XFX GeForce GTX 480 and GeForce GTX 470 Pictured

[Mr. Pedantic]

Um, yeah... I'm not talking about the pipes that are obviously heatpipes...

Hey, you get all types on the internet. Lowest common denominator, and all that.

They're probably just cosmetic. Unless NVidia is so desperate about the heat that it's turned the shroud into a part of the heatsink. Which may not be such a bad idea, come to think of it.

 

[nitromullet]

Tiny heatsinks possibly. Any thing they can do to increase the surface area to cool the 295 watt(allegedly) behemoth. The 470 doesn't look anywhere near as cool looking. I think I will be better off gettting 2 470's over 2 480's though. Those will be hot enough for my little case.

That's what I mean... If that is basically the top of the heatsink exposed just for that little bit of extra cooling, that is a little worrisome. This is what Fermi looked like a few months ago:

...since that time it looks like they've added some rather massive heat pipes and exposed the top of the heat sink just to help dissipate a bit more heat. It also means you'll have what amounts to a hotplate/griddle radiating heat inside your rig.

I agree with you that the 470 will probably be the better bet, and I'm guessing there will be more of them around too.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

That's what I mean... If that is basically the top of the heatsink exposed just for that little bit of extra cooling, that is a little worrisome. This is what Fermi looked like a few months ago:

We don't even know whether that was Fermi.

...since that time it looks like they've added some rather massive heat pipes and exposed the top of the heat sink just to help dissipate a bit more heat. It also means you'll have what amounts to a hotplate/griddle radiating heat inside your rig.

I agree with you that the 470 will probably be the better bet, and I'm guessing there will be more of them around too.

In my mind, it would have been much better to just have a triple-slot cooler instead of dissipating heat from the top of the shroud, since it makes SLI impractical unless there's an extra slot in the middle for airflow, in which case why can't you have that third slot dedicated to more efficient and more effective cooling? Therefore I think the interesting pattern is probably purely cosmetic.

 

[nitromullet]

We don't even know whether that was Fermi.

Well, it was an image posted by NVIDIA themselves, and they said it was Fermi. Still might not be, but at some point we only have their word to go on.

In my mind, it would have been much better to just have a triple-slot cooler instead of dissipating heat from the top of the shroud, since it makes SLI impractical unless there's an extra slot in the middle for airflow, in which case why can't you have that third slot dedicated to more efficient and more effective cooling? Therefore I think the interesting pattern is probably purely cosmetic.

It's possible. I posed it as a question. It's tough to say...

It's a bad idea for the reasons we've both pointed out, but then again they might have had to do it. Look at the angle pic..

It's very hard to imagine that there is a plastic shroud over the entire heat sink that has a metal plate inserted just for looks. It looks like the plate is mounted directly to the top of the sink, and is coming through the shroud.

Again, I really don't know, just caught my eye and thought I'd mention it.

 

[1h4x4s3x]

Well, it was an image posted by NVIDIA themselves, and they said it was Fermi. Still might not be, but at some point we only have their word to go on.

Do you remember this?

 

[Dark4ng3l]

Do you remember this?

To be fair the card in the video was actually running the Heaven benchmark. Unless nVidia pulled some magic trick and ran the benchmark on a hidden machine we can be 99% certain that that card was an actual fermi board.

 

[7earitup]

I am definitely interested in the 470 for around 300-400 bucks.

 

[nitromullet]

Do you remember this?

Of course I remember that.

The cooler on the card NV was running at CES also looked like the cooler on the picture I linked...

from: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1175/1/

Either way, it really doesn't matter if the card in the picture was actually Fermi or not for the point that I'm making. My point is that whatever cooling they thought they would be using appears to have been reworked considerably, which seems to indicate the card may be a little hotter than they anticipated.

 

[AnandThenMan]

To be fair the card in the video was actually running the Heaven benchmark. Unless nVidia pulled some magic trick and ran the benchmark on a hidden machine we can be 99% certain that that card was an actual fermi board.

Nvidia had no problem holding up a fake card and passing it off as real (from their CEO no less) but you think there is no way they would fake a benchmark or demo? 99% certain, hardly.

 

[jaggerwild]

Heat box!

 

[nitromullet]

More pics:

http://www.arabhardware.net/forum/showpost.php?p=1310260&postcount=3263

looks like I was right about the metal top.

 

[Ben90]

The meanest looking card imo was and always will be the 9800GX2 by nvidia!

Lol I was actually going to post that, but you beat me to it.

Cry fanboi, but I personally prefer the look of Nvidia cards. I wouldn't mind the 5xxx series so much if it wasn't for those curvy vents at the end of the card, every time I see them I just get reminded of this picture.

 

[1h4x4s3x]

lol, awesome picture.

 

[yh125d]

Must say they did a rather good job of keeping it properly short, and I never cared for the 5 series' which have half of the slot width open on the backplane for exhaust

 

[legcramp]

Lol I was actually going to post that, but you beat me to it.

Cry fanboi, but I personally prefer the look of Nvidia cards. I wouldn't mind the 5xxx series so much if it wasn't for those curvy vents at the end of the card, every time I see them I just get reminded of this picture.

You're just mad cause nvidia's cards don't look like a Batmobile.

 

[SolMiester]

Nvidia had no problem holding up a fake card and passing it off as real (from their CEO no less) but you think there is no way they would fake a benchmark or demo? 99% certain, hardly.

I think a lot of people have taken that whole exercise the wrong way and ran with it....Perhaps it was meant to indicate a prototype, a look of, a design etc, somewhat to what a car manufacturer may do when they show off prototype designed cars with no motors or running gear.....

Here is the answer, a figurehead if you get what I mean....

 

[Tsavo]

I can't believe people are squabbling about how the thing looks.

 

[zagood]

This may be the first time in a long time where the stock cooler of the GTX480 will be superior to most aftermarket coolers (Zalman we are looking at you).

At the time, the 8800GTX/GTS cooler was pretty damn good compared to aftermarket. Because of the size of the chip they didn't even have aftermarket sinks until what, 6+ months after release?

 

[zerocool84]

Lol I was actually going to post that, but you beat me to it.

Cry fanboi, but I personally prefer the look of Nvidia cards. I wouldn't mind the 5xxx series so much if it wasn't for those curvy vents at the end of the card, every time I see them I just get reminded of this picture.

You're just mad cause nvidia's cards don't look like a Batmobile.

I think the old school Batmobile is better than any of the ones that have come after.