GeForce GTX 480 liquid cooling Danger Den review

[3DVagabond]

IMHO, this is the only way that the gtx-480 makes any sense. Running it in stock trim at 95c is ridiculous. Although, $200.00 is probably a bit on the optimistic side to supply it with it's own WC loop, like in the cited review. $250.00 is a bit more realistic. So, you're looking at more like $750.00 to $800.00, depending on the exact setup. Keep in mind that OC'd, like in the review, it's also drawing 350W-400W all by itself. Anyone who spends that much on a VGA setup though, would most likely have the 700W-750W PSU to power it, and a case that will hold it all. If not, add those to the price.

All of this will get you the fastest single GPU setup you can buy. Whether or not it's worth it is up to the individual. If I was an avid gamer that wanted to play at 2560*1600 with lots of eye candy (and lots of money or a rich daddy, etc...) and not worry about possible SLI/XFire incompatibilities, it's the way I would go. Unfortunately for NV, that excludes 99.64% of the world's population though. :\

 

[MagickMan]

What?...if you were comparing CPU between Intel and AMD, are you trying to tell me you would compare 3.2Ghz single core against AMD 3.2Ghz Dual core and call it a fair comparison?
LOL, I dont think so!

Yup, I would call it fair. Both products are designed to do the same job.

Look, I understand that you have a woody for NV, in the past they made some good stuff. Right now, however, they just aren't the best value OR the fastest single card. Maybe they can fix that next time around.

 

[Sylvanas]

But we are not talking about the 5970....apart from the fact tessellation hurts the 5970 anyway!

Why not? You said:

Why does value always come in to it? You pay for the best.....Its only about performance!

If value doesn't matter and 'you pay for the best' then the 5970 is the most expensive and fastest card. So paying an extortionate price for a GTX480 + waterblock is okay but paying the same for a higher performing 5970 is not?

What doesn't work that way, a fair race?...You don't compare single core CPU's against dual or quad cores do you even though they all use the one socket?!

Actually you do- in your world people don't compare with respect to price?. People buy Quad core's over similarly priced Dual cores because they get more for their dollar- take a trip to the CPU forum. This is called price matching- what's the best performance you can get for x amount of $$.

What?...if you were comparing CPU between Intel and AMD, are you trying to tell me you would compare 3.2Ghz single core against AMD 3.2Ghz Dual core and call it a fair comparison?
LOL, I dont think so!

If they were the same price, yes. There's no such thing as 'fair' if the competition has an inferior product why would you buy it over something priced the same that performs better? Why do you think Nvidia dropped the price of GT200's after the 4800 series launch? Because they felt like losing money?

MISSING the point...hello, apples and oranges!....CPU die has also differed..If you dont get okay, I cant be bothered, but you cant tell me a dual GPU is a fair comparison against a single GPU!
edit - guess i better state i am talking architecture or IPC

And how do you compare apples to apples? I'll prompt you a bit here, its with benchmarks! Benchmarks determine the relative performance of parts which generally corresponds to their price bracket. A 5970 is a higher performing part than a GTX480, but it is also more expensive- just like how GTX480 SLI is higher performing than a 5870 but SLI is also more expensive, you'd expect that wouldn't you.

 

[Dark Shroud]

For the cost of water cooling an SLI GTX 480 setup you could crossfire a pair of 5970s and over clock them to match the 5870 or higher. And they would use less power than the GTX 480 SLI set up

 

[happy medium]

2 5970's overclocked to 5970 speeds = $1,400
2 gtx 480's watercooled,silent,cool and overclocked = $1,400 AND WILL BE FASTER THEN 2 5970'S.
The 5970's scale terrible.

 

[Dark Shroud]

2 5970's overclocked to 5970 speeds = $1,400
2 gtx 480's water cooled,silent,cool and overclocked = $1,400 AND WILL BE FASTER THEN 2 5970'S.
The 5970's scale terrible.

How will "water cooled & overclocked" SLI GTX 480s be faster than Crossfire over clocked 5970s?

ATI has been continuously working on scaling performance.

 

[MagickMan]

2 gtx 480's watercooled,silent,cool and overclocked = $1,400 AND WILL BE FASTER THEN 2 5970'S.

I strongly doubt that. 5970s OC well too, you know.

 

[happy medium]

I strongly doubt that. 5970s OC well too, you know.

yes, but like I said 5970's scaling sucks. They will lose. Gtx 480's scale 80/100%

 

[TonyB]

I don't think you can fairly call a GTX 480 versus 5970 an apples to apples comparision.

IMO, when comparing apples to apples, i would pit the GTX 295 versus 5970 and the GTX 480 against the 5870.

In terms of fastest single card, the 5970 is the fastest hands down.

in terms of fastest gpu, the GTX 480 is the fastest hands down.

that being said, when are we going to see a dual gpu single card solution based off the GTX 480?

 

[MagickMan]

yes, but like I said 5970's scaling sucks. They will lose. Gtx 480's scale 80/100%

I still doubt it. In the vast majority of games 5970 CF will be faster, CF scaling is much better than it used to be even just a few months ago.

that being said, when are we going to see a dual gpu single card solution based off the GTX 480?

When they can keep the PCI-E slot from exploding within 3 minutes.

 

[Grooveriding]

I don't put a gpu into my motherboard, I don't know about all of you, but my motherboard has pcie expansion slots, not sockets to plug gpus in.

I put video cards in my expansion slots. 5970 is the video card around, and a good deal faster than a 480, they can both be overclocked, the landscape doesn't change.

480 is a crap card, the only time it's worth buying a 480 is if you are buying two. In a single card config, it's garbage.

 

[Puffnstuff]

The 480 is a fine card and I love mine.

 

[happy medium]

I don't put a gpu into my motherboard, I don't know about all of you, but my motherboard has pcie expansion slots, not sockets to plug gpus in.

I put video cards in my expansion slots. 5970 is the video card around, and a good deal faster than a 480, they can both be overclocked, the landscape doesn't change.

480 is a crap card, the only time it's worth buying a 480 is if you are buying two. In a single card config, it's garbage.

5970's scaling is still 30 to 60% at best. There are plenty of gtx 480 sli benchmarks around and is well known it kicks serious ass. If a watercooled gtx 480 = a 5970, watercooled gtx 480's in sli will beat poorly scaling overclocked 5970's any day of the week for about the same price ,run cooler and quieter.

You would have trouble finding 2 5970's anyway,there hardly easy to find in stock.

 

[MagickMan]

If a watercooled gtx 480 = a 5970

That's one of the main points, it doesn't. It makes the 480 a lot better, but it's still slower.

 

[happy medium]

That's one of the main points, it doesn't. It makes the 480 a lot better, but it's still slower.

You have benches to back that up?

And you still forget the crossfired 5970's scaling is better but still sucks vs sli'ed gtx 480's .

Edit: and don't try showing benchmarks @ 2500x1600, the 5970's don't have enough memory..

 

[MagickMan]

You have benches to back that up?

And you still forget the crossfired 5970's scaling is better but still sucks vs sli'ed gtx 480's .

Edit: and don't try showing bechmarks @ 2500x1600, the 5970's don't have enough memory..

How about the article in the first post?

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-480-liquid-cooling-danger-den-review/10

 

[happy medium]

How about the article in the first post?

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-480-liquid-cooling-danger-den-review/10

3d mark vantage? Your kidding right? Don't forget that overclock is @ 850 core not 900 with the watercooled setup.

with only a 850 core clock..........vs 5970
wins at Far cry 2
Call of duty MW2
Loses by 1 fps in Crysis warhead @ 900 core it will win.
Destroys it in Just cause 2
loses by 3 fps in Resident evil ..900 core clock it would win

http://www.guru3d.com/article/overclocking-geforce-gtx-480-with-extra-gpu-voltage/5

And to be fair some game it loses too but it's close and we are talking a 850 core, not 900 core, water cooled and excellent scaling of the gtx 480 in sli vs shitty quad crossfire x scaling 5970's. Even overclocked.

Dont forget this is at 1900x1080 also. @ 2500x1600 the 5970's fail!

 

[MagickMan]

WTF? The 5970 isn't even OCed in those tests.

 

[SlowSpyder]

What?...if you were comparing CPU between Intel and AMD, are you trying to tell me you would compare 3.2Ghz single core against AMD 3.2Ghz Dual core and call it a fair comparison?
LOL, I dont think so!

I've seen you post this type of thing in a number of threads, it just doens't make sense.

If the dual core and single core cost the same amount, why on Earth would I not compare them if I'm looking to buy? If this Fermi costs as much as a 5970, I don't see why I wouldn't compare the two.

Who makes up these rules on what is a 'fair' comparrison? Is it fair to compare a GTX480 to a 5870 when the 5870 uses only ~60% as much silicon and nearly a billion less xtors? Is it fair to compare a 5870 to a GTX480 when the GTX480 has 50% more memory? Is it fair to compare a 5970 to a GTX480 when it has two smaller GPU's vs. one bigger GPU? All of these conditions are silly at best.

Here is what matters to most of us when looking to buy a graphics card.
-How does it perform?
-How much does it cost?
-Extra features, noise, heat, power, single vs. multiGPU, etc. may factor in for some people as well depending on what they are looking at.

So most of us look at how it performs vs. what our budget is, we don't care if there is 1 or 27 GPU's under the heat sink. Performance is performance regardless if it's achieved from two smaller GPU's on the PCB or one large GPU on the PCB. The common denominator for almost all of us is price. If the 5970 is significantly faster than a GTX480 and the cost is the same or very near it, then that is the better part for most of us regardless of what is under the heatsink.

 

[happy medium]

WTF? The 5970 isn't even OCed in those tests.

You think the 10% more performance you would get from a 5970 overclock will make up for the piss poor scaling? If so your dreaming.

Like I said 2 gtx 480's watercooled @900 core @ 1400$ is faster then 2 5970's @ 1400$ overclocked due to poor scaling and lack of memory of the 5970 crossfired.

 

[Skurge]

Guru3d results conflict with all other reputable site out there. I wouldn't trust their numbers. Guru3d suck so much They don't even have BC2 numbers for the 5970 on their entire site.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/03/26/nvidia_fermi_gtx_470_480_sli_review/4

480SLI beaten by a 5970 in 2 out of 4 games. so you sure that 480SLI is faster?

 

[SlowSpyder]

I don't think you can fairly call a GTX 480 versus 5970 an apples to apples comparision.

IMO, when comparing apples to apples, i would pit the GTX 295 versus 5970 and the GTX 480 against the 5870.

In terms of fastest single card, the 5970 is the fastest hands down.

in terms of fastest gpu, the GTX 480 is the fastest hands down.

that being said, when are we going to see a dual gpu single card solution based off the GTX 480?

There is no true apple to apples comparrison for Nvidia's current line up and AMD's current line up. No one is trying to find a perfect apples to apples comparrision, we're talking about what is a 'fair' comparrison. And the bottom line, what companies use to position parts, what consumers use to judge how a part performs in the market has one common denominator, and that's cost.

You guys stating that a dual GPU card can't be compared to a single GPU card realize that just the same you could say that it's not fair to compare a GTX480 to a 5870 because it is a much larger GPU, right? Either is a silly thing to say...

The only thing that determines what should and shouldn't realistically be compared is price. You wouldn't expect a $70 video card to compete with a $500 card in terms of performance, right? They are not meant to occupy the same market, they're not meant to provide the same performance.

 

[Skurge]

You think the 10% more performance you would get from a 5970 overclock will make up for the piss poor scaling? If so your dreaming.

Like I said 2 gtx 480's watercooled @900 core @ 1400$ is faster then 2 5970's @ 1400$ overclocked due to poor scaling and lack of memory of the 5970 crossfired.

$1400 huh, I cud always get this http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/sapphire_toxic_hd5970/4.htm + this http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/sapphire__hd5870_toxic_2gb/6.htm

I believe they OC to the same levels.

EDIT: From another thread http://www.hardware.info/nl-NL/articles/amdnampoZGCa/Clash_of_the_Titans_3way_SLI_GTX_480_test/1

 

[happy medium]

$1400 huh, I cud always get this http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/sapphire_toxic_hd5970/4.htm + this http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/sapphire__hd5870_toxic_2gb/6.htm

I believe they OC to the same levels.

EDIT: From another thread http://www.hardware.info/nl-NL/articles/amdnampoZGCa/Clash_of_the_Titans_3way_SLI_GTX_480_test/1

oh yea ,can you show me where you can get one for 700$. NOT!

 

[MagickMan]

You think the 10% more performance you would get from a 5970 overclock will make up for the piss poor scaling? If so your dreaming.

Like I said 2 gtx 480's watercooled @900 core @ 1400$ is faster then 2 5970's @ 1400$ overclocked due to poor scaling and lack of memory of the 5970 crossfired.

You assume.