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GTX480 Disassembly
- Thread starter Derangel
- Start date
StillFunkyB
[H]ard|Gawd
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I could have sworn that I read something somwheres that Thermalright designed the sink for these.
It looks like that may be true.
It looks like that may be true.
I think it looks ok. But, I mean what is the point of the looks? It's never going to be seen. I would much rather the card be functional than pretty.
The heatsink really does look well designed, as someone else said, it looks more like an aftermarket cooler than a stock cooler.
Very interesting photos, thanks for posting!!
The heatsink really does look well designed, as someone else said, it looks more like an aftermarket cooler than a stock cooler.
Very interesting photos, thanks for posting!!
JayteeBates
[H]ard|Poof
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That thing is HUGE (GPU core). I've been an NV fan since the TnT2 but that thing is gonna put out to much heat for me in my little office converted from a bedroom with only 1 AC vent.
Omegas
[H]F Junkie
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They had to use Direct Touch heat pipe design, dear god that thing should not be used during summer months... No one show this to Gal Hore or else it'll come with a carbon tax to boot!
I'm starting to have doubts that upgrading from my GTX 280 SSC would be worthwhile for myself and I, too, might just wait for the refresh on this so I don't have to practically own a small powerplant to run one of these. Or maybe get a 5970. Apparently my 750 watt PSU can get away with more than I thought.
I'm not some hard green person by any means but I really am disappointed that Nvidia couldn't make these cards equal with ATI in terms of energy and power consumption and heat.
I'm not some hard green person by any means but I really am disappointed that Nvidia couldn't make these cards equal with ATI in terms of energy and power consumption and heat.
defaultluser
[H]F Junkie
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Are you sure the person who took it apart didn't misread the wattage?
This Delta 120mm x 38mm 120 CFM fan moves more air than most PC cases, and it "only" uses 0.7A, or 8.4w.
The typical medium-speed (~1500rpm) 120mm x 25mm case fan uses around 2.5w.
I'm willing to bet the original article has a mistake, and someone missed a decimal point. It is far more likely that the fan consumes 2.2w, instead of 22w. A 22w fan would be on the order of a room cooling fan, and you certainly cannot move that kind of air through that tiny video card heatsink.
Except you are comparing a much smaller fan to a 120mm fan. Smaller fans need to spin faster to move the same amount of air. 22w does sound rather high, though, lol.
same, i was thinking against it, but the pics just sold it for me. now as long as the AIBs dont screw it up, Fermi may have a chance of ending up on my list of things to get
Yoshiyuki Blade
2[H]4U
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Found them else where. Enjoy.
The heatsink reminds me of Thermalright style GPU heatsinks (HR-03 or something?). At least he orientation of the heat pipes does. Only difference is that the base of the heatsink seems to be attached to the fins. It's pretty awesome though.
defaultluser
[H]F Junkie
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I take it back. After some thorough searching, I've found some 80mm and 92mm fans rated well over 20w. I seem to remember them consuming a lot less, but then the fastest 80mm fan I ever bought was just around 50 CFM. There seems to be be a huge decrease in performance/watt above that 50 CFM line, as most of the power goes to noise.
This 92mm monster uses 37w to deliver 175CFM:
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/7...er_High-Speed_Fan_-_17503_CFM_PFB0912DHE.html
If that 22w number is right, the fan on this card should be a screamer.
Spare-Flair
Supreme [H]ardness
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You still can't compare a 120mm axial fan with tons of fin surface area and slow rotations to a two inch squirrel cage blower fan with less surface area than half of a single fin on a 120mm fan. A blower fan that probably has to spin @ 4000 RPM to push air sideways at enough pressure to push through such densly packed fins and out the other end of the videocard. Completely different tech but it is going to be noisy.
Spare-Flair
Supreme [H]ardness
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Is that just a really big heatspreader? How big is the actual chip underneath? Compare to a 5870 which has the exposed chip.
Arcygenical
Fully [H]
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I believe the die is 400sqmm - @ 3.2bn transistors. This translates to a die that's 20mm-23mm on each side. The heatspreader is much larger than the die (and a silly option to include, IMO). Everyone knows that heatspreaders don't help spread heat - and only hinder heat transfer.
Could be worse... At least most nVidia partner's don't throw cheesy ANIME WARRIOR PRINCESS BABES on their cards.
And about the fan. Several ATI cards have used fans that can draw up to 1.2a each. Note: They're never actually run at 100% speed. I'm assuming this fan will be similar. A 5 heatpiped direct contact heatsink - with exposed aluminum bump area - can expel a great deal of heat. I expect the fan to run at around 35% idle which, although power draw is not linear, would be around 4w.
nVidia should have lengthened the card 1" and used a 80mm blower instead of the ~60mm one selected... Put some extra space between the Vreg's and the caps @ the end of the board. Throw in a wider fan and call it a day. They've got about 1" to spare compared to the 5870 as well.
Could be worse... At least most nVidia partner's don't throw cheesy ANIME WARRIOR PRINCESS BABES on their cards.
And about the fan. Several ATI cards have used fans that can draw up to 1.2a each. Note: They're never actually run at 100% speed. I'm assuming this fan will be similar. A 5 heatpiped direct contact heatsink - with exposed aluminum bump area - can expel a great deal of heat. I expect the fan to run at around 35% idle which, although power draw is not linear, would be around 4w.
nVidia should have lengthened the card 1" and used a 80mm blower instead of the ~60mm one selected... Put some extra space between the Vreg's and the caps @ the end of the board. Throw in a wider fan and call it a day. They've got about 1" to spare compared to the 5870 as well.
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CanesVenetici
Limp Gawd
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- Jul 19, 2007
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Thought this was too good to pass up, I had to share.
one thing i cannot for the life of me understand....and it doesnt matter if its nvidia or ati. they are both the same in this matter. why the hell don;t they make the fan bigger. they have the room. or have 2 at lower rpm like the good aftermarkets have? they could almost double the fan blade size and triple the intake ducts very easily. this would work well for all cards....
Trust me I was skeptical at first but I think the fan on my 4870 is 15watt's, which didn't make me too spektical of this fan (on such an extreme cooling solution) wasn't beefier.
I sometimes wonder this too, but, in all fairness We don't know how the cooling solution Nvidia has now will perform. It might be as good as the aftermarked coolers.
Spare-Flair
Supreme [H]ardness
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The heatsink is great, we don't know how well the fan will work. The fins are very close together to allow more fins to fit in there, therefore there is a lot of surface area. The closeness of the fins means a lot of air pressure is required to push air through it though. This fan has got to be a monster. Hopefully we aren't looking at dustbuster part 2. If they've managed to get a 2D idle profile like ATI does that drops clocks and voltage it should be okay on idle and general computer use. I don't mind heavy noise in gaming.
siliconnerd
[H]ard|Gawd
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When the temperature starts going up in the summer, it is nice not to be baked out of your room due to a hot video card.
Is that just a really big heatspreader? How big is the actual chip underneath? Compare to a 5870 which has the exposed chip.
I posted this last week, even just counting the die it is still huge:
Remember, power used is directly proportional to the heat produced. 200w power usage == 200w of heat. That heat then goes into the room you're sitting in
alg7_munif
Supreme [H]ardness
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People keep saying that the heatsink is great but one thing is sure, they won't put a bigger heatsink that necessary just to please the crowd.
If it hasn't been a consideration for you, why would that mean it can't be for someone else? Personally I'd certainly rather take a card that consumes noticeably less power even if it was slightly slower.
Someone can quite understandably want a system that has good performance while also having as low power consumption as possible without sacrificing said performance too much. Not to mention the power consumption also produces heat, which sucks during summer, and more heat also means more noise, which sucks regardless of the time of year.
Luckily I don't need a top-end video card personally, so I'll probably just go with a nice, power-efficient HD 5770 in a month or two instead. At least those seem to be somewhat available, while I imagine it'll be a nightmare to get your hands on a Fermi. Heck, in Finland you still can't get a HD 5850/5870 reliably most of the time either.
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You can CF 5870s on a 600W PSU, that is not possible with Fermi.
Looking at your system specs, you will have to upgrade your PSU if you wanted to install a second Fermi card.
Having to upgrade your PSU adds to the overall cost of buying Fermi cards to run SLI.
It's more than heat, money plays a big role. Most people don't own 850W+ PSUs so Fermi in SLI is not an option, but with ATI CF it is!
ATI can run 5970s in CF on a 850W PSU, but Nivida can only run two GTX 480s in SLI on the same PSU. Which is better and more high end?
Considering how piss poor scaling is beyond two GPUs buying 2 5970 its utterly pointless other than to say you have two of them. In that example 2 480s would be the better buy, assuming SLI scales well on them.
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Well it wasn't an example of scaling, more of a power consumption comparsion.
Now, assuming doesn't get us no where but we know dual CF scales around 90%.
Now, assuming doesn't get us no where but we know dual CF scales around 90%.
As usual, the armchair computer OWNERs are bashing NV because they feel they know more than the engineers paid to design these things. "What's with the heatsink, those fins are way too thick" "Oh wait, those fins are way too thin"... sheesh
Squirrel cage blowers generate far more airflow with less noise than the axial fans you're praising. Open the furnace/HVAC in your home and you'll find a cage blower, not a giant axial fan. Ditto with in-window air conditioners - the quiet ones have cage blowers and the cheap, crappy ones have axial fans. Same with bathroom ventilation and kitchen range hoods - expensive, quiet, high flow models (up to 300cfm or more for the kitchen) are all based on cage blowers and the builder-grade crap is axial fans. Twin axial fans on the side of a card that's already two slots would not be an upgrade.
Arcygenical
Fully [H]
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200w power draw means 200w of heat in my room.
It means an extra 3 cents an hour to run on my power bill (40$ a year in power with only 3 hours of use a day)
It means an extra 5 cents an hour to run my central AC during the warm months(translates to about 20$ a year in power)
It means a handful of noise. I like a quiet computer/computing room.
It means warmer temperatures for the components of my case.
It means an overloaded watercooling system - possibly a loop addition (extra radiators are extra bucks)
It likely translates to lower overclockability. Less "fun" return for my dollar.
And for what?
A 5% performance crown over the next best solution? Or howabout a 25% performance deficit for an equal wattage dual-die card from the other camp.
That's why I care. Were the net returns greater than the net losses - I would have no issue (100% extra power translating to 30-40% extra performance - great, bring it on). Until that's the case, I have a substantial issue.