NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 Fermi

[Tartaros]

About temps, it seems people forget the temps in the 8800's and hd3000... I guess the 3870x2 was about 100º when full if I remember. And my 8800gtx was about 90º.

 

[crow1001]

It is release drivers so accurate performance figures with mature drivers would be months from release really.

Yeah I think we will see a refresh before major driver boosts, the card is THAT bad.

But what about from the standpoint of someone like me. Temps and power are a total non-issue for me. I have a huge psu and I watercool everything. Plus, lets not forget the benefit of CUDA apps.

Although I do have enough psu, there's still the power bill to consider.

It's just such a tough decision for me. I really like the folding and CUDA power of the nv cards, but the power consumption of the ATI cards is so spectacular.

If cash is not an issue for you then yes the 480 for folding and cuda is the card for you.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

You know it's worth pointing out - I've noticed that usually the people most likely to make comments are the small percentage that have an issue... the large percentage of satisfied people will go on their way merrily. This is one of the reasons why newegg ratings don't always seem accurate to a products actual reliability.

 

[DaedalusHelios]

Yeah I think we will see a refresh before major driver boosts, the card is THAT bad.

Same situation with ATi releasing 3 series against G92's and failing hard. Now Nvidia is in the same situation plus the tabloid nature of fringe blogs grating on the nerves of those with decency and politeness.

The way I see it is Nvidia made a new card which is pretty good to be a prototype for what is to come. They have a new architecture now to build upon and revise. It is like the building stage of an american NFL team. You don't bet on them to take it all the way to the superbowl in the first year of a building stage as they are creating a new foundation(team). My only beef with Nvidia is that the prices are too high right now. If they lower prices to accept less of a margin they should be fine and more competitive with the competition this series.

 

[Melvis]

I can't beleive what ive been reading in this thread, iam absolutely appalled with some peoples replies. Then to make Wizzard want to give it away gezz thats just bad.

I take my hat off to Wizzard for what he does, to put out a great review in such a short amount of time, to me is just amazing. To me his reviews are the best on the net, and i only go by his reviews for information on new products. They are presented well, accross a wide range of apps and IMO are not biast reviews and thats what im looking for. TPU is the ONLY forum im signed up on for computer.......anything, thats how good i think it is.

It takes a stuff loud of time to do a review, heck takes me all day just to bench 3 different cards on three different systems let alone doing a bench test on 30 different games/apps/etc.

Im just disgusted to see people whine that much over something that takes alot of hard work and time to get a excellent review out that we ALL have been waiting for, for so long and then to be beatin down for it? tsk tsk :shadedshu

If you leave wizzard you will be missed.

 

[shevanel]

Did I hear him say you need 2!! fermis to run 3 displays???

Good god an idle 60c+!! IDLE!!

he said it gets to 96c then the fan blasts away at the same loudness as 4870x2 and louder than a gtx 295! holy crap! so average load temps are 90C with 50dbA

It's a pleasant 22 degrees this time of the year being Spring, but the GTX 480 still scores a scorching 96 degrees Celsius on typical gaming load. Crossing the 100 degrees mark won't be tough for this GPU in even slightly hotter places, especially with Summer coming up.

So in the summertime I need to keep my house @ 71F with constantly moving cool air to keep this card from making my room into a friggin sauna.. yea i rememeber you making me sweat mr gtx 275..

I'm so thrilled with the performance of lower res gaming but after seeing the 325w load draw, MASSIVE heat, fan noise, price and limited availibility I think I am going to pass on trying this sucker out even though I wanted to but I just cannot sacrafice a cool and quiet bedroom for an average gain of 9-13% over what I currently have.

Only way I would buy this is if the hottest girl on my block only dated dudes with gtx 480's (block-peen) and ive never even met a chick that even knows what an nvidia is LOL..

If it wasn't so hot and loud this would be the best deal ever but there is a HUGE sacrafice to be made to live alongside one of these crock pots.

 

[shevanel]

I think w1z's use of 9.12 was a great way to comapre the gtx 480 at launch to the 5870 performance at launch. so what if he didnt use 10.3 .. you dont think the drivers released from nvidia 3 months from now will not make that bench obsolete?

The review was perfect at comparing the gtx 480 to the competition as if they were both released at the same time.

NOW DIGG IT or TURN in YOUR TPU BADGE!

 

[HillBeast]

I would just like to make an apology to W1zz. I know it would be hard doing the review and getting it out on time and making few to no errors in it, and he did a pretty bang up job covering all the bases. My comments earlier about the drivers were a little rude so I do apologise.

Please don't quit man. I really do just want to know why you chose to use 9.12 drivers, and if you can tell us then I think everyone will be happy.

 

[Wile E]

Did I hear him say you need 2!! fermis to run 3 displays???

It's not like a single ATI card can run 3 displays in games with decent frames anyway. You would still need 2 or more to get acceptable framerates at higher settings.

Now, needing 2 cards for 3 displays does suck from a desktop/2D standpoint.

 

[LiveOrDie]

abit of a let down if i say so not much better than 2xgtx 280's if u look at it that way

 

[Wile E]

abit of a let down if i say so not much better than 2xgtx 280's if u look at it that way

5870 isn't any better than 2 4870's either. But 4870's and 280's don't have DX11, do they?

 

[human_error]

w1zzard,

I do feel a lot of the hate which has been put towards the article is not because people don't think it's very good (i know we would all rather have one of your reviews to read more than any other reviews, especially when it comes to the analysis at the end where we get all the price/power/performance metrics). I feel we have hate here atm because people who wanted ati to show nvidia up are dissapointed the 480 is better than the 5870 in fps, and we have the nvidia fans who are dissapointed that it didn't beat the 5870 by enough and is a power hog - both these groups are annoyed because of how the cards perform but are taking it out on the review and each other (which is unfair, but this is the internet and people can be dicks for the slightest thing).

Many of us understand the hard work which goes into the review (hell i get bored benching my card to check it's overclock is stable, let alone the number of cards you deal with) and if anyone who is complaining stopped to think how long it has taken you so far to do the review and then how much longer it would take you to re-do the ATi cards with newer drivers, and then the older nvidia cards with newer drivers else it isn't fair on them etc then i'm sure very few people, if any, would complain. Yes i would prefer 10.3 drivers, but because you can't be expected to test all your life i accept that isn't possible - the review is still very thorough, i can see where the new cards seem to have strengths and weaknesses in the games and with all the other data you provide i can happily see everything i want/need to about them.

Everyone else needs to remember this isn't an ATi vs Nvidia article - it is a review of a new card and the other cards are thrown in not as a competition, but rather as a point of reference which allows people to get a feel for where the card sits in comparison to others. W1zzards' reviews are always impartial and when it comes to reviewing new parts it focuses on what is needed - how do these new cards perform? If you want a competition between ATi and Nvidia to see which cards bench highest or give the highest fps then take it to the forums in a benchmarking thread, not to a thread about a review. The review delivers what it should in a thorough analysis of how fermi does - as with all w1zzards' reviews i don't feel like i want to go read other reviews to find out missing info on the new card - all i want is here and that shows that w1zzard has succeeded in producing a comprehensive picture of what fermi is.

Everyone if we can stop discussing why 9.12 was used (it would have taken a LOT longer to review everything again with 9.3s and newer drivers for all cards - we wouldn't have a fermi review at all for a week or two - all so we don't have to add 10% in our heads for ati cards if we really care). we should start discussing fermi, which is what this thread is meant to be about (and also the review, but not on something which has been argued over to death).

 

[oily_17]

I really do just want to know why you chose to use 9.12 drivers, and if you can tell us then I think everyone will be happy.

Well if you take 7 ATI cards x 21 benchmarks at 5 resolutions = 735 tests

If it took 2min per test that would be ~24h non stop testing for drivers that were released 2 days ago.
Maybe he had other things to get done in that time as well,, new release of GPU-Z and review of GeForce GTX 480 PCI-Express Scaling

 

[shevanel]

Well, I know someone wouldnt buy a GTX 480 for non-gaming purposes but a security firm can slip a single 5000 series card in and run multiple monitors for cameras or something like that right?

I don't know dude, I was really excited when I came home an hour ago to read the gtx 480 review and while the performance is impressive I think nvidia expects to much of a sacrafice to the user for moderate performance gains.

I never owned ATI and thought I never would... always chose the NV brand over the ATI brand my whole life, but when the 5800 series benches came out I just had to have one.. it was a well rounded video card and i was hoping the Gtx480 review to make me want to own one but it would be like buying a dump truck as a commuter vehicle.

I know the majority of the people are saying the same things but I don't think people truly realize the bigger picture here which is the fact that it takes a 6 month late $500 card pushed to its limits with power consumption, heat , noise and psu requirements to out pace a $400 6 month old card.

I just hoped for more, I would have sold my 5870 for $325 if this card from NV wasn't such an upset.. I was really hoping for something great from Nv and instead all we were given was a glimpse at what sacrafices must be made to get 4.8 more fps in Dirt 2 or 5 more frames in Metro 2033. an overclocked 5870 still shines..

too bad the 5000 series didnt use 384bit or else NV wouldve really had to raise the bar.

I'm hoping people do not have any stability issues with these $500 beasts and these card manufacturers cannot afford to have massive RMA's

 

[983264]

Well, I don't know if this could help you guys...

If you are a guy that is hooked up to the latest hardware in pc, you don't care about your power bills just for a powerful rig, you don't care about the problems of the card as long as you want it, you don't care about the price tag, you don't care about global warming, go for the GTX 480.

But if you're a budgeted person, who needs a powerful card just right for the price, you don't want to increase your bills, you wanted a card with least problems as of now, and you care for global warming, you want a card that is still one of the latest in the hardware, go for 5870...

For my conclusion about the GTX 480, not advisable in hot regions, especially for user's who are in cool places, and WTH, power hog... I can say this because I live in the Philippines and it's God-&@%$ very hot in here cause by El-niño, and my rig is not water cooled but only air cooled...

 

[LiveOrDie]

5870 isn't any better than 2 4870's either. But 4870's and 280's don't have DX11, do they?

true but its not even worth going to a DX11 card till the end of the year by then they would of drop in price, i was hoping the 480 would leave a gap like when the 8800's come out but i guess i was wrong.

 

[shevanel]

maybe gtx 295's will stop being $529 now

 

[nt300]

Wel its true Fermi runs HOT. I can't believe the GTX 480 doubles the HD 5870 in WATTs Charlie with his original article was correct, something is wrong with this Fermi.
The performance gap is not by much. I say no thank you for Fermi. ATI has won another day.

How long will the Fermi last for since its hotter than a frying pan

About temps, it seems people forget the temps in the 8800's and hd3000... I guess the 3870x2 was about 100º when full if I remember. And my 8800gtx was about 90º.

That’s irrelevant, we are talking about complex hardware with advancements in process and design. These Fermi should be run cooler but its quite evident there’s something erroneous with this design and Nvidia really needs a re-spin or something.

 

[HalfAHertz]

power, noise, average performance, performance per watt, performance per dollar, more resolutions, 2560x1600, 64-bit OS

all that has changed and probably even more, if you dont know what you are talking about shut up and go somewhere else

TPU is always the first place i go to for my hardware fix, hell it's on top of my bookmarks list. You have provided one of the most comprehensive reviews on the web, don't let a few rotten eggs get you down! My suggestion to you is to keep up the great job, and maybe drop benchmarks on some older games if you find the work overwhelming. You review like 20+ games? That's larger than my entire gaming collection, simply crazy

 

[SteelSix]

email me serious offers to w1zzard@techpowerup.com

Ouch.

W1zzard, I initially questioned 9.12 and feel bad so many have responded so harshly. Your reviews are by far the one of the most detailed, most informative ones to be found. Your pics and detailed card tear down are absolutely priceless. NO ONE DOES THIS like you do. You're the only one who takes the time, every time, to tear a card down. I've linked to your photos dozens of times here and on other forums to answer people's questions.

Have a nice weekend, blow off some steam, and please don't let the negative comments upset you. Thank you sir, TPU is an amazing site.

 

[brandonwh64]

from the looks of the 480, it seems to be exchanging blows with the 5870/GTX295 and sometimes even a 5850/4870X2.

for the price of these cards and the power consumption, i reality its not worth it IMO

 

[HalfAHertz]

If you are a fps crazed fanatic then this is the card for you. It manages to beat the 5970 in some cases! And we all know that 1GPU solutions provide a more stable gameplay and a better overall experience than Sli/CFX

 

[HillBeast]

If it took 2min per test that would be ~24h non stop testing for drivers that were released 2 days ago.

I was more refering to at least 10.1 or 10.2.

 

[laszlo]

lol good card but power draw is almost like 1 full pc

 

[HillBeast]

Wel its true Fermi runs HOT. I can't believe the GTX 480 doubles the HD 5870 in WATTs Charlie with his original article was correct, something is wrong with this Fermi.
The performance gap is not by much. I say no thank you for Fermi. ATI has won another day.

How long will the Fermi last for since its hotter than a frying pan

That’s irrelevant, we are talking about complex hardware with advancements in process and design. These Fermi should be run cooler but its quite evident there’s something erroneous with this design and Nvidia really needs a re-spin or something.

Like I said: Netburst.