What kind of OC's can we expect with a watercooled 480?

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damstr

[H]ard|Gawd
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Maybe too early to tell since most people that ordered them haven't even received them yet.

I have 2 480's incoming but I haven't ordered waterblocks for them yet. I was wondering how far we can take the speeds on the stock cooler? I have pretty good case ventilation and the bottom most card in SLI will have the 3 120mm fans from the radiator blowing right on it.

Is there any software out there that allows us to overvolt the 480 without doing hardware mods? I'm only doing watercooling if it allows me to OC a good bit higher then air cooling allows.
 
I just got my Asus GTX 480s today and the tool they come with allows overvolting. Right now air cooled I am OC'd to 801 core and 1602 shaders with no probs on default voltage. Haven't touched the RAM yet.
 
Are they ok overclocked running next to each other in sli with air cooling? And any idea if overclocking without overvolting increases their power draw much?
 
I cant oc the core clock on mine with msi afterburner. What program are you guys using?
 
DooKey said:
I just got my Asus GTX 480s today and the tool they come with allows overvolting. Right now air cooled I am OC'd to 801 core and 1602 shaders with no probs on default voltage. Haven't touched the RAM yet.
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Nice! What kind of temps are you getting? I'm interested in what they get in Vantage and some other benchmarks.
 
JCDenton said:
Are they ok overclocked running next to each other in sli with air cooling? And any idea if overclocking without overvolting increases their power draw much?
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Overclocking results in a linear increase in power draw, while voltage increase is higher since the square of the voltage is the determining factor. Going from 1.0v to 1.2v is a 44% increase in core power draw with no frequency increase, for example.
 
Bah, just used gpuz, affecting shader clock did indeed affect the core clock but the core clock wasn't visible in msi afterburner.
 
damstr said:
Nice! What kind of temps are you getting? I'm interested in what they get in Vantage and some other benchmarks.
Click to expand...

I just did the built in test of Dawn of War II

Res: 1920X1200

All settings on high.

System specs below.

Results:

Average FPS:92
Max FPS: 223
Min FPS: 32

Temps were in the mid to high 80s C.
 
JCDenton said:
Are they ok overclocked running next to each other in sli with air cooling? And any idea if overclocking without overvolting increases their power draw much?
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My cards aren't next to each other. The P6TD Deluxe has two pci-e slots between the x16 slots.
 
I believe the review with very similar overclocks had an additional 27watts with the oc on a single card.
 
i got 825/1100 with my (NVIDIA reference) GTX 480 (air) with the fan at 90% and i ran 14 game benchmarks (plus Vantage and Heaven 1.0/2.0) with it against my (reference Diamond) HD 5870 at 975/1300 (also fan at 90% at 1.35V)

The GTX ran over the overclocked Radeon in 14 games - except a tie in 1 average :p
- However, the HD 5870 at 975/1300 pretty much caught up to the *stock* GTX 480 in the games they were close to begin with

EVGA overclocking tool has TWO skins; one is for overclocking the core/memory; use that one.
- but you cannot O/C the shaders with it.
 
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What do you get in Vantage at those clocks?

So your saying when both cards are OC'd the 480 walks all over the 5870?
 
damstr said:
What do you get in Vantage at those clocks?

So your saying when both cards are OC'd the 480 walks all over the 5870?
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See what you think; the Summary chart says it all :p

Here is the summary chart:


Start with page1 for the full review. It is Part 2.
Part 3 is the performance hit of 8xMSAA over 4xMSAA on HD 5870 vs GTX 480 for next Monday publication.
 
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apoppin said:
See what you think; the Summary chart says it all :p

Here is the summary chart:


Start with page1 for the full review. It is Part 2.
Part 3 is the performance hit of 8xMSAA over 4xMSAA on HD 5870 vs GTX 480 for next Monday publication.
Click to expand...

Wow really nice review!

Mhz for mhz the 480 is more powerful.
 
Thank-you. GTX 480 scales really well. It bodes well for future variants.
 
So a 5870 oced to 1000/1300 will still get walked on. :( That $80 dollars more and fan speed not looking to bad right now.
I like the see the part three, any hints, 5870 still a doormat?
 
I have the vanilla version and it has no problems running 800/1600/2000. That's with the stock cooler. After half an hour with the Evga artifact scanner temps are 72 with fan at 90 on my open bench.
 
Blazemore said:
So a 5870 oced to 1000/1300 will still get walked on. :( That $80 dollars more and fan speed not looking to bad right now.
I like the see the part three, any hints, 5870 still a doormat?
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i wouldn't call HD 5870 at 1000/1300 MHz a "doormat" :p
-- it does well to catch up to the *stock* GTX 480 in games that are close to begin with. It is just that the GTX 480 scales SO well in comparison to HD 5870 that an overclocked GTX does soo well.

i am working on the 8xMSAA performance hit over 4xMSAA right now
- i installed the WHQL 191.41 GeForce drivers and am benching my GTX 480 right now at 4xMSAA and at 8xMSAA

- there are a few performance improvements - in FC 2 - but nothing mind blowing yet; i expect it is mostly bug fixes over the beta release drivers. The GTX 480 also seems to take a pretty minimal performance hit (so far)

i will have most of the testing with the GTX 480 done tonight and i will be benching HD 5870 at 8xMSAA on Thursday and Friday .. then it's time to make the charts and write the article

if everything goes well, Part 3 goes up Sunday night
:cool:
 
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I had a feeling the 480 would only take a small performance hit but how much compared to a 5870 is what I've been waiting for. Yeah should leave off the doormat before the red flood comes :)

BTW in Just Cause 2 did Cuda take on a big role far as eyecandy?

Also nice site and love the way you did "show all pages" part in the reviews.
 
Blazemore said:
I had a feeling the 480 would only take a small performance hit but how much compared to a 5870 is what I've been waiting for. Yeah should leave off the doormat before the red flood comes :)

BTW in Just Cause 2 did Cuda take on a big role far as eyecandy?

Also nice site and love the way you did "show all pages" part in the reviews.
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Thank-you.

i am just now getting to Just Cause 2. it is an amazing game with awesome visuals.
- i just can't compare yet as i am just starting to bench it. i am adding it and 7 or 8 more games for Part 3.

i will hopefully finish with GTX 480 late tonight and get to HD 5870 8xMSAA performance hit tomorrow; i will try to update you.
 
I see some incredible gains in UT3 and FC2 but nothing that strikes me as making it worth to OC and deal with the increased heat / power output for those on air cooling. Most of the games excelling here have typically favored Nvidia hardware also.

With GPU-heavy games like Crysis and Lost Planet, performance still does not differ much from a 5870 when OC'ed going by that chart, especially at 2560x1600. Color me not impressed.
 
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x3sphere said:
I see some incredible gains in UT3 and FC2 but nothing that strikes me as making it worth to OC and deal with the increased heat / power output for those on air cooling. Most of the games excelling here have typically favored Nvidia hardware also.

With GPU-heavy games like Crysis and Lost Planet, performance still does not differ much from a 5870 when OC'ed going by that chart, especially at 2560x1600. Color me not impressed.
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You have a faster card. no wonder you are not impressed. The purpose of the article is to show the relative scaling of GTX 480 vs. HD 5870 (which also scales differently to your card). And evidently GTX 480 scales a bit better than 5870 with each core overclocked.

Frankly, it is not worth it for me to put up with the noise to get that OC. Stock is fast enough and if i really wanted a 24/7 OC of 825/1100 MHz, i'd water cool it.
 
I'm using 2 vanilla 480's OC'd to 800/1600/2100 for my 24/7 OC. I am stable up to around 825 on the core, and 2150ish for the memory, but getting too close to the edge there for daily use. With a voltage increase I bet I could squeeze a tad more out of this chip, but I'm at the max MSI Afterburner allows. With a custom fan profile in afterburner, I get up around 85 with my SLI setup, the fan usually maxes out around 90%. Unfortunately my two x16 slots are side by side on my gigabyte x58a mobo, so I am going to get hotter temps. I can't wait to see what my temps are when I get around to buying a 3rd 480 once the drivers mature and make better use of the third card. (for 3 monitor gaming) FYI this is in a CM HAF 932.

From what I have seen so far, I think almost every Fermi chip 470/480, will probably be able to hit 800mhz or so (470 depends on how crippled your OC options are as they have deliberately gimped that card so it doesn't out compete the 480, which will be their big money maker) That will be the baseline for the max OC. Just like 4.0 was the baseline for the i7 OC's. I expect to see OC's of up to around 900 occasionally, and going upwards for the extreme overclockers who hunt down the best chips and throw them under some ln2. I did see some results of ln2 on a 480, they had a ridiculous OC of over 1000mhz core and 2400mhz mem.

I really don't think you will be getting drastically higher clocks under water, but what you will be getting is a much needed cooling upgrade. I really don't mind the extra fan noise when gaming, as I already have volume high enough and my hearing is starting to go anyways, but while I don't mind it, I do notice it. These babies get loud.
 
Blazemore said:
You have an eta on part three?
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Yes. This weekend. i got the flu this last weekend which put me behind.
- i am done with GTX 480 testing and am working HD 5870 benches with 8x MSAA right now.

GF100 has really improved in this regard over the GT200 series. HD 5870 still does well in this regard; but i will have complete benches by Friday.

it has been noted that my HD 5870 did not scale really well at its highest frequencies (true); perhaps it is partially because it is the "older core" reference Diamond. i am going to test it further - overclocked vs a "newer core" when i review my PowerColor HD 5870 PCS + the following week (with Cat 10-4)
 
Yeah I'm just trying to see how much higher I can oc on water. Since adding voltage to a card that already touches 90c isn't something I'm comfortable with.

If I can get 900+ on water I would really consider it as I'm getting rid of one of my cards I think. (Please don't pm me about buying the card)
 
:)
damstr said:
Yeah I'm just trying to see how much higher I can oc on water. Since adding voltage to a card that already touches 90c isn't something I'm comfortable with.

If I can get 900+ on water I would really consider it as I'm getting rid of one of my cards I think. (Please don't pm me about buying the card)
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Why are you dropping a card? No OC will overall replace the speed you loose. Just curious, so for loving my 2!
 
I just think 2 is overkill for me. I was using 1 480 for a couple days and I think I would be fine with just one although I'm very happy with 2 now. :)
 
damstr said:
I just think 2 is overkill for me. I was using 1 480 for a couple days and I think I would be fine with just one although I'm very happy with 2 now. :)
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What resolution are you running your games at? Do you ever plan to go triple-monitor?
 
rincewind said:
Overclocking results in a linear increase in power draw, while voltage increase is higher since the square of the voltage is the determining factor. Going from 1.0v to 1.2v is a 44% increase in core power draw with no frequency increase, for example.
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o_O

wow...

I would like to see some numbers of these hitting 900 or better on the core under water. that would be sweet
 
Got my two Evga 480 SCs on water with the DD blocks.

Haven't had too much time to OC yet, but my latest is 867/1733/1000 with stock voltage and zero issues.
 
Vegasr said:
Got my two Evga 480 SCs on water with the DD blocks.

Haven't had too much time to OC yet, but my latest is 867/1733/1000 with stock voltage and zero issues.
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you sure you OC up to 867 /1000 on stock voltage?

if this is true, you have the highest OC on stock voltage I have ever seen..

I even surprise that mine does 835/950 out of box... 867 seems just way too far...
 
shansoft said:
you sure you OC up to 867 /1000 on stock voltage?

if this is true, you have the highest OC on stock voltage I have ever seen..

I even surprise that mine does 835/950 out of box... 867 seems just way too far...
Click to expand...

Yep, I just use the Evga Precision to OC the cards. Now I can't tell you what stock voltage is, but I have not touched it, nor plan on it.



Here is the Vatage run at those clocks. http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=2146009

However, I doubt this is the highest OC ever seen. I'm sure many others have higher.
 
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I am sure you all know by now that different cards have different bios, you can google gtx 480 bios 1.05v, and there is a website that has a log of all different bios voltages submitted, there are bios file all the way up to 1.075v, that is why if your default bios is 1.0 your memory wont clock at all, when I give the chip a little more voltage, I can clock the memory all the way up to 2050 or even more. Not that I need all that bandwidth, with default voltage I can take the memory to to 1920, thats about it.

I can clock at 850 with 1.05v but it is not worth it for me, because i get 812core at default voltage of 1.0v so and the card has shit load of mem bandwidth as it is. So I have decided to stay at that.
 
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