NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 Fermi

W1zzard · Mar 19, 2010

Today marks the release of NVIDIA's new GeForce Fermi architecture. After excruciating months of delays, NVIDIA has finally given the green light for their new products. The GeForce GTX 480 offers all the latest features like DirectX 11, Tesselation, gaming on multiple monitors and GPU computation. Did NVIDIA's new card manage to claim the throne?

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qubit · Mar 26, 2010

Nice, It's got the performance crown, I want one!

Thanks for another great review, W1zzard. :toast:

EDIT: Ok, taking a slightly longer look at it, I think I'd rather wait for the improved "GTX485" variant which will come with a die shrink and all 512 shaders enabled (hopefully). The GTX480 runs far too hot and noisy for my liking. My 285 doesn't make an irritating noise, even when worked hard and that's essential for me. I'd rather lose performance than put up with it.

Heck, I might even get one of the smaller variants coming out soon, if I want nvidia DX11 capability to play with.

ERazer · Mar 26, 2010

great review wizz :rockout:

card kinna let down

theonedub · Mar 26, 2010

96C loaded, not F@H friendly :cry:

ShiBDiB · Mar 26, 2010

only 5-8fps in msot tests then my 295.. win on my part

Binge · Mar 26, 2010

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 320 Watts!

Soylent Joe · Mar 26, 2010

A big, hot, expensive, badass, sexy, power-sucking pile of awesome. Can't wait to see how the 470 does.

SteelSix · Mar 26, 2010

ATI: Catalyst 9.12 ??

dir_d · Mar 26, 2010

yay...i wanna see 10.3 benches with it now

Marineborn · Mar 26, 2010

not bad, but once that aa hits them 480's it starts to choke and at high resoltuions. notice the 5850 at 2560x1600 with anti almost beats the 480. but still not bad, it should have been better for the 6 months delay

jasper1605 · Mar 26, 2010

SteelSix said:
ATI: Catalyst 9.12 ??

yeah, interesting. Didn't 10.2 or 10.3 announce FPS increases for a multitude of games?

SystemViper · Mar 26, 2010

sweeeet, again another toy on the "git me one" list, man that list is growing...

nice review! as always

DaC · Mar 26, 2010

As expected I would say.... but no thanks, the electric bill would get into account because of the very big difference on power draw...

qubit · Mar 26, 2010

Looking at the benchies, it's amazing how well the 4870 X2 still does - it actually beats the GTX480 in some cases and is a great achievement for AMD for making such a relatively future proof (in frame rate at least) card.

Although I want the GTX480, the performance difference isn't enough for me to buy it anytime soon. A big reason is that my trusty GTX285 still gets really good frame rates in the games and resolutions I play at. If and when DX11 becomes more mainstream and games I'm interested in start using it eg HL2EP3, then it will make a more compelling purchase.

I reckon the Fermi GPU will really come into its own on the next die shrink. It'll run cooler and have the extra shaders enabled.

xaira · Mar 26, 2010

only shows any significant performance advantage in a few situations where both cards average over 100+FPS, disappointing pile of fail, at least the fanbois will still buy it 300watts vs 188watts Whup tee doo well done nFailia :shadedshu

Fourstaff · Mar 26, 2010

Performs in a very predictable way, but still a reasonable product. Useful especially during winter, it keeps you warm. However in summer...

SteelSix · Mar 26, 2010

jasper1605 said:
yeah, interesting. Didn't 10.2 or 10.3 announce FPS increases for a multitude of games?

yep.. 10.3 and 10.3a

Divide Overflow · Mar 26, 2010

jasper1605 said:
yeah, interesting. Didn't 10.2 or 10.3 announce FPS increases for a multitude of games?

Yeah, it sure did. Things are somewhat closer with current drivers.

crow1001 · Mar 26, 2010

WTF, how come you're running the 9.12's from December 2009, misprint?

pantherx12 · Mar 26, 2010

Not impressed at all.

Power draw is ludicrous .

Considering NV had an extra 6 months to fiddle with the card I was expecting better performance as well.

Reefer86 · Mar 26, 2010

well thats what i thought WTF! 10.3's are surely better to use.

Its kinda made that review worthless to me, sorry to say.

Yeah ok we can see the performance of the card BUT not using the latest drivers means we cant see if this has taken the crown

human_error · Mar 26, 2010

Well i'm not suprised, but am quite dissapointed no testing was done with the 10.3a/b/stock drivers for the 5k series - i feel possibly a mini-review on how the 5ks do against fermi on those drivers would be very interesting.

I am very impressed by 50mhz core for desktop but less than impressed at the power needed to run that.

Glad my 5970s still teh fastest thing around too.

newtekie1 · Mar 26, 2010

Price to performance is about where I expected. What is surprising is how much better this card did in all the DX11 tests. Seems like nVidia's claims of 100% better performance in tesseleation wasn't too far off. Too bad DX11 won't matter until at least the next generation of cards. I think I'll pass, unless I can get a free step-up from eVGA...

johnnyfiive · Mar 26, 2010

Knew it.

So whos still buying a 480? At $499+ (More like $549), the 5870 seems a lot more appealing now doesn't it?

SteelSix · Mar 26, 2010

johnnyfiive said:
Knew it.

So whos still buying a 480? 5870 seems a lot more appealing now doesn't it?

It sure does. ATI should have launched all options today, mainly the 2GB cards. I'm ready to buy now damn it!!

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 Fermi

W1zzard

Administrator

qubit

Overclocked quantum bit

ERazer

theonedub

habe fidem

ShiBDiB

Binge

Overclocking Surrealism

Soylent Joe

SteelSix

dir_d

Marineborn

jasper1605

SystemViper

DaC

qubit

Overclocked quantum bit

xaira

Fourstaff

Moderator

SteelSix

Divide Overflow

crow1001

pantherx12

Reefer86

human_error

newtekie1

Semi-Retired Folder

johnnyfiive

SteelSix

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