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

[lavaheadache]

840 at 1.063 is not all that impressive as for as I know. my gtx570 can do the same thing but its stock voltage is only 1.013 so i have to manually raise it to 1.063. and looking at reviews it seems my gtx570 is about average if not below. your gtx480 is much better built and can handle the higher voltage better though. I am pretty scared to leave my gtx570 at 1.063.

I would be scared to crank the voltage up on a gtx570 too. Images of those gtx 590's popping still haunt my dreams, lol.

The 570 is a great card as is and I would probably just leave it at stock and not risk it blowing up.

On that note, wanna trade for a new 480 Toyota?

 

[Bryf50]

I would be scared to crank the voltage up on a gtx570 too. Images of those gtx 590's popping still haunt my dreams, lol.

The 570 is a great card as is and I would probably just leave it at stock and not risk it blowing up.

On that note, wanna trade for a new 480 Toyota?

What are the stock volts on your cards?

 

[bryanW1995]

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.

It is amazing to me how people seem to think that just because a user's personal experience doesn't jive 100% with a canned benchmark from 18 mos ago that the user must be wrong for some reason.

 

[bryanW1995]

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.

Sweet, I also have an antec 900 with all fans on medium.

My card is supposed to arrive today, I'll add a review/comparison vs my gtx 460. I don't have any way to measure power usage, but I am extremely sensitive to noise levels above my already somewhat-loud case and I can at least compare fps/heat of the overclocked gtx 460 vs stock gtx 480 vs undervolted stock gtx 480.

 

[lavaheadache]

What are the stock volts on your cards?

whats the best method for me to check this? At idle, GPU-z states my vddc is .951 v on the one of them. The other one isn't currently installed in a rig

 

[bryanW1995]

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

Not only that, but I've seen a LOT of high overclocks discussed for gtx 460 and I can think of only a bare handful that were 24/7 stable much over 900 core. They just weren't designed to get rid of that much heat, and if you spend lots extra for beefier components then the price goes up so fast that you start bumping up against gtx 560 and 6870.

thats 15-20% on a very unrealistic oc though. realistically its going to be 25-30% for most people as 850 or so is much more realistic.

Very true.

 

[toyota]

1.063 is how it came so I figure it should be safe. I guess my next step instead of ocing more could be to start lowering the voltage. I haven't played with the voltage at all yet.

yes 1.063 is safe for gtx480 and thats part of what I was trying to say. the gtx480 are much better built than the gtx570 and can handle higher voltage and therefore come with higher voltage right out of the box. your overclocks are not really better than what I can achieve but I am way more likely to damage my card at the same clocks and voltages.

 

[bryanW1995]

They are really hot cards, relative to everything else out there. On their own they are good to go though.

Put a couple or three in SLI on air cooling and watch them irradiate one another.

My average temps in BF3 across my three cards from top to middle to bottom: 85 - 89 - 80 Top and bottom card are @ 80% fan, middle card goes to 85%. At least the fans on these don't whine, it's just a very loud whooooooooosh.

I'm waiting for the day that middle card or the backside of the third card just roasts away. I can't decide what to do with them when I upgrade, they've lost so much value already, and once 28nm comes I reckon I'll be lucky to get $150 for one.

I usually toss my stuff in my wife's computer or the other spare we have, but I think she'd complain if I unleashed 480 SLI on her I think I will put one in her PC and try to sell the other two for $300 as a combo.

You should play with them and see how low you'll undervolt before you get rid of them. With their high quality components, beefy construction, etc etc they'll probably last a long time if you can get vcore low enough to keep the heat in check.

 

[toyota]

whats the best method for me to check this? At idle, GPU-z states my vddc is .951 v on the one of them. The other one isn't currently installed in a rig

just fire up any 3d app and see what it goes to. my gtx570 is .913 idle and 1.013 under load.

 

[RampantAndroid]

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.

Back when I was looking for ANY WAY to replace my 5970 with a card that wasn't a total pile of shit, I considered a GTX480. There was a single review I remember that took some measurements and basically concluded that while it was louder than the competition, it wasn't LOUD. I think reviewers got their panties in a bunch over a certain dBa number, and people just stepped in line.

Any GTX480 owners can feel free to correct me...but my GTX580 has no noise issues.

 

[toyota]

Back when I was looking for ANY WAY to replace my 5970 with a card that wasn't a total pile of shit, I considered a GTX480. There was a single review I remember that took some measurements and basically concluded that while it was louder than the competition, it wasn't LOUD. I think reviewers got their panties in a bunch over a certain dBa number, and people just stepped in line.

Any GTX480 owners can feel free to correct me...but my GTX580 has no noise issues.

at launch they were VERY loud and that is a FACT. only those hell bent on getting Fermi no matter what would tell you you differently. and AGAIN I had a reference gtx470 which is quieter than the gtx480, and no way in hell was it acceptable to me. so yes they may have gotten much better but they were a loud hot running pieces of crap when they were released.

 

[lavaheadache]

just fire up any 3d app and see what it goes to. my gtx570 is .913 idle and 1.013 under load.

Just checked. Voltage comes in at 1.013 aswell for me. For the hell of it I did a couple quick metro 2033 benchmark runs. Got all the way up to 875mhz on stock volts before I had issues. Albeit these were single pass runs and not extensive testing.

 

[toyota]

Just checked. Voltage comes in at 1.013 aswell for me. For the hell of it I did a couple quick metro 2033 benchmark runs. Got all the way up to 875mhz on stock volts before I had issues. Albeit these were single pass runs and not extensive testing.

you did 875 on 1.013 volts? that seems way better than what I would have thought possible. maybe that explains why yours ran so quiet.

 

[lavaheadache]

yep, stock volts indeed. I bumped the fan up just to take heat out of the equation. 880 would crash the benchmark. 875 was able to make a few consecutive passes then I put it back to stock.

I kinda wanna pop the other card in to see if it can do the same

 

[Grooveriding]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjnOHKoTk-c

1:32 is where it reaches what is a standard load for gaming

 

[lavaheadache]

ok, popped the other card in. Stock is 1.113v. Much higher than the other one. Overclocking is less impressive too. 840 mhz is about the max it'll go at stock voltage. It's still a quiet and relatively cool card.

Glad I did the testing cause now I know which one to pass on to my friend.

I'm very impressed with that other 480. It does better than 20% overclock on stock volts. Maybe I'll try bumping up the juice a couple notches and see if I can get it to 900 and beyond. I don't plan on running it overclocked permantely though. No need to beat it up for no reason.

 

[toyota]

voltages and overclocking ability is all over the place for Nvidia. I almost wanted to send my card back since i was certainly unlucky this time. Toms even had a gtx580 that would not overclock at all though so knowing my luck I could end up with something worse. next time I will order two cards and send back which ever one has the least overclocking potential.

 

[bryanW1995]

Make sure they are evga since overclocking with most brands will void your warranty.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Make sure they are evga since overclocking with most brands will void your warranty.

lol. Sure.. as soon as they stop advertising voltage tweaks, higher overclockability, 20% better cooling for higher overclocking than I'll go along with that.

 

[toyota]

I think Galaxy says they will support overclocking as long as the overclocking does not do damage. lol, what?

 

[blackened23]

Make sure they are evga since overclocking with most brands will void your warranty.

Considering many cards come overclocked out of the box, this is not true. Although EVGA probably needs a good warranty since their cards are all reference and nothing special...and will probably die if you try to overclock/overvolt it too far. MSI lightning is the only way to go.

 

[RussianSensation]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjnOHKoTk-c

1:32 is where it reaches what is a standard load for gaming

Are you serious? That's what my HD6950 sounds at about 30-35&#37; fan speed. Wow, your reference Zotacs are extremely quiet if what you showed was 99-100% GPU load!!! <--- this is like a baby whispering compared to my AMD card!!

You don't want to know how loud my MSI HD4890 was. Even my reference HD6950 is way louder than your 3 GTX480 cards combined!

*Here I found a quick video of someone running 3x HD4890 for comparison. Umm....yaaa....

 

[toyota]

if all high end video cards sounded like that then i would find another hobby, I do not how they work years on developing a gpu and cant even figure how make a quiet and effective cooler. and I cant believe people buy that crap knowing full well its its going to be loud. I swear all you have to do is make it and some idiot will buy it.

 

[RussianSensation]

if all high end video cards sounded like that then i would find another hobby, I do not how they work years on developing a gpu and cant even figure how make a quiet and effective cooler. a

Now you know why a GTX470 was a rather quiet upgrade for me after a reference HD4890. I think for the next card I am going to try and get something with a quieter aftermarket design if there is not a large price premium over a reference version.

 

[BFG10K]

I’ve had both cards and the difference between them is like night and day.

The GTX580 is ~5C lower under idle and ~10C lower at load, while being quieter at the same time. The highest fan speed I’ve seen is 2200rpm while the GTX480 would often hit 3000rpm. In any demanding game it’d wail like a banshee and was easily audible even over headphones with a high volume.

Anyone in the same room had to leave because they couldn’t stand the noise; it sounded exactly like a hairdryer dropped inside a PC case. I’ve seen a lot of people claiming the GTX480 is quiet but when their fan speeds are revealed, we find they’re 2700-3000rpm. That’s not quiet unless you’re deaf or your system is so noisy to begin with that it doesn’t matter.

As for the claims that retail samples got better: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphics/display/gigabyte-gf-gtx400_6.html#sect0

When under load, the senior model quickly accelerates its fan to 70% and you can only then stifle its noise by stepping up the volume in your speakers or headphones.

70% fan speed is 3000 rpm. I had the same Gigabyte GTX480 retail version and XBit’s fan speeds are the same as mine.

They also confirmed the GTX470 hits 60% (2400rpm) under load, which again is louder than my GTX580. This confirms my subjective findings that my GTX580 is quieter than even the GTX470, though still not as quiet as my old GTX285.