The GeForce GTX 480 Update: 3-Way SLI, 3D Vision, And Noise

[doron]

[citation][nom]doron[/nom]The performance per dollar advantage vanishes if you're not building a completely new rig and need to upgrade PSU and case just to fit Nvidia's requirements for SLI. Also the huge power outage of 2x480 might explain the added performance, which is highly unjustified IMHO[/citation]

Sorry for quoting myself but it really sux to be at the end of the 5th page when I really want people to read and respond to my opinion regarding this whole questionable "value" gtx480 in SLI (not that the mid-6th page is better.. but what the heck )...
I actually find myself disagreeing with Chris' opinions more than any other reporter *doh*

 

[xero9200]

"I believe Nvidia’s Drew Henry when he says GF100 is designed to weather high temps."

So basically nvidia designed the chip, realized it was way too hot, and yet somehow ran, so then they justified it as engineering feat? You can't design it to "weather" high temps. These are transistors - they don't like heat and will wear out much faster as a result of the high temps. It's like running a car without anti-freeze.

 

[duk3]

I would have liked to see a 5970 comparison with sound and heat in the mix too.
A $600-700 5970 definitely brings the value vs a $1000 fermi SLI.

 

[pyrrhon]

Toms staff should get inspired by silentpcreview.com when it comes to noise temps and watts.

 

[Orumus]

All I can say is wow,

Congratz AMD on producing a product 6 months before the competition that is still an attractive option to Fermi.

 

[anonymous x]

[citation][nom]JCCIII[/nom]Is this a worship Nvidia site and review. Where do we have to go to get some honesty?"SLI is so significant that it actually alters the “value” of buying SLI or CrossFire. You pay more for a pair of GTX 480s, yes, but the corresponding performance increase results in lower cost/average performance than the Radeons." [Owned by Nvidia]Actually, actually, do you mean really, really; are you a fan-boy? Joseph C. Carbone III[/citation]
well those are the results from the data obtained... what are you going to do, make up a conclusion contrary to the evidence to please you?

 

[jamsbong]

Great review and good detailed info for references.

The way I judge graphics card is this, If the card can perform at my monitor's resolution at > 60fps then it is a good card. There is little significance going above 120fps because most lcd screens (cheaply affordable ones) won't even have > 60hz refresh rate. That means the LCD display is the bottleneck, not the graphics card.

However, if the game runs lower than 60fps like crysis, STALKER or METRO 2033. This is where one can judge the true performance of the card. From these three games at 1920x resolution, the 5870 is on par in both crysis and STALKER while the GTX480 clearly wins the METRO benchmark.

So if you must play METRO at high res with full features on, then GTX480 is the way to go. If you can compromise on this game, then the either cards are fine and preferably the cheaper card will be the wise choice.

 

[liquidsnake718]

Tri SLi = Power outage for developing nations like mine! Lol

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]TheGreatGrapeApe[/nom]So, Chris did you enable PhysX in Just Cause 2? It wasn't mentioned in the settings, but it was made mention in the explanation of the poor performance, yet other testers (like Xbit) found the same thing with GPU water disabled.Needs to be a little clearer IMO.As for the sound thing, it's funny that now "it's not an issue" as long as you buy a new case built specifically for the graphics card, to which end, I would wonder why AMD wasn't contacted for their input on the best case for their sound and cooling? It's laughable that the way to handle this issue is by changing the tests, since a CoolerMaster Centurion case wasn't good enough in the first nVidia 'recommended retest'. I recommend people reduce sound levels lower and get liquid cooling. I wonder how many people felt it was the case's fault for the bad HD2900 and FX5800 sound & heat issues?[/citation]

The Bokeh filter and GPU Water were both turned on for the GTX 480s (which is why the analysis says we can't compare them). I'll clarify on the setup page.

ATI doesn't have a problem in a case or on an open-air bench. That's why they weren't contacted. Nvidia does have a problem on an open-air bench. That's why they contacted *me.* It's notable that running these cards in one of the "approved" cases helps alleviate the acoustic issue. And I do believe that someone interested in buying one of these cards would want that information, no?

I'm not sure whether you're suggesting I altered my methodology to favor Nvidia, but that's not the case at all.

Gentlemen, data is being presented here. Conclusions are based on data. Bear in mind that we stand to gain nothing from twisting or distorting the truth. It's all simply information that I (we) hope folks can use to make informed decisions. That's the name of the game, after all!

Take care all,
Chris Angelini

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]avatar_raq[/nom]Hey Chris, nice piece there, as usual !Few questions/points:1) What about the P6X58D mobos, are they bad for SLI/CF? Aren't their PCI-e slots 16x ?? Why not mention them in the table of certified mobos?2) Guru3D did a similar article using a core i7 975 EE @ 3.75Ghz and they demonstrated better 3 way SLI scaling.. So I -like many others- do believe a CPU bottleneck is at work in your systemhttp://www.guru3d.com/article/gefo [...] i-review/1 Can't you repeat the tests with another mobo and core i7 980 @ say 4.0 Ghz?[/citation]

Thanks Avatar. I do have the P6X58D Premium here. Unfortunately, it doesn't make the recommended list because its top two PCI Express x16 slots are too close together, so you'd end up with the top board starved for air and spinning up like a jet turbine ;-)

 

[Guest]

Hello there,
you KNOW that there are problems with your reported gtx480 power figures. You state it in your article. A journalist would seize on this and investigate. Is my test setup wrong? Have nvidia lied about tdp?

You could have produced a real scoop.

Instead you've produced another boring review for fanboys to kick around in the dust before knifing each other.

 

[neiroatopelcc]

[citation][nom]andrewuwe[/nom]Hello there,you KNOW that there are problems with your reported gtx480 power figures. You state it in your article. A journalist would seize on this and investigate. Is my test setup wrong? Have nvidia lied about tdp?You could have produced a real scoop.Instead you've produced another boring review for fanboys to kick around in the dust before knifing each other.[/citation]

Stop reading it if you find it boring!

 

[technoholic]

[citation][nom]mitchellvii[/nom]At the outer edges humans can perceive 60 fps and that's pretty much limited to those with the vision of fighter pilots. Most of us regular folk have a hard time noticing any more than 30 fps.That being said, I need to pay $1000 for 225 fps why exactly? To be able to play Crysis (a horribly optimized game with terrible multiplayer) maxxed out?A $200 4890 can play good MP games (COD4, BF2, etc) maxxed out without a hitch. Don't mean to sound derogatory, but it just seems silly to me. If you MUST have Dx11, get a 5850 for $300.[/citation]

or 2x 5770s for a great performance

 

[Mottamort]

How about not speaking for every gamer out there.
... Mine maxed at 92C, which is well below spec.

I can't help myself but say this : try taking your own advice much?

Oh and something maxing out at 92C which ISN'T causing alarm (if not for your card, then for the other half-melted components in your system) is rather strange...I don't care what NVidia say about it, 90C+ scares the crap out of me. I wouldn't put that card NEAR my system...

 

[thegreathuntingdolphin]

I will be the first to admit the GTX 480 is better than the 5870...but the cost is too great.

Idle Windows Desktop gets a gpu heat rating of over 60! That means everything else in my case will heat up several degrees more than most graphics cards that idle around 40. If your mobo and CPU are an extra several degrees higher, you can kiss extreme overclocking goodbye unless everything is liquid cooled.

 

[Pei-chen]

[citation][nom]youssef 2010[/nom]You're right about the 90% load.Don't know about the 120% part though.How do you know this, I mean did somebody tell you or was it a personal experience?[/citation]
Silent PC has a section of PSU and they test a lot of high end high efficiency PSUs
http://www.silentpcreview.com/section10.html

There might be another site that test PSU extensively but I can't think of it off the top of my head.

 

[Pei-chen]

[citation][nom]Mottamort[/nom]I can't help myself but say this : try taking your own advice much?Oh and something maxing out at 92C which ISN'T causing alarm (if not for your card, then for the other half-melted components in your system) is rather strange...I don't care what NVidia say about it, 90C+ scares the crap out of me. I wouldn't put that card NEAR my system...[/citation]
Fear mongering much?

My Gigabyte 4850 1GB with Zalman cooler (pre-installed by Gigabyte) reaches 105C in Furmark. I have seen it reach 106C but GPU starts to throttle.

GPU can operate at higher temperature than CPU and they both can operate at higher temp than human. Using your human scale of 92C=hot and applies it to components are laughable.

Fermi are going to be used in rendering farms and supercomputers and I sure Nvidia has done some test so people won’t start asking for replacement on their $2000 cards.

(BTW, why don’t you load up Furmark and decide if you want to keep your card or not)

 

[Guest]

Please do a 3-monitor performance review.
5760 x 1080
5040 x 1050

 

[spoofedpacket]

[citation][nom]mitchellvii[/nom]Just wondering - do guys that drop a grand on a tri-sli rig tell girls in a bar that they need to come back to their place to check out their rig? Sorry, I am just trying to think of a rationale to do something this silly.[/citation]

Coming from a guy who calls a computer a "rig". I do know a few women who are nice looking and do like gaming-- but as exposed with all the console hate on Tom's, I'm assuming most here are virgins. It is a lot easier and more fun to play consoles with women as opposed to hunched over a desk next to a big tower.

 

[W Craven]

The 10.4 driver is very bad for me on 5850 CX as showing over 2000 point loss on gpu score in Vantage vs 10.3 driver and you need 2 bridges in CX for bandwith from my testing..

Also from your reveiw i should stop gaming at 5760 x 1080 in Eyefinty in BC 2 DX 11 being CX doesn't have the balls like your reveiw shows but Thank God your not the only reveiw site as the Canada site showed CX to scale better the SLi...

 

[mrboycom]

GTX 480 is better to be used to warm food. Or transfer their heat to renewable energy so it worth the price lol.

 

[elbert]

Chris on the next review could you do a 2x 2560X1600(nvidia) vs 3x 1680X1050(ATI) benchmark? I picked these 2 due to the combined resolution come close to equal. Most running SLI and CF with high end GPU's would have extra monitors.

 

[vider]

I don't understand this, how come, when using three GTX 480 in SLI gives a result of 34.83 FPS at 2560x1600 w/4xMSAA enabled and when using two GTX 480 in SLI mode, gives a measly 6.87 FPS at 2560x1600 w/4xMSAA enabled (In Metro 2033) ? ? ?

Is it me or something here doesn't add up?

 

[avatar_raq]

Sorry to post again Chris and everyone.
Can anybody please give me a list of decent cases having 8 expansion slots, besides the antec 902? As I mentioned before, I bought the P6X58D Premium and I plan to use its 3rd PCI-e slot.

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]vider[/nom]I don't understand this, how come, when using three GTX 480 in SLI gives a result of 34.83 FPS at 2560x1600 w/4xMSAA enabled and when using two GTX 480 in SLI mode, gives a measly 6.87 FPS at 2560x1600 w/4xMSAA enabled (In Metro 2033) ? ? ? Is it me or something here doesn't add up?[/citation]

Different games with different requirements. Metro is a DX11 title with a debilitating DirectCompute algorithm (the Depth of Field filter).