an HD5870, IIRC. The GTX470 and GTX480 will rise through the ranks of price due to availability. You'll get cards that will sell for $399 and $600 for the 470/480, probably not too far off into the future.


This is going to be another rendition of the HD4K series. nVidia offers something at this pricepoint, ATI offers something that does the same. In this case, $380 GTX470, $380 HD5870. Though we know ATI has the advantage at the P/P. $650 HD5970, $600 GTX480. Pay $50 more for much better performance / less power. (guessing) ~$270GTX460 to compete with $240 HD5830. $180 GTX450 for HD5770.

Now we can't also forget the (hopefully sooner than later) HD5890 which should tie or beat the 480. The 5970 will be on top for many months to come, and that's a significant thing for ATI, considering the top-dog-card usually is nVidia.

Nice prediction on the price's,but it is still only a prediction.Who knows what will happen,I actually think the full 512 core gtx480 is on the way and if this is true that means price drops for the 470's and also competition for the 5890 if it does end up beating the current gtx480.Nvidia got themselves in trouble by being late to dinner on DX11,I think they know they can not hit us with the price hike they usually do, too many peeps turned to the red team already.I think Nvidia's prices will stay competitive this time.

 

[mindless728]

Nice prediction on the price's,but it is still only a prediction.Who knows what will happen,I actually think the full 512 core gtx480 is on the way and if this is true that means price drops for the 470's and also competition for the 5890 if it does end up beating the current gtx480.Nvidia got themselves in trouble by being late to dinner on DX11,I think they know they can not hit us with the price hike they usually do, too many peeps turned to the red team already.I think Nvidia's prices will stay competitive this time.

i doubt they will lower the prices with a 512 core Fermi (probably GTX485) as it would just be priced higher than the normal GTX480

though i do hope the GTX's stay competitive price wise, though i don't think that will happen right now with such a short supply

 

[RealityRush]

Nice prediction on the price's,but it is still only a prediction.Who knows what will happen,I actually think the full 512 core gtx480 is on the way and if this is true that means price drops for the 470's and also competition for the 5890 if it does end up beating the current gtx480.Nvidia got themselves in trouble by being late to dinner on DX11,I think they know they can not hit us with the price hike they usually do, too many peeps turned to the red team already.I think Nvidia's prices will stay competitive this time.

It doesn't matter what nVidia wants the prices to be, the retailers will drive the charges up sure as Sunday as demand far outstrips supply, unless nVidia has a lot more cards coming very soon. And I doubt a 512 core Fermi is coming in the next 6 months, they'll prob need a shrink before that happens.

 

[rawsteel]

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/03/26/nvidia_fermi_gtx_470_480_sli_review/7

here is that fan noise comparison.

Now this is LOAD vs LOAD, and I know its like 35-40% for the radeon and probably more like 70% to the nvidias but you can hear HOW LOUD THEY ARE.

Not sure even how they will sound at 100% fan speed

 

[shadow187]

@Fermi - 512.

The 512 could either be the GTX495 (assuming a GTX470x2 is not possible), the GTX485, and it will most likely compete with the HD4890. The HD5970 will remain the top card this generation most likely. nVidia can't bin enough 512-Shader chips to make enough for sale, odds are they can't bin enough low-voltage chips for a GTX495.

@rawsteel;
Yeah. Even if muffled by the case, they're still going to be loud as hell.

 

[mindless728]

@Fermi - 512.

The 512 could either be the GTX495 (assuming a GTX470x2 is not possible), the GTX485, and it will most likely compete with the HD4890. The HD5970 will remain the top card this generation most likely. nVidia can't bin enough 512-Shader chips to make enough for sale, odds are they can't bin enough low-voltage chips for a GTX495.

@rawsteel;
Yeah. Even if muffled by the case, they're still going to be loud as hell.

the only way i see a dual-fermi is outside the PCI-SIG (>300w TDP) and made down from cutdown parts (ie GTX460???)

at the sound, its bad, though my 4870's can get load at 100% fan speed (even 80% is a little load), though i never run them that high since i don't OC the cards

 

[RealityRush]

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/03/26/nvidia_fermi_gtx_470_480_sli_review/7

here is that fan noise comparison.

Now this is LOAD vs LOAD, and I know its like 35-40% for the radeon and probably more like 70% to the nvidias but you can hear HOW LOUD THEY ARE.

Not sure even how they will sound at 100% fan speed

You realize, 70% of the volume off of both the 5800s and the 400s was from the air moving past the mic, which you wont notice nearly at all unless your head is directly beside the card/case, which it wont be unless you have some weird fetish.

Have you ever noticed that when you are videotaping something in a moving car, at the time you don't really hear the wind that much, but when you watch the video it sounds like you are in a bloody hurricane? It's the same premise here. Without that loud whooshing noise the 5800s would be very quiet and the 400's would be almost quiet, either way it isn't the helichopter you seem to think it is....

The fans themselves were not loud at all, so I fail to see what exactly that proves....... the 5800s are quieter than the 400s, we already knew that, but the 400s aren't annoyingly loud either, or very loud at all for that matter, soooooo????

EDIT: I'm going to videotape a 5870 close up and breath really hard beside the mic just to prove the point before all the ATI lovers start nailing me to a cross 😛

 

[shadow187]

Errhm...it didn't look like that camera was being blown into by the fan. That, and the fact that it wasn't a whooshing sound, it was more of a low-rumble fan sound.

 

[notty22]

This is beyond LOL with the noise, OMG , its SO loud!........Heres a interesting clip from Anands review of the 5870

At load, the picture changes entirely. The more powerful the card the louder it tends to get, and the 5870 is no exception. At 64 dB it’s louder than everything other than the GTX 295 and a pair of 5870s. Hopefully this is something that the card manufacturers can improve on later on with custom coolers, as while 64 dB at 6" is not egregious it’s still an unwelcome increase in fan noise.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2841/26
Guess what, the GTX 480 counts as a MORE powerful card ! So the 5870 was basically the NOISIEST card on the market until Fermi, ATI fanboys would have you believing the thing is quiet as a baby sleeping, LOL

edit: Also the Hocp videos, also show a wattmeter of system usaage. Do people note the GTX 480 SLI capped under 600 watts ? Yes more than the 5870 , but once again, it was 15% more powerful as well. That point keeps being forgotten, the more powerful card is usually louder and usually uses more power.

 

[scirishman76]

sciris: like i said, i agree with most of what you are saying. the fermi cards are not bad, but to say that reputable websites are purposely making out that the cards are hotter or louder than they are is borderline insane.
and i wasn't saying that you knwo nothing about hardware, just that you know less than TGA. He always backs up his statements with facts, and knows more on the subject than anyone ive encountered in these forums, and i would certianly belive his answer before your own.
you however come here telling us all how 'most ati users end up buying a dedicated physx card', which is downright wrong.

i apologize for my post though, i have had a bad day and was far to quick to get aggressive. but my point still stands, if you want to make those sorts of remarks, back them up with some sort of evidence.

Ok I was not saying that its not loud,what I was saying is its not much louder if at all then most high end GPU's and if you were to read most reviews you would think it was way louder.Also people and a few reviewers who manually set the fan speeds are not seeing temps much higher then 80-85C which is hot but not 97C 80-85C puts it in the same class as many existing GPU's.Almost no-one ordering a card like this is gonna use the auto fan speed so why are reviewers using it.

 

[mindless728]

Almost no-one ordering a card like this is gonna use the auto fan speed so why are reviewers using it.

i doubt it, i would put money on more people not setting the fan speed themselves, most people aren't enthusiasts, even the people who would buy this expensive/fast of a card

 

[shadow187]

notty, the HD5K series is more efficient. That's one of the key points.

 

[notty22]

notty, the HD5K series is more efficient. That's one of the key points.

Yes, thats one of its definite pluses, never denied it. But there are people that question the performance increases in the 5 series family from the 5770 on down. For the amount of SP's in each model they are not faster than the 4 series counterparts. Should they be ? Thats debatable.

 

[scirishman76]

Ok just oerdered the MSI N480GTX I ordered it from Newegg and live in Cali so I may have it as soon as tomorrow.I am one of the few peeps running this card with an Nforce 980a AM3 setup so I will let you know how the testing goes.

SPECS
MSI Nforce980-G65 AM3 Mobo
Phenom II 955 C3 @3.8Ghz
4GB(2X2) Gskill ripjaws DDR31600@1796 8-8-8-23
MSI N480GTX(currently using 9800GTX)
W.D. Black 1TB HDD 32MB cache
OCZ gamestream 800 PSU
Rosewill wind Knight gaming case(hey don't poke fun this case was an exceptional value added 3X140fans to the existing 3X120mm fans and it cools considerably better than my Antec 900 and even with the fans was just over half the price of the 900)

 

[shadow187]

Yes, thats one of its definite pluses, never denied it. But there are people that question the performance increases in the 5 series family from the 5770 on down. For the amount of SP's in each model they are not faster than the 4 series counterparts. Should they be ? Thats debatable.

Well, the HD5770 = HD4870, HD5750 = HD4850, HD5670 > HD4670. Not sure on HD5570.

I wonder if ATI is using the 5K as a stepping stone. Get a nice perf increase with lower power, then next-gen, raise power and performance massively.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

I went to bed right after posting last night because it was going to be an early but long day (Way to go Sens !! [:mousemonkey:3] ) so missed you uninformed post, so I'll reply to it now.

Do your homework most of the time the ati cards actually lose a few FPS when a physX card is added not gain.The ati card wasn't doing it to begin with so it doesn't decrease the workload at all just adds another limiting factor.

I've done my homework, you obviously haven't. Nor did you understand my statement about how that $100 being spent on a dedicated PhysX card would be a better idea, which isn't surprising considering your 'qualifications'.

I'll repost the quote, and while you're at it you can point out the insult. ;
"if you give a rat's a$$ about PhysX you need to buy a secondary card for either solution to run well."

What part of that was too difficult for your to understand with all your expertise?

Of course the ATi card loses performance, because it's rendering all that crappy debris, just like the nVidia card loses performance. However the performance drop is not as much as when the nVidia card has to alone do the graphics and the physics. So like I said, that $100 more spent on a dedicated graphics card goes to fixing that issue with regards to supporting physics and provides better performance than just the one nV card alone. This is the exact same concept behind the co-op card, which brings me to my example proving my point;

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/evga-gtx275-coop-physx_8.html#sect3
"The XFX Radeon HD 5850 Black Edition + GeForce GT 220 tandem looks even better, outperforming the mentioned configuration at every resolution."

say what you will he was dead wrong about gaining fps when adding a dedicated physX card to an ati and he insulted me.

No, in fact YOU are wrong on both counts, as proven above. [:jaydeejohn]

Furthermore how could you possibly know what my tech level is.I can tell you this I am A+ certified

Now would be the time to insult you, for thinking that had any weight. That and 99c will get you a cup of coffee off the value menu. [:thegreatgrapeape:6]

A+ certification means just about NOTHING nowadays, Best Buy useless D-bags are A+ certified.
It meant something in the 90s when it wasn't given out for 10 Cheerios box tops, heck they ever remade it to make it easier so anyone could pass it, so using that as your 'badge of tech honour' is pretty lame.

 

[IzzyCraft]

The 5770 != 4870 the memory bandwidth cap on the 5770 prevents it in most applications to do as well as the 4870. It's why people were still buying up 260's and 4870's over the 5770 for a higher price you just get more features(minus the fp64 support lol) and less performance.

I'd hope the best buy guys with their wut 2 weeks training are A+ certified lol last time i heard A+ certification is just basic troubleshooting certification, which imo is more of an acquired skill then anything you need to know deep complex subjects about. I mean i troubleshooted plenty of things plenty of times you know what though most problems are solved with a second computer or a boolean search online.

 

[scirishman76]

I went to bed right after posting last night because it was going to be an early but long day (Way to go Sens !! [:mousemonkey:3] ) so missed you uninformed post, so I'll reply to it now.



I've done my homework, you obviously haven't. Nor did you understand my statement about how that $100 being spent on a dedicated PhysX card would be a better idea, which isn't surprising considering your 'qualifications'.

I'll repost the quote, and while you're at it you can point out the insult. ;
"if you give a rat's a$$ about PhysX you need to buy a secondary card for either solution to run well."

What part of that was too difficult for your to understand with all your expertise?

Of course the ATi card loses performance, because it's rendering all that crappy debris, just like the nVidia card loses performance. However the performance drop is not as much as when the nVidia card has to alone do the graphics and the physics. So like I said, that $100 more spent on a dedicated graphics card goes to fixing that issue with regards to supporting physics and provides better performance than just the one nV card alone. This is the exact same concept behind the co-op card, which brings me to my example proving my point;

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/evga-gtx275-coop-physx_8.html#sect3
"The XFX Radeon HD 5850 Black Edition + GeForce GT 220 tandem looks even better, outperforming the mentioned configuration at every resolution."

http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/2228/atiphysx.jpg

http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/536/atiphysx2.jpg




No, in fact YOU are wrong on both counts, as proven above. [:jaydeejohn]



Now would be the time to insult you, for thinking that had any weight. That and 99c will get you a cup of coffee off the value menu. [:thegreatgrapeape:6]

A+ certification means just about NOTHING nowadays, Best Buy useless D-bags are A+ certified.
It meant something in the 90s when it wasn't given out for 10 Cheerios box tops, heck they ever remade it to make it easier so anyone could pass it, so using that as your 'badge of tech honour' is pretty lame.

Noticed you cut the rest out after A+ certified where I built more than 250 high end gaming rigs in the last 12 months and read at least 15hours on hardware etc. a week.The charts you are showing me do make a solid point however the 5850 is by far the most powerful GPU in that comparison so it should PWN the rest of them with a dedicated physX card.Apparently I misunderstood what you were trying to say.Sounded like you were telling me that adding a dedicated PhysX card and enabling physX would allow you to gain FPS over having No physX on.However you did come at me with a very aggressive tone and a very opinionated post(many people do care about PhysX).I wish we were each given $1500 to spend on parts of our choice to have a benchmark war that would solve this LOL.Sorry I misunderstood what you said and told you to do your homework but the way you worded it didn't clearly state what you were saying.Here is a 3dmark06 link to my single 8800gts512 and Phenom II 955 score.Was able to score over 16500 which is better than 90% of people with a single 4870 and 65% of people with a 4890 you don't achieve this with no tech skills.Also I know this GPU is a little dated but all of my newer builds were for sale and only O.C.ed to advertised specs.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=13461698