480 to 580?

Y

YMICrazy502

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I'm considering just selling my 480 gtx for around $300 to upgrade a 580 gtx but there's a lot of speculation over how much better it is. Basically is it worth it for the heat and energy reduction or should I just stick to my gtx 480 until the next card? I'm guessing the fps difference is around 5-10? Thanks for any help
 
YMICrazy502 said:
I'm considering just selling my 480 gtx for around $300 to upgrade a 580 gtx but there's a lot of speculation over how much better it is. Basically is it worth it for the heat and energy reduction or should I just stick to my gtx 480 until the next card? I'm guessing the fps difference is around 5-10? Thanks for any help
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It's really a tough question.
GTX 580 appears to be 10-20% faster than the 480. But about half of this increase appears to be attributable to clock speed increase rather than just the increased shaders/architectural improvements.

The 580 also has the following benefits over the 480 - vapor chamber cooling makes the fan noise appreciably less and the gpu also runs cooler as a result. increased power efficiency means you save a bit on your electric bill, and more importantly the gpu will give off less heat as a result.
You've gotta ask if these additional benefits merit the upgrade. I am still waiting on the 6970 benches before deciding to upgrade. Also there's a chance that Black Friday could offer me a real good deal on the GTX 580 so I'm playing the wait and see game for now.
 
yeah, I would also wait till the high end AMD stuff is released so you can a more accurate comparison of all the options. It wont hurt to wait a few weeks to see your best options.
 
I would keep the 480 unless you can't stand the heat. $200 more for performance you can easily get by OCing the 480, is it really worth it?
If you're set on getting one, sell it now before the 6950/GTX 570s are released.
 
I got my gtx 480 running at 850 core. You can easily reduce the heat in it if you can cool your case pretty good. I have a haf 922 with 200mm side fan blowing at the gtx 480, my card runs cool and stays in the low 80's running at 850core and 1000 on the memory. I really don't think it is worth 200 dollars and in some cases some tax just for the performance you can easily squeeze out of the 480.
 
Wait to see what the 6970 will bring. There's no point jumping for a 580 now if you already have a 480.
 
vjcsmoke said:
I am still waiting on the 6970 benches before deciding to upgrade. Also there's a chance that Black Friday could offer me a real good deal on the GTX 580 so I'm playing the wait and see game for now.
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One thing to think about is when the 69xx comes out the prices might drop. but at the same time it will also drop what you will be able to sell the used 480 though.
 
If your GTX480 can overclock decently, there is no reason to upgrade unless the heat/noise bothers you...

It is all of a 2-4% increase at the same clocks. Now if your GTX480 won't overclock to save it's life, then if you really crave more performance, then go for the GTX580.

Personally, my GTX480s will do 850core, 1700shader, 2100 memory. Considering it can outperform stock clocked GTX580s with the same drivers, it is a non-issue for me to upgrade.

Time will tell if the GTX580s can be pushed like the GTX480s can. If so, they should pull away from the GTX480s once you overclock. If they don't overclock well, and stable, then it might just be a wash. The GTX480 has the better heatsink/fan setup. They say the vapor-chamber is the big-deal, but that has yet to be proven. The cooler on the GTX580s can't deal with the same amount of thermal load the GTX480 can, so it will be interesting once people start pushing and testing the limits more.
 
I have the same dilemma. I recently bought an EVGA GTX 480 and I'm within the step-up period, but with shipping etc. it would cost about $102 to upgrade (I could ship slower, but then I wouldn't have a card for about 10 days- would save $50 though). I game at 1920 x 1200, so I'm not sure it's worth it. My real concern, though, is that I stupidly removed that sticker that I'm not supposed to remove because I didn't think it made sense that the sticker would be part of the video card, and although I kept the sticker, it's kind of ripped and if EVGA is a stickler, they could charge me 15%, which then raises the upgrade price. Any thoughts? (other than "don't remove the sticker next time"?)
 
I did read where the 580 is not fully driver optimized, and they may even be holding the card back purposely. If this is true, maybe the 580 will offer the 10-30% speed improvement in the future over the 480?
 
eddie500 said:
I did read where the 580 is not fully driver optimized, and they may even be holding the card back purposely. If this is true, maybe the 580 will offer the 10-30% speed improvement in the future over the 480?
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If they pull that BS I will refuse to buy nVidia ever again...

It is the same architecture, thus it is clocks plus 2-4% for shaders and optimizations. Anything more than that and nVidia is playing with drivers. That has been my concern all along, was that nVidia would start in with that BS to sell more newer cards, ie, start hamstringing thier 4xx line to make the 5xx look better...

But, in reality, there should be no difference other than 2-4% for shaders/optimizations and then the clocks. Downclock a GTX580 to GTX480 speeds and it is all of a 2-4% difference with the 262.99 drivers.

We can only hope the greed factor hasn't set in with nVidia too bad and we get all the driver optimizations on the GTX4xx series that the GTX5xx series gets.
 
Why don´t you just use some of the upgrade money in an aftermarket cooler, that way it´ll be quieter and cooler than a 580, plus you can try to overclock with overvolt that big mama.
 
I have the same problem.

I decided to Step-up my one 480 from evga that was eligible. The cost to me was 26 dollars.....not bad.:D

I bought a new 580 from the egg over the weekend.....wamted to get the $50 discount.

I sold my other 480.

I think the fan noise deal will be the best thing. I'm sure it's still hot.
The power consumption is about 10% less acccording to the [H] review.
If I get a little better performance, bonus.

I just looked at this as the 480s I really wanted in the first place.
 
Why don´t you just use some of the upgrade money in an aftermarket cooler, that way it´ll be quieter and cooler than a 580, plus you can try to overclock with overvolt that big mama.
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If I turn the fan up, the card doesn't seem to get that hot. I played Fallout 3 GOTY edition for a couple of hours and it just got a little above 60 celcius. It was loud, though. If I leave the fan on default, however, even the Heaven benchmark crashes, which I assume is a heat issue because it didn't happen with the higher fan speed.

If I went for an aftermarket cooler, what is the easiest to install? I'm not very good at that.

Thanks.
 
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