GeForce GTX 480 Real World Temperatures & Sound @ [H]

Thanks for a great review, that prove a detail I expected:
The high temperatures are primarily the result of designing for low noise. There's still plenty of room to keep that temperature stable when the intake temp goes up. Impressive!
There's a public statement from Nvidia that the GPU is designed to operate at that high temperature, so longevity shouldn't be a problem. (Let's just hope they learned from the wrong decisions they took with those mobile GPUs...)

Measuring the temperature on the heatpipe is obviously no use. That temperature was consistently below the output temperature, which it shouldn't be if the passing air is heated by that heatpipe temp.

Some writers in this thread mention XFX's non-launch of GF GTX 480 as something special. It isn't! If you read the statement from XFX they just say they won't have any cards ready on the GTX 480 launch day.
That's because Nvidia provided GPUs only to Zotac and Palit. No other manufacturer has had any GPUs available!

Cheers
Olle
 
Tweaktown's review actually had the 470 as significantly LOUDER than the 480. Which struck me as surprising. Not so surprising though, both the 470+480 ran hotter and louder than any of the other cards compared.

3232_39.png


http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/3232/gigabyte_geforce_gtx_480_video_card/index17.html
 
vjcsmoke said:
Tweaktown's review actually had the 470 as significantly LOUDER than the 480. Which struck me as surprising. Not so surprising though, both the 470+480 ran hotter and louder than any of the other cards compared.

['img]http://images.tweaktown.com/content/3/2/3232_39.png[/img]

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/3232/gigabyte_geforce_gtx_480_video_card/index17.html
Click to expand...

That was the most worthless noise test I have ever seen! :D (No offense ment to you, vjcsmoke)

After five minutes of that we get a bit more serious and place the device two CM away from the fan on the card to find the maximum noise level of the card when idle (2D mode) and in load (3D mode)
Click to expand...

Airflow would disturb the readings even and ambient noise must be very high!

I can understand they use reference models of 5870 against reference models of 480, but reference models of 5870 is hard to come by these days. Here's an example of temp and fanspeed with my Powercolor 5870 PCS+ with fanspeed forced at 25% running MSI Afterburner on extreme burn (Furmark). I increased intake fan speed though in my silenced setup for testing purposes:
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/3184/msikombustorfan25.jpg

Fanspeed at default (pretty agressive default setup by Powercolor):
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/4776/msikombustordefaultfan.jpg

and here is the card idle in my quiet rig (low RPM on all fans) with custom fan profile:
powercolorfanspeed8.jpg


I'd love to see them take a sound test of this card in comparison!
 
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vjcsmoke said:
Tweaktown's review actually had the 470 as significantly LOUDER than the 480. Which struck me as surprising. Not so surprising though, both the 470+480 ran hotter and louder than any of the other cards compared.

3232_39.png


http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/3232/gigabyte_geforce_gtx_480_video_card/index17.html
Click to expand...

And faster. Been testing my 2x SLI 480 setup, not anywhere NEAR as bad as this is being made out to be by some. Yeah, Furmark will heat the shit up and spin the fans but it just isn't that bad considering the performance this setup has.

I'm not going back.
 
heatlesssun said:
And faster. Been testing my 2x SLI 480 setup, not anywhere NEAR as bad as this is being made out to be by some. Yeah, Furmark will heat the shit up and spin the fans but it just isn't that bad considering the performance this setup has.

I'm not going back.
Click to expand...

I think my ears will have to be the judge of that once I plug in the monsters. ^_^

Hey do you think EVGA Precision is as good as or better than MSI Afterburner? I've been using Afterburner for a while now, but I'd be content to use the vendor supplied OC program if it was up to snuff. Does Precision offer overvolting capability?
 
shansoft said:
huh...

4850 issue is the fan speed is WAY TOO SLOW..

I had one, and both 4850 and 4870 have the same issue..

when the heat is exceeding its limit but the fan still not spinning up.. that is the real issue there.

its nothing relate to GTX 480, totally different...
Click to expand...

Your right, the ATI card was actually causing failures and people had to RMA their cards. The 480/470 has yet to see any of those problems... I am just saying that each manufacturer goes through some tweaks to fix newer setups.
 
After playing BC2 last night for over an hour the max temps were 92c on the one card and 85c on the second. No complaints about the fan though I was using headphones. Lol
 
Running an EVGA GTX 480 SC with 197.41 drivers and was sitting around 79C solid while playing BC2 for about an hour tonight. The fan is definitely loud while under load; idle is fairly silent.

Edit: Just ran the Unigine Heaven benchmark and it topped out at 105C with 92% fan speed.
 
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gentoo said:
Running an EVGA GTX 480 SC with 197.41 drivers and was sitting around 79C solid while playing BC2 for about an hour tonight. The fan is definitely loud while under load; idle is fairly silent.

Edit: Just ran the Unigine Heaven benchmark and it topped out at 105C with 92% fan speed.
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:confused: Are you serious, 105C with the fan nearly maxed out, all alone by itself (not in a SLI setup) with normal ambient? Why isn't the fan even at 100%?? It seems that NV really built those chips to run well at hotter-than-ever-before temps, like up to 110C or something!

Why not try forcing the fan to stay at like 60% or so and see how hot the card can get before crashing, just to be curious? :D Just kidding!

I'm wondering if there is a huge difference in power consumption for a water-cooled setup that keeps the card running at 55C or so, like over 50W savings?
 
vjcsmoke said:
I think my ears will have to be the judge of that once I plug in the monsters. ^_^

Hey do you think EVGA Precision is as good as or better than MSI Afterburner? I've been using Afterburner for a while now, but I'd be content to use the vendor supplied OC program if it was up to snuff. Does Precision offer overvolting capability?
Click to expand...

Afterburner has voltage control and user-defined automatic fan control (fan will ramp up to certain speeds at certain temperatures based on a graph setting). Precision has neither options.
 
Bo_Fox said:
:confused: Are you serious, 105C with the fan nearly maxed out, all alone by itself (not in a SLI setup) with normal ambient? Why isn't the fan even at 100%?? It seems that NV really built those chips to run well at hotter-than-ever-before temps, like up to 110C or something!

Why not try forcing the fan to stay at like 60% or so and see how hot the card can get before crashing, just to be curious? :D Just kidding!

I'm wondering if there is a huge difference in power consumption for a water-cooled setup that keeps the card running at 55C or so, like over 50W savings?
Click to expand...

Yeah, the 105 was a steady temp during the benchmark. Granted I haven't seen it go that high with normal gameplay but we'll see. My case is also really well ventilated. Also, I suppose it's worth noting that it seems NVIDIA is sorting out it's fan speeds with this card since IIRC reading they tweaked them a little bit with a recent driver release with updates specifically for the 480.
 
gentoo said:
Yeah, the 105 was a steady temp during the benchmark. Granted I haven't seen it go that high with normal gameplay but we'll see. My case is also really well ventilated. Also, I suppose it's worth noting that it seems NVIDIA is sorting out it's fan speeds with this card since IIRC reading they tweaked them a little bit with a recent driver release with updates specifically for the 480.
Click to expand...

Perhaps it's the use of the DX11 tessellator function that makes it eat so much more power than in Battlefield: BC2? I would guess that the card was idling a bit with vsync enabled (due to the frame rates being maxed out at vsync) in BC2, right? The noise must be unbearable at 92% fan speed which should have been 100% anyways.
 
Bo_Fox said:
Perhaps it's the use of the DX11 tessellator function that makes it eat so much more power than in Battlefield: BC2? I would guess that the card was idling a bit with vsync enabled (due to the frame rates being maxed out at vsync) in BC2, right? The noise must be unbearable at 92% fan speed which should have been 100% anyways.
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Yeah, the Heaven benchmark really runs the tessellation to the proverbial max. BC2 which I was running in a forced DX10 state wasn't that bad. I forced DX10 because the load times with DX11 are ridiculous in comparison. And yes, I was running vsync because the tearing became too much for me and I can usually tolerate a little bit here and there.
 
Anyone using this card - Water is the way to go, as you will see .
Air water
Case temp 28.0
 
gentoo said:
Running an EVGA GTX 480 SC with 197.41 drivers and was sitting around 79C solid while playing BC2 for about an hour tonight. The fan is definitely loud while under load; idle is fairly silent.

Edit: Just ran the Unigine Heaven benchmark and it topped out at 105C with 92% fan speed.
Click to expand...

You really need to use Afterburner or something to control fan speeds because you should not be getting temps that high on that benchmark. Even with my overclocked 480's, I recorded a max temp of 83C at 70% fan speed. Hopefully there is no issue with the card itself.
 
I was very suprised how wrong the reviews have been on these cards as far as sound and heat (ok they are hot)

stock clocks/fans on my EVGA 480 vanilla
70* room ATCS 840 case single 480

Loaded using heaven 2.1
66% fan speed
81* C

Idle
44% speed
45-47* F

No worse IMO than my 285

at 95%+ fan speed there is a higher pitch that could get annoying.
 
I'm not having any issuses with my 480 (heat or otherwise) and i enjoy using the card. Am I doing something wrong?
 
Zurginator said:
I'm not having any issuses with my 480 (heat or otherwise) and i enjoy using the card. Am I doing something wrong?
Click to expand...
Ok, now that is just plain funny.. :)

It should have improved my gaming skills but that didn't happen. And I was hoping it would have blocked any more updates from Steam to CS:S but that didn't happen either...
 
It's relly odd some are reporting higher temps then others maybe some fermi chips run hotter standard?? I had saved up for 480's but with the temp problems and power draw its just not in my cards, I bought 2 GTX260's to hold me over till the GTX5XX cards
 
It'll be GTX 6xx, the even numbers are the enthusiast lines.

Some chips run hot yes, it deals with the range of voltages (like any other card). The big complaint with heat is from people lacking good flow, and the sound reported in reviews comes from having the mic 5" away from the card with no side panel. My 480 is significantly quieter than either of my 260s were.... and runs at fine temperatures OC'd.

Did I mention I have it in a small form factor case with very little airflow?
 
Whats a good oc for a 480? I've got mine running at 800 core, 1600 shader, and 2001 for memory. runs fine, tops out at 87c right now in games and im running stock voltage. Should I try for higher?
 
man this thread worries me. i was about to pull the trigger and buy a 480 but its very loud and hot!
 
No, it's not hot, and it's not loud. Well it is, but about the same as the 280/285, quieter fan by far though, and nearly double the performance.

I'm running 850/1700 @ 85c w/ 85% fan under furmark. In a SFF case with no fans on the GPU whatsoever. In fact there are no fans in this case, just 1 CPU fan.
 
Zurginator said:
No, it's not hot, and it's not loud. Well it is, but about the same as the 280/285, quieter fan by far though, and nearly double the performance.

I'm running 850/1700 @ 85c w/ 85% fan under furmark. In a SFF case with no fans on the GPU whatsoever. In fact there are no fans in this case, just 1 CPU fan.
Click to expand...

water cooled?
 
It's not the cooler folks, it's the listener.
Wow have you ever looked at the numbers? That's why subjective opinions are just that, SUBJECTIVE.
I am constantly amazed at how many fanboys claim such and such card is so quiet you can hear a pin drop.
Objective measurements prove otherwise.

"Hot, power hungry things are often loud things, and there are no disappointments here. At 70dB the GTX 480 SLI is the loudest card configuration we have ever tested, while at 64.1dB the GTX 480 is the loudest single-GPU card, beating out even our unreasonably loud 4890. Meanwhile the GTX 470 is in the middle of the pack at 61.5dB, coming in amidst some of our louder single-GPU cards and our dual-GPU cards."
22209.png


http://www.anandtech.com/show/2977/...x-470-6-months-late-was-it-worth-the-wait-/19
 
vjcsmoke said:
It's not the cooler folks, it's the listener.
Wow have you ever looked at the numbers? That's why subjective opinions are just that, SUBJECTIVE.
I am constantly amazed at how many fanboys claim such and such card is so quiet you can hear a pin drop.
Objective measurements prove otherwise.

"Hot, power hungry things are often loud things, and there are no disappointments here. At 70dB the GTX 480 SLI is the loudest card configuration we have ever tested, while at 64.1dB the GTX 480 is the loudest single-GPU card, beating out even our unreasonably loud 4890. Meanwhile the GTX 470 is in the middle of the pack at 61.5dB, coming in amidst some of our louder single-GPU cards and our dual-GPU cards."
22209.png


http://www.anandtech.com/show/2977/...x-470-6-months-late-was-it-worth-the-wait-/19
Click to expand...

I agree. BTW, decibels are a logarithmic comparative scale. The GTX480 is TWICE* as loud as the 8800GT. Think about it.

*Roughly twice, could be more depending on the reference.
 
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thehybridfrog said:
I agree. BTW, decibels are a logarithmic comparative scale. The GTX480 is TWICE* as loud as the 8800GT. Think about it.

*Roughly twice, could be more depending on the reference.
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what? the 8800gt is 50 while the 480 is 70. also what settings are the fans speed up in a 480 on that chart? doesnt even state that.
 
Well, my Ultra Kaze is SIGNIFICANTLY louder than my 480s. So were my 470s, and 260s.

Temps are nothing to complain about, really. The reviews over did it, 90% of them monitored noise right beside the card with no case.

Most recent reviews aren't showing this, and I have yet to see 1 person that owns them mention it.

I can also pull noise ratings: http://www.guru3d.com/news/geforce-gtx-480-noise-levels-debunked/


And if you were trying to call me a fanboy, you are wrong on so many levels. :p
 
jonneymendoza said:
what? the 8800gt is 50 while the 480 is 70. also what settings are the fans speed up in a 480 on that chart? doesnt even state that.
Click to expand...

The 8800GT is 54.1 and the GTX480 is 64.1. I don't know where you derived 50 and 70 from that??? Can you please point it out on that chart?

The review that chart came from used automatic fan speed settings and both Crysis and Furmark for their temperature comparisons. Doesn't explicitly state which one they used for sound, but I'm guessing Furmark if they really wanted to stretch the differences. Assuming a pressure reference of 1, the difference between 54.1 and 64.1 according to dBa which is more along the lines of 1.5 times louder.

The problem with the way guru3d does that noise test is they are positioning it to capture more ambient noise versus target noise so that the relative differences between different targets is not as much. When you say something is 70dBa loud, it really means nothing whatsoever unless you say what the reference is. The Anandtech chart allows you to pick any other card as "reference" and compare the GTX 480 to it. I suppose they could have done it farther away from the GTX 480 and made it 45dBa instead of 64.1, but they every other card would go down in gain as well from a farther distance.
 
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thehybridfrog said:
The 8800GT is 54.1 and the GTX480 is 64.1. I don't know where you derived 50 and 70 from that??? Can you please point it out on that chart?

The review that chart came from used automatic fan speed settings and both Crysis and Furmark for their temperature comparisons. Doesn't explicitly state which one they used for sound, but I'm guessing Furmark if they really wanted to stretch the differences. Assuming a pressure reference of 1, the difference between 54.1 and 64.1 according to dBa which is more along the lines of 1.5 times louder.

The problem with the way guru3d does that noise test is they are positioning it to capture more ambient noise versus target noise so that the relative differences between different targets is not as much. When you say something is 70dBa loud, it really means nothing whatsoever unless you say what the reference is. The Anandtech chart allows you to pick any other card as "reference" and compare the GTX 480 to it. I suppose they could have done it farther away from the GTX 480 and made it 45dBa instead of 64.1, but they every other card would go down in gain as well from a farther distance.
Click to expand...

even if your figures were correct, where does it show the 480 being twice as loud? man you need to go back to your maths class because 54.1 * 2 is not equal to 64.1!
 
thehybridfrog said:
The problem with the way guru3d does that noise test is they are positioning it to capture more ambient noise versus target noise so that the relative differences between different targets is not as much. When you say something is 70dBa loud, it really means nothing whatsoever unless you say what the reference is. The Anandtech chart allows you to pick any other card as "reference" and compare the GTX 480 to it. I suppose they could have done it farther away from the GTX 480 and made it 45dBa instead of 64.1, but they every other card would go down in gain as well from a farther distance.
Click to expand...

Unless they didn't test each card with the mic right in front of the fan. :p
Also:
20134.png

Same site.

I'm not saying Fermi is quiet: It's not by any stretch, but it's not as bad as the reviews make it out to be. This seems to be consistent in user posts everywhere.

Edit: Let's throw in some load tests, shall we?
22204.png

"Fermi draws lots of power"

But then, if you go dig up the 5870 review, you'll notice it's different:
20130.png
 
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Those gtx470/480 are noisy ass hell if you overclocked them .I need headset with gtx470 when i oced it because fan needs to be at 80-85% to stay below 93c. I am afraid to think how noisy is gtx480 with rised volts and higher oc. That is sad because fermi oc well and resaults are realy good. Spitfire is waiting for bracked , working on 5870 and keeping it under 45c .
 
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