GTX 480 Ultra Charged tested

[MentalIlness]

http://www.fudzilla.com/reviews/rev...-view/tgt-gtx-480-ultra-charged-tested/page-4

Conclusion We must admit that it was pretty refreshing to test a GTX 480 that can be overclocked without much hassle. On the other hand, knowing that it’s a Point of View / TGT GTX 480 Ultra Charged, it wasn’t much of a surprise either. TGT handpicked the crème of the crop GF100 chips and used them on GTX 480 Ultra Charged cards. Hitting 800MHz for the GPU should be a piece of cake for any of these cards. We seem to have been lucky as we managed to push our sample to 850MHz, with no trouble whatsoever, but we can't guarantee that all samples can do that.

Point of View / TGT GTX 480 Ultra Charged is about 7% faster than the reference GTX 480 card and is the fastest factory overclocked GTX 480 we’ve tested so far. After our overclocking, the card scored 15-20% higher than the reference card.

GTX 480 Ulta Chaged runs at 763MHz for the GPU and 950MHz for the memory (3800MHz effectively). The card comes in two flavors – our today’s sample comes with Nvidia’s reference cooling and PoV sticker whereas 20th of September will see the launch of GTX 480 Ultra Charged card with Arctic cooling’s solution. Naturally, you can expect lower temperatures as well as lower noise levels with this card. We must admit we didn’t like the reference cooling, which tends to get pretty loud, and we’re hoping that the new Ultra Charged card won’t be much pricier than our today’s card, which is available at about €460, here.

Performance wise, however, the GTX 480 UC is a beast and will allow for gaming virtually anything. If you don’t mind the noise and the pretty high consumption, then this is the card for you. In case you find the noise to be important, you can wait a bit longer for the GTX 480 Ultra Charged card with Arctic Cooling’s solution as well as the water cooler GTX 480 Beast.

 

[JAG87]

My reference cards are clocked higher, don't use 3 slots, and don't dump heat in the case.

And I didn't pay any premium for them.

 

[BD231]

My reference cards are clocked higher, don't use 3 slots, and don't dump heat in the case.

And I didn't pay any premium for them.

Guess you " hand picked " those

 

[AdamK47]

I have three MSI GTX 480s in SLI. All cards are clocked at 800MHz/1600MHz core and 1050MHz (2100 DDR) memory.

 

[RussianSensation]

I have three MSI GTX 480s in SLI. All cards are clocked at 800MHz/1600MHz core and 1050MHz (2100 DDR) memory.

"We seem to have been lucky as we managed to push our sample to 850MHz, with no trouble whatsoever"

So with increased voltage, I could see them getting to 900mhz.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

My reference cards are clocked higher, don't use 3 slots, and don't dump heat in the case.

And I didn't pay any premium for them.

Your cards are also much louder and have much lower maximum overclock potential.

Congrats.

 

[Grooveriding]

Both of my 480s do 800 without issue on stock voltage. That seems to be where a lot of 480s lie as well. It's once you start trying to go beyond 800 that you need more voltage, and a lot of them, at least mine and some others I've seen posted about, do not go much further than 800, voltage or not.

As well, as can be expected, once you give a 480 more voltage it turns into an obscenely hot chip and you need to run your fan at 100% or watercool.

I can do 870 on one of my cards with 1.125 and 840 on the other with the same amount of voltage. It's completely not worth it when contrasted against the 800/2000 I can do on stock voltage. My temperatures go up by 10C where I see near 100C even with a 90% fan speed.]

I see 800/2000 pop up again and again for people overclocking 480s on air. They definitely do not have the same characteristics a GTX 460 does with overclocking. With a 480 you can expect about a 15% overclock.

These cards really do not impress with their inflated price tag and offering nothing you can't get out of a stock 480, there is a good reason you see so few custom 480s and basically none at all with huge factory overclocks. I think you can only buy these in Europe as well, I've never even heard of this AIB.

 

[SHAQ]

I have three MSI GTX 480s in SLI. All cards are clocked at 800MHz/1600MHz core and 1050MHz (2100 DDR) memory.

Did you replace the 5870's?

 

[JAG87]

Your cards are also much louder and have much lower maximum overclock potential.

Congrats.

Not really. I can't even hear my cards unless I'm playing crysis or metro. Ok maybe a little bit during Mafia 2, but totally within reason.

And above 800 you reach a point of diminishing returns with regards to heat/power, like Grooveriding said. Even if this card gets to 850 with stock voltage, it's negligibly better than mine at 800, and it costs a lot more while taking 3 slots and dumping heat in my case.

 

[AdamK47]

Did you replace the 5870's?

Check FS/Trade

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Not really. I can't even hear my cards unless I'm playing crysis or metro. Ok maybe a little bit during Mafia 2, but totally within reason.

Like I said, congrats

It works for you

For me it would probably damage my hearing to where its as bad as yours*, although maybe that would be a good thing considering I could then just throw in whatever card(s) into my system and enjoy the fruits of absolute frame rates, although I'd really hate to lose positional audio fidelity.

Of course I'm overplaying on my end as much as you're underplaying it. My single GTX470 at stock speeds with its reference cooler is far and away the noisiest component in my system (just like my reference 5850 was before I modded it with a 3rd party cooler), and even my system certainly wouldn't please any of those seeking anything close to silence. I hate to imagine how loud your rig and/or operating environment must be for dual, overclocked, reference GTX480s to be inconsequential in adding noise.

Downplay it all you like, but that Arctic Cooling 3-slot cooler destroys our reference fermi coolers when it comes to cooling and noise performance. And don't give me the dumping heat into case mumbo jumbo, I know how to properly regulate airflow within my case to expel heat. My 5850 @ 1GHz and an Accelero S1 + 120mm fan does just that and has never had an appreciable affect on any of my other components or overclocks (I've been using the S1 + 120mm fan setup on an 8800GT and a 4850 prior to using it on the 5850, and would use it on my GTX470 in a heartbeat if it was compatible).

However just like noise is more of an issue for others, I understand the "heat dumping" is a concern of others, particularly those who live in hot environments and are simply unable to manage good case air flow, although that's less of a real reason, IMO, than giving up an extra slot which some cannot afford to do if they want to go SLI.

*Maybe your hearing is excellent, maybe you're just far more tolerant than I and many others. Or maybe you use noise canceling headphones as well as do not have to worry about the noise affecting anyone else.

 

[JAG87]

My hearing is excellent. I do have headphones (open and not noise canceling) on most of the time, but even if I take them off the cards are barely audible.

Of course if try crysis or metro like I said above, it gets to a point where it's barely tolerable. It all depends what games you play the most. I play BC2 and source games the most, and I can barely hear them.

I don't know what you play the most, but if you enjoy looping through crysis or metro single player 25 times then I guess you better move on to water cooling.

And I am giving you the heat in case mumbo jumbo. Two of those cards would pump heat right near the bottom of the case where the PSU sits, in my case an enermax with a top 14cm fan sucking in. Why would I want boiling hot air to get sucked into my PSU and destroy the life of the capacitors. If your PSU could run at 40C or at 55C, which would you choose?

 

[nitromullet]

Of course if try crysis or metro like I said above, it gets to a point where it's barely tolerable. It all depends what games you play the most. I play BC2 and source games the most, and I can barely hear them.

That's a little counter intuitive. Of course, if you don't stress the cards they won't make much noise. Even GTX 470 SLI gets pretty noisy when playing Mafia II or anything else that stresses them, I can't imagine GTX 480 SLI being any less noisy.

Don't get me wrong, I agree that I don't want a triple slot cooler or a cooler that doesn't exhaust air out of the case. However, the argument that the GTX 470/480 stock cooler isn't loud because you don't play games that stresses them isn't really valid. All this means is that your rig is overkill for the games you play.

 

[3DVagabond]

The 5970 should have been included in the comparison. They're down to $550AR now. I'd imagine this 480 price will be comparable. It's power draw is more, I'm sure.

 

[nitromullet]

The 5970 should have been included in the comparison. They're down to $550AR now. I'd imagine this 480 price will be comparable. It's power draw is more, I'm sure.

Newegg has a weekend deal running on the Galaxy GTX 480 for $390 AMIR. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814162050

Even without a sale GTX 480s are pretty easy to find under $450 AMIR (some even without a rebate).

 

[3DVagabond]

Newegg has a weekend deal running on the Galaxy GTX 480 for $390 AMIR. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814162050

Even without a sale GTX 480s are pretty easy to find under $450 AMIR (some even without a rebate).

That's not the 480 in the review though. That one is quite a bit dearer.

 

[nitromullet]

That's not the 480 in the review though. That one is quite a bit dearer.

That makes sense. Either way, any GTX 480 over $500 or a 5970 is a bad idea at this point.

 

[happy medium]

I have three MSI GTX 480s in SLI. All cards are clocked at 800MHz/1600MHz core and 1050MHz (2100 DDR) memory.

You have 3 gtx 480's and a 1000 watt psu?

Hows that Antec 1200 case with those gtx480's? I have the same case and was wondering.
Nice and cool?

 

[AdamK47]

You have 3 gtx 480's and a 1000 watt psu?

Hows that Antec 1200 case with those gtx480's? I have the same case and was wondering.
Nice and cool?

Corsair AX1200. Need to update my sig. The case is well ventilated for the three cards.

 

[BFG10K]

Not really. I can't even hear my cards unless I'm playing crysis or metro. Ok maybe a little bit during Mafia 2, but totally within reason.

I could hear even a single GTX470 over headphones under load.

My single GTX480 ramps up to 70% fan speed during gaming, which is about 3000 rpm. That’s disturbing to anyone in the same room if they’re not wearing headphones.

Three GTX480s under load would be deafening.

 

[Keysplayr]

I could hear even a single GTX470 over headphones under load.

My single GTX480 ramps up to 70% fan speed during gaming, which is about 3000 rpm. That’s disturbing to anyone in the same room if they’re not wearing headphones.

Three GTX480s under load would be deafening.

You are Ultra sensitive to any sound from your PC. A minute whoosh of air might be ear-splitting to you. This has been your stance for as long as I can remember. So, I don't think your standard of noise applies to most others. You can see that another member with SLI'd 470's and even Tri 480's say the noise is audible when loaded, but barely. So, noise perception is obviously 100% relative show the drastic contrast between your noise sensitivity and others.

 

[MrK6]

You are Ultra sensitive to any sound from your PC. A minute whoosh of air might be ear-splitting to you. This has been your stance for as long as I can remember. So, I don't think your standard of noise applies to most others. You can see that another member with SLI'd 470's and even Tri 480's say the noise is audible when loaded, but barely. So, noise perception is obviously 100% relative show the drastic contrast between your noise sensitivity and others.

Every review of the GTX 480 has found it to be annoyingly loud. It seems like you're describing "selective hearing," which is inversely proportional to the amount of money spent on hardware .

 

[Keysplayr]

Every review of the GTX 480 has found it to be annoyingly loud. It seems like you're describing "selective hearing," which is inversely proportional to the amount of money spent on hardware .

^ show me. Lets see if your blanket statement holds up. Mind you, EVERY review has to show that it's loud, AND annoying.
And then, show me a review saying a GTX480 is deafening, besides BFG's.

 

[SlowSpyder]

^ show me. Lets see if your blanket statement holds up. Mind you, EVERY review has to show that it's loud, AND annoying.
And then, show me a review saying a GTX480 is deafening, besides BFG's.

http://www.techspot.com/review/263-nvidia-geforce-gtx-480/page13.html

"All that power makes for one seriously hot graphics card as well. The 97 degree load temperature was the maximum temperate that we recorded during our tests
, and had the fan spinning so fast things started sliding across my desk towards the test system. The GeForce GTX 480 was truly deafening when running at full load."

Sounds like a decent cooling solution to me.

 

[Idontcare]

Before things get a little too acrimonious in here...some reference material care of the CDC and NIOSH:

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/98-126/chap5.html

Anything below 80 dBA is considered to be safe. No one should be going deaf from exposure to noise-levels below 80 dBA.

Data Tables: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/98-126/chap3.html

Finding a review wherein the reviewers are unaware of these government-established facts and guidelines is not to be considered surprising.

Please consider this information should this discussion continue in the thread.

I am posting this as a moderator as a friendly way of saying keep the tone of discussion light gentlemen, and factual, I am watching the thread.

Moderator Idontcare