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Computerbase.de -- Graphics Card Evolution Performance: 7900GTX/X1800XT to GTX580

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@Groove: Man, I was actually just about to impulse buy one as well, until I saw the 94c operating temp and 64.1 db noise at load (according to anandtech bench). Speed almost identical to gtx 570, and if I was on water like you are it would be a no-brainer, but I'm still stuck on air for now.
 
bryanW1995 said:
@Groove: Man, I was actually just about to impulse buy one as well, until I saw the 94c operating temp and 64.1 db noise at load (according to anandtech bench). Speed almost identical to gtx 570, and if I was on water like you are it would be a no-brainer, but I'm still stuck on air for now.
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I don't know why but the anand bench numbers need to be taken with a bucket of salt. I have GTX 470s OC, and although the bench shows 90c temps, even with kombuster I haven't hit over 80c, and benchmarking torture test (like one of last tests of vantage with multi color swirl) it peaked around 72c. My cards are 775gpu w/ 1.075v and are just reference cooled. My ambient temp isn't all that cold because it is around 30c.
 
MarkLuvsCS said:
I don't know why but the anand bench numbers need to be taken with a bucket of salt. I have GTX 470s OC, and although the bench shows 90c temps, even with kombuster I haven't hit over 80c, and benchmarking torture test (like one of last tests of vantage with multi color swirl) it peaked around 72c. My cards are 775gpu w/ 1.075v and are just reference cooled. My ambient temp isn't all that cold because it is around 30c.
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I got up to 81*C in MSI Kombustor on my 760mhz GTX470. Although in Crysis 1 it never went above 77*C.

crysisdemogtx470760gpu1.png


I did buy a high-flow bracket for it though and changed my case from Thermaltake Soprano to Azza Solano.
 
bryanW1995 said:
@Groove: Man, I was actually just about to impulse buy one as well, until I saw the 94c operating temp and 64.1 db noise at load (according to anandtech bench). Speed almost identical to gtx 570, and if I was on water like you are it would be a no-brainer, but I'm still stuck on air for now.
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Not on water here, all air! That temp seems high, but I'm assuming that is on the stock fan profile. Even my cards being sandwiched together don't get that hot, the hottest I see is 90C on the middle card, but that is at 85% fan speed (very, very loud) Also I have a very unfriendly case for air-cooling (800D), so in a good air cooling case, temps would be better than what I am seeing.

They're definitey loud cards. But I could see a single one getting by on a custom profile of say 60-70% fan speed and staying around 80-85C. Still we be loud though.
 
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Here are the results of the video where someone changed the stock GTX470 TIM with aftermarket IC Diamond 24:

gtx470tim.jpg


Of course this card will never truly be "quiet". So keep that in mind.
 
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@Russian

Those are some pretty significant drops with just new TIM XD. Does the memory of the 470 have those sticky-foam-heat-thingies on them? I'm guessing it was pretty painless to swap TIM on the cards?

I probably should order some new thermal paste.
 
Yeah, I ended up getting one of the gtx 480's. If it's too loud I'll just dump it in my 5 and 4 year old's dora "gaming rig" and go back to using the gtx 460. Or maybe I'll undervolt it and just run everything @ stock, with a custom fan profile/TIM replacement that would probably run a bit cooler...

CURSE YOU RUSSIANSENSATION!!! (Thanks for the deal though) 🙂🙂

btw: I calculated power draw difference between gtx 570 and gtx 480 (60w according to Anandtech Bench). It's ~ $50 a year if it's loaded 100% 24/7/365, obviously quite a bit less than that if it's idled most of the time.
 
Forget this preening pussy philosophy. Buy as many of THE most expensive GPU's you can physically insert into your PC and fly, then when they're superceded sell immdiately and repeat. The cost of ownership is way less and you get THE best graphics. Math to follow.
For example I bought 5970 and sold at £350 after purchasing for £550. 5870 later cost £330 and I sold for £130. So the puny second rate card lost 61% of its value/price whereas the flagship lost only 37%. The very top cards sell for way more if sold promptly AND give you THE best experience either go expensive or dirt cheap or go home. BUT if you're dumb enough to hang onto them the dual GPU cards fight way longer and harder and hence hold their value disproportionately.
Yes a bit more math enroute.
 
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:thumbsup:
Termie said:
Yes: This card and the $300 4870 were what broke nVidia's back on the $600 top card pricing formula. Soon after, GTX260 and GTX280 prices came tumbling down.

At 1680x1050, the value proposition of the 4850 was undeniable: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-4850,1957-14.html

We are all still reaping the rewards of this blip in history today. Huge performance can be had for $200-300. It wasn't always that way.
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I'm a bit worried now after talking with Russian, but if the noise can be controlled I think that I might end up getting a bigger monitor and passing the old one down to my wife.
 
MarkLuvsCS said:
@Russian

Those are some pretty significant drops with just new TIM XD. Does the memory of the 470 have those sticky-foam-heat-thingies on them? I'm guessing it was pretty painless to swap TIM on the cards?

I probably should order some new thermal paste.
Click to expand...

I didn't make that particular video but new TIM should have a nice effect on reducing your temps. Make sure you do NOT remove the memory pads and do NOT to apply thermal paste on the memory chips in place of them!!! Keep the pads intact and apply the TIM only to the GPU.

In fact, in case of BOTH the GTX470/GTX480, you shouldn't even need to remove the PCB cooling system. You only need to remove the main GPU cooler (which is secured only by 4 large screws). Just be careful to use a proper screw driver as these screws are pretty cheap (i.e., you can take off the grooves easily).

Here is a GTX480 with 4 large screws securing the heatsink from the back:

geforce-gtx-480-disassembled-03.jpg


You can see the main GTX480 cooler (just like the GTX470 cooler) is only secured by 4 screws. So you won't need to disassemble the entire card as they have done here:

geforce-gtx-480-disassembled-04.jpg


In this thread I linked a quick round-up by Xbitlabs with some online stores where you can buy modern TIM that outperforms AS5.
 
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Termie said:
Awesome!

Again, thanks for this thread. Really interesting stuff to discuss (and some giddy new GTX480 owners too!).
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Thanks!

I have seen a couple people ask how fast their 8800GTX is vs. say a GTX280. It's nice that the guys at Computerbase included the 8800GTX, GTX280 and GTX480/580. That's 3 consecutive NV generations. Great quick comparison.

Jacky60 said:
For example I bought 5970 and sold at £350 after purchasing for £550. 5870 later cost £330 and I sold for £130. So the puny second rate card lost 61% of its value/price whereas the flagship lost only 37%.
Click to expand...

If you time the resale of your cards, then you are right. For instance, there were quite a few HD5970 deals for $460-500 and then the cards were going for $700+ on Ebay due to bitcoin mining craze. Also, even after months of release, HD6990 still goes for around $680-720. So you may be able to sell a used HD6990 for $500+ right before the next generation HD7990 launches. I think my main point was that I don't particularly advise someone to spend $500-600 on a card and hold on to it for 4-5 years. Of course if you buy and sell often, the loss in value is often minimized. I am sure plenty of guys bought their GTX480s for $500 and sold them for $380 to upgrade to the GTX580 on the cheap.

But you can see that original GTX480 owners who have held on to this card may have a much harder time selling their $499 GTX480s for anything above $250 simply because of the fact that a new GTX570 can often be found for $260-270. However, if you buy a $200 GTX480 now, I am pretty sure you'll be able to sell it for $100 in 12-15 months from now since I doubt there will be a $100-130 card with GTX480 performance even in 12 months from now. GTX480 should age about as well as a $300 HD6970 and a $450 GTX580. Eventually there will be a $200 deal on a GTX670/HD7970. We'll see 😉
 
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That $200 deal is pretty crazy for gtx 480 though. Even after gtx 260/275 started dropping like crazy in price, it took a long time to see gtx 280 get down to those levels. There is residual sli desire for the original adopters who bought 1 card @ MSRP then plan to cost avg and extend the life of the system with an sli upgrade after a couple of years. Probably won't be as much of that with gtx 480 of course... but $199 is still a killer deal on that!
 
I still think a GTX480 for that price is a much better deal than the GTX570. Such a killer deal. I got myself one some time ago and to be honest this card I think is simply better than the GTX570 all round.

You get a higher framebuffer, more memory bandwidth, a stronger VRM circuitry and the cooling is not that bad as some people make it out to be. I guess you got to do some modifications (high flow bracket, backplate, new TIM job, undervolted 2d profile, fan profile etc) but for hardware enthusiasts that isn't such a problem. I mean my GTX480 idles at 37C and tops 74~79C at only ~63% fan speed depending on game.
 
I found another guide of a user changing TIM on his GTX480. He used a basic credit card spread method and achieved a 10*C temp drop:
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=310095&mpage=1

Pastes such as Prolimatech PK-1, Thermalright Chillfactor III or Noctua NT-H1 are not-electrically conductive, unlike AS5. This offers you the safest way to apply TIM to your GPU.

I have also seen others do a large rice grain method on an NV heatspeader like so:

DSC00573.JPG


Since GTX470/480 heatsinks are Direct Heat Pipe Technology, just make sure the tiny spaces between those heatpipes are filled so that no air bubbles remain.

Benchmark Reviews shows another way to apply TIM to direct heat pipe style coolers:
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.p...sk=view&id=150&Itemid=62&limit=1&limitstart=5
 
Surely a gtx560 ti at around similar prices is a better deal. They OC like crazy while running cooler, quieter and prolly use less power than the 480.
 
Hahahahaha. No.

Remember, the gtx 480 overclocks well, too, it's much better than gtx 570 in this regard. And while gtx 560 ti overclocks pretty well, its nothing like the gtx 460 in that department.

But they're really for 2 different uses, anyway. A high end card like gtx 480 does better and better as details/resolution increases, while gtx 560 ti has a sweet spot in the 1680x1050 to 1920x1080 range. Heck, even my gtx 460-768 @ 905 core should be plenty for 1680x1050, right? Well, it's not. I can't play with any AA in DAO, and I'm stuck at medium settings in civ5 (and even then it hitches and jerks sometimes). What's gonna happen to me when bf3 and skyrim come out?

Plus, all those custom AA levels even on older games really bring cards to their knees. Even using 2xSSAA in nwn2 is a slideshow on my gtx 460 right now, with the new card I should be able to really crank up the details.

From looking at TPU's gtx 560 ti launch review, gtx 480 is about 15% faster but also gets better as the details/resolution cranks up (as we'd expect).

I'll settle for good performance when that's all I need/want, but when my primary games are suffering and even more taxing ones are just around the corner I'll take the higher res. Besides, even without the $25 rebate, for $207 I can probably make money if the card ends up being too loud/hot.
 
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Ok, say your gtx480 is 15% faster at 1080p.. most 560ti OC 15% easily (and more).

Don't forget the power use and noise. It aint pretty. That's at stock. OC 480, you may as well get water cooling or its a very noisy heater.
 
Grooveriding is a big AMD fan, yet he runs 3xgtx 480 in tri-sli on air with zero issues (at least I don't see him complaining about that setup anymore). And my i7 920 @4.0 is already a "noisy heater", it's just a question of whether I'll be able to hear the gtx 480 over the rest of the computer. If it's too loud/hot I'll just sell it and probably make $$ on it, and if it's not then I'll have real data instead of speculation to back up my claims.

In fact, my gtx 460-768 @905 core is ~ gtx 560ti speeds, so I'll just run benches/etc on everything I own before installing the gtx 480.
 
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