ZOTAC GeForce GTX 480 AMP! Edition

[W1zzard]

ZOTAC's GeForce GTX 480 AMP! Edition comes with a mighty Zalman VF3000 cooler strapped to it which reduces the card's temperatures by 20°C. Thanks to the new cooling solution, the card has no problems running at higher clock speeds out of the box. But is that enough to declare this triple slot card a winner?

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[v12dock]

Excellent Review! Overall looks like a very nice improvement, but im sure the 257 drivers helped .

 

[newtekie1]

Very interesting...

It has huge power consumption drops, despite actually having a higher voltage. It is possible that the better cooling on the VRM area has made it more effeicient?

 

[ozama]

Hi,Is it possible to ajust fan speed at lower level with rivatuner for the noice in idle mode.

Thanks

 

[newtekie1]

I would assume it is possible since it uses the reference PCB.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

I'd be interested in nvidia or zotac's take on the power draw difference.

 

[Cold Storm]

Well, the normal VF3000(N/A) has a fan controller with it.. But, don't see it with the Zotac

 

[newtekie1]

The standard VF3000 connected to a standard fan header though, the custom one Zotac is using connects directly to the card's fan header. Which I would guess means it has fan control.

 

[Cold Storm]

The standard VF3000 connected to a standard fan header though, the custom one Zotac is using connects directly to the card's fan header. Which I would guess means it has fan control.

Very true. it would assume that it would go straight to fan control.

 

[ozama]

I hope its possible,thanks for your reply guys.

 

[Hayder_Master]

thanx W1zzard for first review in the hole web
im think about getting this card

 

[alexsubri]

:shadedshu Still hoping I'd see more competition against the 5970 shadedshu

 

[Jiraiya]

thx man , wt this games ?? this old games

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars

Quake 4

Prey

Far Cry

Call of Duty 4

this new games

Metro 2033

Just Cause 2

Aliens vs. Predator

Call Of Pripyat

Bad Company 2

 

[Hayder_Master]

:shadedshu Still hoping I'd see more competition against the 5970 shadedshu

can't compare it with dual GPU, GTX480 is the fasts GPU now, but two on sli and compare

 

[wahdangun]

Very interesting...

It has huge power consumption drops, despite actually having a higher voltage. It is possible that the better cooling on the VRM area has made it more effeicient?

maybe because they use more efficient cooler and not using those stupid high ampere fan, and because they are lower temperature it's make the fan spin less, thus make power consumtion to drop.

 

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

:shadedshu Still hoping I'd see more competition against the 5970 shadedshu

Surely you were not expecting a mere change of the cooler would make it faster than the 5970??

 

[afw]

can't compare it with dual GPU, GTX480 is the fasts GPU now, but two on sli and compare

People buy VGA cards not GPUs ...

They wont care whether the 5970 has 2 cores or 20 cores as long as its price/performace/temps are good ...

But i have to admit that the 5970 price is a bit high ....

 

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

But i have to admit that the 5970 price is a bit high ....

Its priced competitively.. its really not that high imo.

 

[Fourstaff]

Do we have a winrar? I think this card is going to pile a lot of pressure on ATi's offerings.

 

[newtekie1]

Its priced competitively.. its really not that high imo.

HA

When there is nothing to compete against, that isn't a valid statement.

And I would hardly consider it priced competitive when the closest option performance wise is $100 cheaper, and of course by closest I mean virtually identical performance.

 

[mlee49]

thx man , wt this games ?? this old games

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars

Quake 4

Prey

Far Cry

Call of Duty 4

this new games

+1 please stop working so hard! You can remove these games from the review process, they are really outdated.

Great review as always Wiz! Thanks!

 

[Shou Miko]

i liked the bios tweak Zotac have than, almost 20watts less power usage than Nvidia's reference card that's awesome ness, maybe with some more tweaks it can get better ^^

 

[claylomax]

I'm not surprised about the power consumption; it's been compared to the power consumption of the "launch card" not the mass production card. My GTX 480 consumes just 50w more at load that my old GTX 285. By the way most GTX 480 owners seem to reach 830-840 on the core with stock voltage; otherwise another excellent review.

 

[mascotzel]

The fans have 4 wires and they should be capable of being dynamically controlled .
Maybe there is something wrong with the sample TPU received. I've just read another ZOTAC GTX480 test and it shows big variations in idle/load dbA, so the fans must be controlled.

 

[WW_Dagger]

Will it fit in SLI?

So if I wanted to put two of these big daddies on my Asus Rampage III Extreme motherboard... would I have to use slot 1 and 4? Wonder if slot 4 would even have enough room below it...