My thoughts on the GTX 480... Now with video

[lavaheadache]

I just got in on the Newegg GTX 480 deal. I picked up 2 of them for about $375 after rebate. Smoking deal if you ask me.

On to the cards themselves.

I have a GTX 580 so most of my opinion is based off my thoughts on that card and how I thought the 480 would stack up.

Nothing was very scientific about my tests. My power draw was calculated off the osd of my battery back up. I got my temps from GPU-z and my ears for sound level.

System Idle

580- 238w very quiet
480- 233w very quiet

metro 2033

580- 427w max and around 400w ave. max temp was 69c very quiet
480- 432w max and around 400w ave. max temp 73c very quiet

Avp

580- 407w max and around 395w ave. max temp 79c very quiet
480- 412w max and around 400w ave. max temp 76c very quiet

Far Cry 2

580- 412w max and around 390w ave. max temp 70c very quiet
480- forgot to check power. max temp 77c very quiet.

The 2 cards are very similar in power draw, temps and sound levels.

I was expecting the 480 to be wayyy hotter which it wasn't (aside form the actual temp of the heatpipes... those buggers were hot)

I was also expecting the 480 to be way louder compared to the 580. I was pleasantly surprised that under default fan profiles the card was whisper quiet and didn't get that hot.

Fps were similar but the 580 definately pulled ahead.

Avp 2560x1600 dx11

580- 40
480- 33.4


My testing was the most I could do with a 10 month old baby at my disposal =)

I can do further research if somebody was actually interested.

I did try the 480's in sli. My 750w pc power and cooling psu handled them just fine. I actually spent about 45 minutes playing Bad company 2 without a hitch or even the slightest bit of smoke


New video demonstrating fan profile. Special guest starring my favorite little lady Autumn. =)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ffp4E7Zr7cE&feature=feedu

 

[Ferzerp]

I have one. For most things it is very quiet. Oddly, dead island makes the fan kick in to high and it becomes very loud. Metro 2033, Witcher 2: quiet.

I play at 2560x1600 with the highest iq possible to keep my fps in the 50's or higher. 4 GHz nehalem.

 

[toyota]

a gtx480 is "very quiet" under load? so did every official review just lie to us? even the gtx580 is certainly not what many people would call very quiet under load but the gtx480 was ridiculous according to reviews. I used a gtx470 for a couple of week and was more than happy to go back to my gtx260. the noise and heat were not worth any performance I gained. my gtx260 was basically silent but the gtx470 was so loud at times that I just sat here and laughed.

 

[Plimogz]

375$ was a smoking deal. Dunno how much you can get for your used 580, but damn if that doesn't sound like a great upgrade.

 

[notty22]

Things got a little better after the launch samples.
Benchmark Reviews tests the GF100 Fermi GPU six months after its launch, and is reminded that refined construction process and mature firmware can make a difference.

 

[tviceman]

Things got a little better after the launch samples.
Benchmark Reviews tests the GF100 Fermi GPU six months after its launch, and is reminded that refined construction process and mature firmware can make a difference.

This is the correct answer.

 

[Ferzerp]

If you load it via furmark, or a benchmark, it is very loud. Regular gaming it isn't loud (except rare games like dead island).

 

[lavaheadache]

I'm sure it can get loud. Nearly any card can get loud if you crank the fan up. No doubt about furmark either. That's just a power virus anyways.

My point was that just using the card to play games, as is my intention, it is very quiet. I suppose very quiet is subject to opinion too. To me very queit is not noticeably louder than my case itself. I have an antec 900 with the fans set on medium. It is not loud but you do hear a low whoosh sound coming from it. If I can't hear the card above my case then it is quiet.

 

[Ferzerp]

Do you have dead island? Try that.

 

[RussianSensation]

I'm sure it can get loud. Nearly any card can get loud if you crank the fan up. No doubt about furmark either. That's just a power virus anyways.

Exactly. After reading reviews before I purchased my GTX470, I thought it would be running at 90-93*C and at the same time have extremely high noise levels. I found it impossible to replicate similar results at home. My card either ran extremely quiet at 90-94*C, with moderate noise levels at 77*C or sounded like a jet engine but under such a case temperatures were only 65*C at 100% load. My guess is that the cards sent to reviewers were earlier samples and didn't accurately represent the more mature 40nm GF100 chips to follow. Later reviews of GTX480 cards also showed a marked improvement in their thermals and acoustics (logically the result of better thermals).

Good to hear about your observations.

 

[lavaheadache]

Do you have dead island? Try that.

I don't but it is on my radar and it will be purchased at $20 or less.


I looped the heaven benchmark for a few loops and the card never made a peep.

I'm sold. 480's are great cards if you can get a newer one at a good price like I did.

 

[videopho]

IMO, this is the worst gpu NV ever made.
I'm glad to rid of this card myself 5 months ago.
It ran way too loud and too hot for my taste.
It was an MSI made if i recall.
460 SLI is the way to go if possible (cost much less and perform way better than a 480).

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/314?vs=309

 

[spinejam]

Congrat's OP -- nice cards! I recently had an Asus gtx480 and it ran pretty good. Certainly not the hottest card I've owned -- (Sapphire 4870x2)



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[RussianSensation]

IMO, this is the worst gpu NV ever made.

Not even close. You must have only started building computers recently.

GeForce MX, rebadged GeForce 2s - the entire series - garbage
GeForce 5000 - the entire series, esp. FX5200 and 5800 Ultra - fail in DX9 games
GeForce 8800GT 256mb & 8800GTS 320mb - pretty bad considering they were crippled with VRAM to start
There are so many other horrible NV cards, I can't even remember them all: GeForce 6200, GT210/220, 9600GSO, 8400GS, 7300, 9400/9500, etc. the list is way too long.

Put it this way, you can buy a $60 aftermarket cooler and overclock a GTX480. All these other cards I listed above, well you could never improve them!!

A $175-225 GTX480, even with a $60 cooler, is still a great card considering it delivers GTX580 style performance with a mild overclock, and has more memory bandwidth and VRAM than a GTX570. And now with the prices of GTX570 cards rising to nearly $300, it's absurd to think that a $225 GTX480 is the "the worst NV GPU ever made".

 

[SickBeast]

IMO, this is the worst gpu NV ever made.
I'm glad to rid of this card myself 5 months ago.
It ran way too loud and too hot for my taste.
It was an MSI made if i recall.
460 SLI is the way to go if possible (cost much less and perform way better than a 480).

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/314?vs=309

I'm currently in the process of splitting my GTX 460 SLI setup. You become memory-bound with them. The GPUs are too powerful for the amount of vram that's available. The performance goes from spectacular in some parts of the game to mediocre in others. The fluctuations are extreme. Games require tweaking, and you might even be stuck using hacked drivers to get SLI going on your motherboard.

I now understand why so many people say that you should always go with the fastest single GPU that you can afford. SLI is good in many cases, but it's inconsistent and has other issues to deal with (power, heat, and noise).

I would take a GTX 580 over my setup any day of the week.

If my GTX 460s had 2gb of vram it might be a different story. I hear they sell them with that spec but I have yet to see them for sale anywhere.

 

[toyota]

if you can get a good deal on a gtx570 like I did then its way better than fooling with a gtx480 and putting on an aftermarket cooler. my gtx570 was cheaper than that, uses less power, makes less noise and heat. all that while being just as fast or faster.

 

[videopho]

I should have said "worst NV ever made in term of power and heat"
I've started building my own PC since the 7800 series paired with an AMD Athlon 64 x2 3800 that rig still runs today although I hardly use it.

 

[RussianSensation]

if you can get a good deal on a gtx570 like I did then its way better than fooling with a gtx480 and putting on an aftermarket cooler. my gtx570 was cheaper than that, uses less power, makes less noise and heat. all that while being just as fast or faster.

Most don't have to worry about that anymore:

1) It looks like GTX480 is sold out
2) It looks like GTX570 won't be hitting $175-200 any time soon
3) I have a feeling AMD might strike again with a fast $275-299 HD7950.

But ya, all things considered, if you can find a GTX570 for $200-225, it's a great deal.

Frankly, none of these cards mentioned are fast enough to play BF3 smoothly and will likely cry once Metro 2034 launches next year.

 

[RussianSensation]

I should have said "worst NV ever made in term of power and heat"
I've started building my own PC since the 7800 series paired with an AMD Athlon 64 x2 3800 that rig still runs today although I hardly use it.

You are lucky then. After GeForce 6600GT/6800GT, NV really hit a home run with every single generation and hasn't skipped a beat. GeForce 3 was nothing special, GeForce 4 had a short reign and got pummelled by 9500/9700 series, and GeForce 5 series was a failure of epic proportions across the entire generation.

Also, my reference designed HD4890 ran hotter and louder than my GTX470.

The FX5800 Ultra really was a hair dryer, that also happened to be about 3x slower in DX9 games than its 9700Pro competitor. A similar analogy today would be like a GTX480 to sound as loud as the HD6990 and still manage to be slower than an HD5750 in DX11 games.

 

[videopho]

I was an ATI fanboy before the 6600 era, lol and have not looked back since.

 

[SickBeast]

if you can get a good deal on a gtx570 like I did then its way better than fooling with a gtx480 and putting on an aftermarket cooler. my gtx570 was cheaper than that, uses less power, makes less noise and heat. all that while being just as fast or faster.

What's interesting is that a single GTX 460 at 950mhz comes very close to a GTX 570 in most situations.

There is no messing with the GTX 460. For $100 you can't go wrong. You can spend $200+ on a GPU, but you're by no means getting something twice as fast. On a good day it will be 25% faster.

 

[Squirtmonster]

What's interesting is that a single GTX 460 at 950mhz comes very close to a GTX 570 in most situations.

No a gtx560ti @ 950 is close to a gtx570. A gtx460 @ 950 would be about gtx560ti/5870 speeds.

 

[toyota]

What's interesting is that a single GTX 460 at 950mhz comes very close to a GTX 570 in most situations.

There is no messing with the GTX 460. For $100 you can't go wrong. You can spend $200+ on a GPU, but you're by no means getting something twice as fast. On a good day it will be 25% faster.

well for one thing its going to be about 15-20% slower since even the gtx560 ti has to get the 950-975 to match a gtx570. that gtx560 ti is also having faster memory too than the gtx460. another thing is most people will never get a gtx460 to 900 much less 950. and even at 900, its using more power than a gtx570. at 950, you would easily exceed even the gtx480's power consumption. and some of the games I play at 1920x1080 go right past 1gb of vram. for 100 bucks its a great card but it did not meet my needs nor was it any cheaper than about 140-150 bucks at the time I got my gtx570. you could get the gtx560 for just 20 bucks more and it came with the new Batman game.

 

[SickBeast]

15-20% is pretty close IMO. It's certainly very good considering you're paying half the price compared to the other cards.

In terms of power consumption, yes, perhaps under load it's not great. My GPU is idle 95% of the time. I think I've outgrown gaming.

 

[RussianSensation]

There is no messing with the GTX 460. For $100 you can't go wrong.

It's all still relative. If you were upgrading from say an 8800GT, then sure a $100 GTX460 is an awesome deal. But if you previously had an HD4870/HD4890/GTX260 216/275, then a $100-130 GTX460 didn't seem like such a great upgrade. If you were doing a build from scratch, then 2x GTX460s for $200 was a smoking deal.