GTX 480 Overclock, Benches, Impressions

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vjcsmoke

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Ok so I ran Vantage and this is what I got for a single GTX 480 at stock.

3dMarkVantage_GTX480_stock.jpg


Over 21k for a single gpu, not bad at all. Compare to my previous dual gpu 5970.
5970VantageBench1000_1100.jpg


So far so good. However it got scary once I tried to OC the GTX 480 and run Furmark.

Furmark_GTX480_OC.jpg


Perhaps I maxed too many settings, but once the GPU hit triple digits and the numbers kept rising, I got scared and stopped the testing! I'll try again with less intense settings. But I think having two monitors connected also is increasing heat, but it never got THAT HOT on the 5970.

Furmark5970_950_1200_8xaa.jpg


Will change settings and try again.

I did find it pretty amazing that the GTX 480 averaged over 120 FPS at 16xAA in Fluidmark.
Fluidmark_16xaa_480_stockx1.jpg
 
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None of those temps seem too high imho; oh wait, I didn't see it got up to 105..sheat!
 
No this is normal. Here's my 2x SLI Furmark test:
etqw%202010-04-19%2016-48-08-23.jpg


Unless you play a lot of Furmark its nothing really to worry about.
 
On your vantage scores, do not look at the cpu score, your GTX 480 is giving you an advantage buy bumping up your score due to the fact it processes the physics .

Your gpu is 18000 - 480

your gpu is 26000 - 5970

thats a big difference....

notice your cpu score with the 5970 is only 26000, on your 480 its 62000

1 5870 will run 16-19k gpu score ... not like these tests matter anyway, but i use them to give me a guide line wether or not my overclock is worth the heat and voltage..for a small amount of fps

my 2x 5970 score 43000 gpu score ---but overall only 27000 cpu or so...brings my score down to around 36k
 
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bman84 said:
Looks like a single GTX480 is about on par with a GTX295...

Here's my old 295 for comparison:

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=1822820
Click to expand...

Thanks for the comparison info.

I mildly overclocked my GTX 480 to 800/1600/2100.
EvgaPrecisionOC.jpg


In return I got nearly a 3K Vantage score increase.
3dMarkVantage_GTX480_OC.jpg


These cards OC easily. But they run so hot, I despair of ever getting them Furmark stable without using watercooling.
Oh and the GTX 480 gets REAL NOISY during Furmark and Vantage.
 
Nice! Keep in mind that the inflated CPU score skews it a bit. If you compare the stock vs overclock GPU score, it's a <2000 point increase.
 
Despite the dire warning stickers, I risked setting fire to my rig and put in the second GTX 480 GPU.
103_6486_8x6.jpg


Here are the cards sitting in my rig. Strangely enough, no SLI bridge came with any of the cards, whereas my 5970s all came with crossfire bridges. Luckily my motherboard's package came with just the SLI connector that I needed.
103_6487_8x6.jpg


Does anyone know what that little black strip on top is for? I couldn't figure out if I was supposed to remove that or if it was supposed to stay.
103_6488_8x6_strip.jpg


3dmark Vantage Stock SLI numbers.
3dMarkVantage_GTX480SLI_stock.jpg


I ran into a lot of crashing problems once I attempted to overclock the GTX 480s in SLI. Finally downloaded Afterburner 1.6 beta 4, and overvolting seems to have fixed the crashes and allowed a stable overclock of 800/1600/2000. I'll have to run more programs to be SURE, but Heaven 1.0 Bench seemed to like the SLI configuration. The graphics looked smooth and stutter free.

HeavenBench_480SLI_OC_4x16.jpg


I usually run SFIV bench as well because it seems more sensitive to glitches than some other programs, at least that was the case when I was benching radeon cards. Gotta redownload it and see how it responds to my OC settings. I also plan to play Just Cause 2 and run Fraps. Mass Effect 2 already looks gorgeous with even a single GTX 480.
 
vjcsmoke said:
Strangely enough, no SLI bridge came with any of the cards, whereas my 5970s all came with crossfire bridges. Luckily my motherboard's package came with just the SLI connector that I needed.
Click to expand...

That's because ATI allows pretty much any motherboard with 2x16x pcie slots to run crossfire while nvidia collects a license fee from motherboard makers to allow them to do SLI. So crossfire bridge comes with videocards and some mobos while SLI - only with SLI-certified motherboards.
 
So I was messing around with some overclocking and I could not get Vantage to run at 800/1600/2000 at anything less then 1.05V on the GPUs. I had no idea Vantage was so picky.
 
TehQuick said:
That's because ATI allows pretty much any motherboard with 2x16x pcie slots to run crossfire while nvidia collects a license fee from motherboard makers to allow them to do SLI. So crossfire bridge comes with videocards and some mobos while SLI - only with SLI-certified motherboards.
Click to expand...

no, it just EVGA never give SLI bridge on GPU.

when I bought others from like Gigabyte, they have it.....

btw, mine goes to 840Mhz on stock voltage :D
 
Ok. so just for kicks I ran the Just Cause 2 Dark Tower Benchmark and turned on EVERY option and set AA to 16x and AF to 16x just to see what would happen...
JC2_DarkTower_16x.jpg


Dude, the graphics were rock steady! At 16xAA and 16xAF and ALL the goodies turned to highest possible?!
Heck, I think my SLI rig would have averaged well over 60FPS if I could just figure out a way to disable Vsync off!
 
vjcsmoke said:
Ok. so just for kicks I ran the Just Cause 2 Dark Tower Benchmark and turned on EVERY option and set AA to 16x and AF to 16x just to see what would happen...
JC2_DarkTower_16x.jpg


Dude, the graphics were rock steady! At 16xAA and 16xAF and ALL the goodies turned to highest possible?!
Heck, I think my SLI rig would have averaged well over 60FPS if I could just figure out a way to disable Vsync off!
Click to expand...

VSYNC is on the non-Advanced Settings page I believe. How did you get the Bokeh filter to work with SLI? From my understanding it doesn't work in SLI, didn't for my 280s as well. Are you running SLI for this?
 
heatlesssun said:
VSYNC is on the non-Advanced Settings page I believe. How did you get the Bokeh filter to work with SLI? From my understanding it doesn't work in SLI, didn't for my 280s as well. Are you running SLI for this?
Click to expand...

Yup I'm running it in SLI with 197.55 drivers.
 
Here are my results in a few benchmarks on a stock speed SLI'ed 480s. I am going to crank the core up here later today and run the same benches. More to come.

gpuzsli.jpg

heavensli.jpg

furmarksli.jpg

vantagesli.jpg
 
vjcsmoke said:
Very nice. How is the heat and noise for that setup or do you watercool them?
Click to expand...

I'm on stock air, I broke the bank going big with the third. The first two I got are PNY, and obviously good chips from the same area of the die. They OC high and run steady heat. They don't get over 85 on my custom fan profile. The MSI card I got on the other hand is a heater. It runs 10 degrees hotter at over 10% more fan speed. The MSI card will pass 100 degrees under furmark.

I am seriously considering checking the MSI warranty, and stripping it down to see if a new TIM application and reseat might help the problem. Also, the fan on the MSI card gave off a sound for awhile, that has gone. But if it was unbalanced before, it will unbalance again.One other weird thing about the MSI card, if I put it in the third slot it causes furmark/kombuster to fail, in the first slot running all the graphics for the cards it is actually higher temps than being sandwiched in middle.

I'm sorely tempted to put in a support ticket, but its running perfectly despite high temp.

edit:|| TLDR: If you get good chips you can OC heavy on air. With a less oc'able chip you might need water.
 
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