New Palit 470 GTX - Custom Design - quick feedback

[SpeedyGonzales]

Purchased the new Palit 470 GTX with non-reference PCB/Cooler on Friday.

Idea was to replace my trusty old 4870 (512mb) and with a bit of overclocking luck get 5870 to 480 GTX (non-overclocked) performance, DX11 features and last but not least more video ram. The price difference to a reference 5850 was around €40.

I did not want to buy a reference 470 GTX as I have a modded PC which is close to silent.

Overclocking:

Did some overclocking on the week-end. I stopped at 750/1500/870. As this was "mission accomplished", I stopped here - however I would not be surprised, if this card goes over 800mhz.

Heat:

The GPU reaches 90C under load and drops back into the fifties range idle. However it does a better job on getting the hot air out off my case, as the case seems to stay cooler after several hours of gaming (it is made from aluminium and got quite warm close to the old 4870, which had an accelero cooler).

Noise:

I can not hear the 470 GTX when idle. Under full load you can hear the two fans and clearly differentiate the noise from the other coolers in my rig. It is ok (just) for me - other people may not care, given the fact that other rigs may not be as silent as my modded PC.

Performance:

I wanted to double the performance of my 4870 to make this a worthy upgrade - so I needed more or less the power of a 480GTX (at ref speed).

3dMark Vantage (performance) went up from roughly 8k to over 20k (overclocked). Scaling is very good when overclocking - at least at my resolution (1680*1050).

Heaven 2.0 Demo showed an average of 38fps (non-overclocked) and went up to nearly 50fps when overclocked using the standard test configuration at 1680*1050.

So I am very happy. MSI Afterburner works without flaws allowing me to apply overclocking at a keypress when I need it.

Summary:

Good overclocking potential, very good performance at 1680*1050, cheaper than a 5870 (at least in Germany), not silent under load but ok. Clear recommendation from my side.

Cheers

 

[Petey!]

Good to hear. I've also been pretty happy with my GTX 470, and after switching back to my Antec 900 after a brief and horrible experience with a Thermaltake armor, My temps are back to good, and my case is much quieter. Happy gaming.

Seems Palit is trying to do some good things, and I know they just increased their warranty period.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Nice overclock, it should be quite a performer. What resolution is your monitor? I went from a 4870 512MB @ 820/4000 to a 5870 950/5080 and noticed a big difference at my resolution (1920x1200). Most games actually played quite well on the 4870 at that res, even with 512MB of video memory. But now I can add more AA and use DX10 with AA in games that I previously was not able to. It sounds like you should have a similar experience.

 

[SpeedyGonzales]

Nice overclock, it should be quite a performer. What resolution is your monitor? I went from a 4870 512MB @ 820/4000 to a 5870 950/5080 and noticed a big difference at my resolution (1920x1200). Most games actually played quite well on the 4870 at that res, even with 512MB of video memory. But now I can add more AA and use DX10 with AA in games that I previously was not able to. It sounds like you should have a similar experience.

I am running at 1680*1050. So the 4870 was sufficient in a lot of cases, except Crysis (no AA), GTA IV and the heavy texture mods for Fallout 3 (Ram). So from an economic point of view, this upgrade was too early, as 3 games should not really justify an upgrade, but I also wanted to have the latest tech (so that purchase was luxury).

I do not plan to upgrade my LCD anytime soon. It is an expensive Eizo 2110w, that I am very happy with, it is fast enough for casual gaming and has brilliant colours (I am using it for photo post processing). In one or two years I will probably move to the full HD resolution, but only if an LCD is available that is such a good allrounder as the 2110w and not bigger than 22-23 inch.

Cheers

 

[SpeedyGonzales]

Update:

Card max out at 760/1520/870 showing first artifacts under heavy load (MSI Kombustor).

Fan goes to 90% under this load (93C) and must be considered as loud.

Under normal gameplay fan stays at maximum of 60-70% which is ok.

 

[Patrick Wolf]

I just returned a Palit GTX 275 with the dual fans because of the noise they made. You can keep the fan speed at a whisper quiet 30% (default of 40 which is noticeably louder than 30) and the card won't go above 90, but otherwise auto fan speed (which I prefer) will drift above 40 under heavy loads and makes an annoying whirling sound. As opposed to the reference design which may rev higher but makes a far more pleasant whooshing sound and also exhausts the heat out the back which keeps my CPU temps down reducing the chance of the fan on it from getting louder.

Although the 275's fan/heatsink isn't exactly the same as the 470's, so maybe it's better.

 

[superccs]

90 under load sound scarey to any one esle? I try to run an oc on my 4850 tgat keeps temps under 70... How much current you think you are pulling under load?

 

[SpeedyGonzales]

I just returned a Palit GTX 275 with the dual fans because of the noise they made. You can keep the fan speed at a whisper quiet 30% (default of 40 which is noticeably louder than 30) and the card won't go above 90, but otherwise auto fan speed (which I prefer) will drift above 40 under heavy loads and makes an annoying whirling sound. As opposed to the reference design which may rev higher but makes a far more pleasant whooshing sound and also exhausts the heat out the back which keeps my CPU temps down reducing the chance of the fan on it from getting louder.

Although the 275's fan/heatsink isn't exactly the same as the 470's, so maybe it's better.

50-60% is ok with this Palit. Over 60% is only ok, when gaming. Idle is 40% which you can not hear.

I must correct myself a bit, played a couple of hours tonight. It is very hot in central europe at the moment, Card went over 60% after some time, with headset just ok, card was running at max overclock. I have to fool around a bit with the fan speeds.

 

[SpeedyGonzales]

90 under load sound scarey to any one esle? I try to run an oc on my 4850 tgat keeps temps under 70... How much current you think you are pulling under load?

The 4xx gtx cards are made for this temp, does not scare me at all.

As I did not overclock, it should be comparable to the test on x-bit:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/geforce-gtx470-sli_4.html#sect0

I do not care too much about how much current a vid card is pulling, there are much better ways to save energy - starting with an efficient car.

Cheers