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

[toyota]

wouldn't the first card that lavaheadache installed with 1.013 voltage be able to able to run much cooler and quieter than his other one that is at 1.113? and how can two of the same cards have such a massive difference in voltage in the first place?

 

[lavaheadache]

The lower voltage card was only a few degrees cooler at best. Neither card gets noisy either. Aside from manually cranking the fan up I don't think fan speed ever got above 55.

I'll post screenies of Afterburner later if you guys want.

 

[bryanW1995]

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


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.

Magic 8 ball says there is tx-4 and a high airflow shroud in my future. I will install it tonight and see what undervolting and custom fan profiles will do for me first, however.

 

[bryanW1995]

The lower voltage card was only a few degrees cooler at best. Neither card gets noisy either. Aside from manually cranking the fan up I don't think fan speed ever got above 55.

I'll post screenies of Afterburner later if you guys want.

Go ahead and post the screen shots, we can compare them.

I admit that I wasn't really that worried until bfg10k chimed in, now I think that it might end up just being a big crap shoot.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I lol when I hear people say how whisper quiet a 580 is but the 480 is a hair dryer. Reference 580's are pretty annoying too. And yes I've owned both. The 480 noise issue is the biggest crock ever. Sure if your confined in your mom's 8ft X 8ft basement than I see your point.

 

[dmoney1980]

I ordered an Accelero kit for my 480, will let post some results after I install it. Right now I'm at 55 idle, hight 80's after playing some BF3. It's pretty quiet on idle but gets pretty loud when gaming

 

[toyota]

I lol when I hear people say how whisper quiet a 580 is but the 480 is a hair dryer. Reference 580's are pretty annoying too. And yes I've owned both. The 480 noise issue is the biggest crock ever. Sure if your confined in your mom's 8ft X 8ft basement than I see your point.

if you are saying the noise levels of the release cards are not loud and should not bother you then that is the crock. as BFG10K basically said, someone would have to be deaf not to take issue with that level of noise. having used a gtx470 myself, there would be no way in hell of living with it for me. I would take a quieter lower performing card any day, and did, over a loud ass card.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

if you are saying the noise levels of the release cards are not loud and should not bother you then that is the crock. as BFG10K basically said, someone would have to be deaf not to take issue with that level of noise. having used a gtx470 myself, there would be no way in hell of living with it for me. I would take a quieter lower performing card any day, and did, over a loud ass card.

I know you've owned a single gtx 470 and have now become the expert on the 480/580 noise levels too even though you've owned neither. I'm not deaf I'm just not a cry baby. They get a little loud but it's not horrible. And also the 580 is pretty loud too although you wouldn't know that since all you've done is read a couple review sites that have had their pockets padded by nvidia and now you're omg gtx 580 whisper quiet zomg!!

 

[toyota]

I know you've owned a single gtx 470 and have now become the expert on the 480/580 noise levels too even though you've owned neither. I'm not deaf I'm just not a cry baby. They get a little loud but it's not horrible. And also the 580 is pretty loud too although you wouldn't know that since all you've done is read a couple review sites that have had their pockets padded by nvidia and now you're omg gtx 580 whisper quiet zomg!!

AGAIN on release, the gtx480 was LOUDER than the gtx470. I do not have to own both cards to deduce that if the gtx470 was loud than the gtx480 was just as loud or louder. just because you can put up with excessive noise does not mean most other people can. luckily Nvidia did not share your narrow minded view and updated to a much quieter cooling solution for the gtx580 and gtx570 because of the complaints. my gtx570 is nice and quiet while still being a much faster and cooler running card than the gtx470.

 

[bryanW1995]

Don't argue with Toyota, he is the expert on this issue. At least, he will be until I install my gtx 480 tonight

 

[toyota]

Don't argue with Toyota, he is the expert on this issue. At least, he will be until I install my gtx 480 tonight

you see that I am ONLY referring to the launch gtx470 and gtx480 now yet you feel the need to start shit anyway?

 

[bryanW1995]

Actually, in this case your deduction is not necessarily correct. GTX 480 is so much beefier/better constructed/etc than gtx 470 that it is entirely likely that you could run the GTX 480 at higher temps and actually have it be quieter than an identical gtx 470. Regardless, I'll post all of my info tonight. Trust me, if it's too loud then you guys will hear about it. And I'm coming from a completely silent gtx 460 768, so I'll immediately notice if something's not right.

 

[toyota]

Actually, in this case your deduction is not necessarily correct. GTX 480 is so much beefier/better constructed/etc than gtx 470 that it is entirely likely that you could run the GTX 480 at higher temps and actually have it be quieter than an identical gtx 470. Regardless, I'll post all of my info tonight. Trust me, if it's too loud then you guys will hear about it. And I'm coming from a completely silent gtx 460 768, so I'll immediately notice if something's not right.

well clearly both the gtx470 and gtx480 improved over time. now they are probably not an issue. too bad Nvidia could not get that done before the actual release of those cards though.

 

[Firestorm007]

Thanks OP for the update. I just installed mine on my spare rig. It runs great so far. Fan noise is very good. I can barely hear it. I was a little worried about installing the latest Nvidia drivers with all the negative reports I was hearing. However, I'm happy to report that so far, so good. I haven't experienced any anomalies. For the price of $175 after rebate; I have zero complaints.

 

[BFG10K]

I lol when I hear people say how whisper quiet a 580 is but the 480 is a hair dryer. Reference 580's are pretty annoying too. And yes I've owned both.

I didn’t say it was “whisper quiet”, just much better than a GTX480. I actually have objective fan speeds to back my claims – 2200rpm vs 3000rpm. That’s a big difference. It’s also quieter than my GTX470 which hit 2400rpm under gaming.

Sure if your confined in your mom's 8ft X 8ft basement than I see your point.

I’m not sure what this is supposed to mean. Are you suggesting you can’t use a GTX480 inside a house? Where should it be used then? In a warehouse? Or perhaps an aircraft hangar?

 

[lavaheadache]

I didn’t say it was “whisper quiet”, just much better than a GTX480. I actually have objective fan speeds to back my claims – 2200rpm vs 3000rpm. That’s a big difference. It’s also quieter than my GTX470 which hit 2400rpm under gaming.


I’m not sure what this is supposed to mean. Are you suggesting you can’t use a GTX480 inside a house? Where should it be used then? In a warehouse? Or perhaps an aircraft hangar?

I could not use it on a boat, I could not use it with a goat. I could not use it here or there I could not use this 480 anywhere.

 

[RussianSensation]

For the price of $175 after rebate; I have zero complaints.

Even if one added a $55 Arctic Cooling Freezer Xtreme Plus VGA Cooler, this basically makes it a card that is still cheaper than a GTX570, has more VRAM, more ROPs, higher memory bandwidth and can be overclocked to easily match a $430 GTX580.

 

[toyota]

Even if one added a $55 Arctic Cooling Freezer Xtreme Plus VGA Cooler, this basically makes it a card that is still cheaper than a GTX570, has more VRAM, more ROPs, higher memory bandwidth and can be overclocked to easily match a $430 GTX580.

none of that stuff really helps it and it will have to be overclocked 15% with perfect scaling just to match the stock gtx570 in BF 3.



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[Jaydip]

I have owned both a GTX 470 and GTX 580.Needless to say GTX 580 is a quieter card while being faster.My GTX 580 is not reference though,it's a ASUS direct cu ii.I do game with my headphones on so noise was not a deal breaker for me when i installed the GTX 470.Temperatures were OK too.But after i played Arcania Gothic 4 it constantly hit 90 s and that got me worried.I had a CM 690 case then so it probably contributed to the temperature issue.I enabled asus smart-cooling for the gtx 470.During heavy gaming other people could definitely hear the noise as i was constantly reminded by my mom
GTX 580 on the other hand reaches 56-57 degrees after playing witcher 2 while staying quieter.I have enabled smart cooling for gtx 580 too.I know its not fair to compare a reference model to a non reference one but the truth is gtx 470 was not a suitable card for everyone.I live in India and the ambient temperature during summer is around 27-28 degrees.So for people like myself gtx 580 is a boon(the price could be a bit better though).

 

[bryanW1995]

Ok, apparently I am one lucky mofo. I have decent but not great airflow in my case, yet even with a crazy low fan profile (starts at 35% at 50c, ramps up steadily to 60% at 88c), and no install of new tim or high flow bracket yet, I haven't been able to get it over 83c. Color me VERY impressed.

Testing crysis demo (passes) and 3G mark 11 at .925 v, will update with temps once I'm done.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Ok, apparently I am one lucky mofo. I have decent but not great airflow in my case, yet even with a crazy low fan profile (starts at 35% at 50c, ramps up steadily to 60% at 88c), and no install of new tim or high flow bracket yet, I haven't been able to get it over 83c. Color me VERY impressed.

Testing crysis demo (passes) and 3G mark 11 at .925 v, will update with temps once I'm done.

What are you using to under volt? I'd like to try it.

 

[bryanW1995]

Afterburner v 2.1.0. Undervolting is nice, but the best part for me is keeping the fan noise under control. I've heard so many "my gtx 480 runs at 87c and it sounds like a hair dryer" stories that I was extremely worried about that.

 

[lavaheadache]

Afterburner v 2.1.0. Undervolting is nice, but the best part for me is keeping the fan noise under control. I've heard so many "my gtx 480 runs at 87c and it sounds like a hair dryer" stories that I was extremely worried about that.

Yeah, neither of my 480's get loud at all and stay in the 80's. I did notice my temps seemed to rise after I changed the TIM to arctic silver 5. Maybe I should try some better stuff. Then again maybe I did it wrong. I've done Arctic silver just shy of a million times but I feel like I may have borked it on my 2 cards. I did the pea method but this is the first time I've done it on such a large IHS. Maybe I did too much? or even 2 little and there isn't complete coverage.

I wish the companies would just do a better job at the factory. I find it silly that on a top end product It is recommend to change something like that.

My temps were fine, maybe about 84c at load and now I see around 88c. It may need to time to "set" but who knows. Temps are still fine but I was hoping they would magically get better.

 

[toyota]

I am loving the whole undervoltage thing on my gtx570. stock voltage for me is 1.013 but I was 100% stable at .963 in all my testing. I decided to use .975 just to make sure there would never be an issue though. I just did several very demanding benchmarks in a row at .975 with stock 732/1464/3800 clocks and temps never went over 73 for peak. I usually stayed right around 70 for average probably.

 

[RussianSensation]

Yeah, neither of my 480's get loud at all and stay in the 80's. I did notice my temps seemed to rise after I changed the TIM to arctic silver 5. Maybe I should try some better stuff. Then again maybe I did it wrong. I've done Arctic silver just shy of a million times but I feel like I may have borked it on my 2 cards. I did the pea method but this is the first time I've done it on such a large IHS. Maybe I did too much?

How much did you apply? Remember that you have direct heat pipe technology on that cooler. So it's very important to make sure the thermal paste fills the grooves between those heatpipes. If you looked at the GTX470 TIM change video, you notice they first put TIM on the heatpipes to spread the paste and then a large blob on the heat spreader.