NVIDIA Fermi - GTX 470 - GTX 480 - GTX 480 SLI Review @ [H]

Kyle or Brent, it has been my suspicion that NV Surround is nothing more than SLI Mosaic ported to the GeForce line. Can you confirm this? I noticed you said it wasn't functional yet, so I'm curious as to what might have caused the delay.
 
Great review as always guys! 1 question though. I thought eeking out every last bit of fps was the point. If the price was more in line with the ATI offerings would you say it was any better, or is the heat/power issue a deal breaker too? Heh since the wife refuses to let me upgrade from my 19' I guess my 260 core 216 is good enough. Thanks guys!
 
Salavat23 said:
Performance is not all it was wound up to be, but can it play Crysis?
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You can quote me on this, GeForce GTX 480 SLI allows Crysis Warhead to be playable at 2560x1600 4X AA/16X AF all Enthusiast settings. Take that to the bank, it is real.
 
Given the Nvidia "the way it's meant to be played" branding that comes with Metro 2033, I'm sure Fermi has been tweaked and optimized for it while ATI hasn't had much of a chance it.

It's nice to finally see actual DX11 benches and not DX9 benches with Dirt 2 like we've been getting up to now. Nvidia themselves used the DX9 benches. Their lead completely evaporates and all ATI cards actually come out as winners in DX11.
 
If they didn't cut the shaders to 480, they would end up with a disappointing GTX 470 and a fast GTX 480 that only a few people can buy.
 
It's funny, the area where I thought it would be really bad were power use at idle and at full load, but the 480 did much better than I expected.

But the noise and heat levels are a real concern. Not that it runs at 95 degrees, but that it gets there so quickly and even when fans are on full load it stays there. I mean I have the 4870x2 in my own home PC and it reaches pretty high temps, but the temps actually go down the higher you turn up the fan. On the 480 it seems you are going to have the fan going full whack all the time just to keep the temp at 95 degrees. Does anyone else think that is a concern for the life of the card?

Great work though on using the videos to show noise levels.

Performance wise, the SLI looks very good, but is it worth the noise, heat and power levels? Not impressed at all with the single 480 or 470. Maybe after the release of a few updated drivers they will improve the framerates etc. It's about even in performance between the 5870 and 480, with the 5850 beating the 470.

I am sure people will buy the 480 and the 470, but, I am struggling to see how they can convince themselves it's a good buy. General public maybe, but, people on here who are better informed, will you buy one?

Good review, thanks for getting it out so quick!!
 
great review! thanks for those videos. thats some kiiler wattages and the fans are loud:eek:
 
With the increasing power consumption of videocards, I have a suggestion that it would be an innovative idea to include an "energy" costs section to hardware reviews - like an average of how much money one choice will cost over another over a year of use.
 
I figured the 480 would be come out the way it would. However, the 470 was the one I was excited about just waiting on price. What a disaster.


Well big disappointment for me. Can't complain my 275 is great. Guess another long wait for the next round of refreshes and launches.

When does Q3 end?
 
About what I expected :( Hopefully their new architecture will translate well to their next generation.

Ah well, no regrets on my 5850's
 
i am not a fan boy i like nvidia/ati but this power the card need's seems like i would need to build a mini nuke clear planet. so i am going ati this time
 
Man I just listened/watched to all four video's and my god that 480 is freakin loud. It's so loud, I think you would still be able to hear it even if you had noise canceling headphones on when gaming.
 
Damn it!!! I guess the prices on the 5850 will not be coming down. I was hoping for another with the one I got from launch. Nvidia didn't just disappoint those wanting to go nvidia, but with the ones wanting to buy an ati card as well. :(
 
Good review. I also think the 5870 CF would have been more relevant comparison than the 5970.

I also think that people upgrading from Nvidia to Nvidia would like to have seen a GTX 285 thrown in. These reviews help you decide between companies if you are buying new but don't help you decide if an upgrade is worth it.

Am I missing a page for Apples-to-Apples?

Also, I was looking at a case the other day were the case mounts heatpipes to the video card, attempting to turn the case into a giant heatsink. Coupled with this, you can have a gaming PC and a George Foreman grill all in one.
 
I am absolutely not defending Nvidia here because I don't like them that much anymore but this review is a little bias I think. [H] <3's ATI because of eyefinity, we get that. In this review you don't include an apples-to-apples, which you have done for a very long time now (the Nvidia would destroy the ATI cards) but you do replace that with a very detailed explanation on how the Nvidia cards use up a lot more power and at the end let us all know it's not worth it to buy the cards "they don't measure up".

Maybe I'm reading into it to much but that's what I got from it but I do agree that the ATI cards still offer a better value overall. Otherwise it was a good review and the performance from the cards is about what everyone expected it to be.
 
Were you guys able to mess around overclocking the 470 or 480 at all? If so, can you share your findings?
 
Nearsite said:
Man I just listened/watched to all four video's and my god that 480 is freakin loud. It's so loud, I think you would still be able to hear it even if you had noise canceling headphones on when gaming.
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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 :eek:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3783&p=19
 
This is exactly what I wanted to know. The numbers were standard fair from the [H] but the videos imo made it that much better (too bad there isn't an easy way like Youtube Subrscription to learn when new vids and to see past vids).

If I were to spend the money it would be for Team Red this go around (even though I'm entrenched on Team Green).
 
Gulkor said:
i am not a fan boy i like nvidia/ati but this power the card need's seems like i would need to build a mini nuke clear planet. so i am going ati this time
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We'd all prefer our planets to be clear of mini nukes, but even if we are making some headway in this respect we should stir clear of politics today and keep to discussing GPU's :D

Regarding the power usage of the GTX 470 I was actually surprised that it wasn't more. Don't get me wrong, it uses a lot of power, but ok.

Here's hoping that the GTX 470 will be priced properly here in Denmark. I must admit that I prefer nVIdia over ATI when performance is equal, I just don't want to pay a huge premium for it.
 
Holy shit that is one loud ass card, reminds me of the nvidia dust buster 5900fx. Ugh nvidia why do you insist on disappointing me so? Oh well I don't need the temptation to buy it.
 
guys, very well written review, and I love the sound videos...awesome addition.

What a disappointing product though...all this time and delay to come out with a product that matches something released 6 months ago, and still charge more for it? Nvidia needs to remember what ATI/AMD did in the past when they were usually late with a matching product...and price aggressively to make up for it. No way I'd pay what they're asking for now. I wouldn't even pay equal price tbh, since ATI has had 6 months to work out kinks and we have a bit better feel for their reliability...not to mention you know ATI has a refresh right around the corner, which I can almost bet will still be priced lower than Nvidia's Fermi...not sure what these guys are thinking.
 
Looking at all the reviews, it looks like Fermi is fast with light load but when resolution gets higher, the gap to HD 5800 gets smaller. I think that 2x HD 5870 would do better that 2x GTX 480 in multi monitor gaming.
 
I have a feeling that the gtx 480 will be rma'd a lot as the fans will burn up very fast.
 
Is [H] going to make another GTX 480 review for normal consumers?

I'm glad to see your review showed what happens when you push the game to the limit on a $4,000 system with a $1,500 monitor (30")... but I'd like to see data that relates more to my gaming experience. I'd like to see BFBC2, Borderlands, Fary Cry 2, Batman, Dragon Age, and maybe even Ghostbusters running at 1680x1050, 8xAA, 16xAF, etc. And yes, I do want to see how much past 60fps it goes, since I have a 120hz monitor, a i7 920 @ 3.2ghz, and 6gb of ddr3 2000.

Sure, every other review on the internet recorded 1680x1050, 1920x1200, and 2560x1600, but [H] normally provides this data, too.
 
Darth Bobo said:
Here's hoping that the GTX 470 will be priced properly here in Denmark. I must admit that I prefer nVIdia over ATI when performance is equal, I just don't want to pay a huge premium for it.
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Don't make big hopes, one eshop put up the prices today. You will not like them :

ZOTAC GeForce GTX470 - 327,65 €
GAINWARD BLISS GTX470 - 327,65 €
ASUS ENGTX470 - 360,42 €
MSI N470GTX - 351,05 €

ZOTAC GeForce GTX480 - 468,09 €
GAINWARD BLISS GTX480 - 468,09 €
MSI N480GTX - 496,18 €
ASUS ENGTX480 - 505,54 €

In other words - GTX470 has a price of HD5870, and GTX480 has a 140-150 euro premium on top of that.
 
If it wasn't for 3D capability, and PhysX support I'd stick with my 5870 and GTX260, but I like those options so I'll be switching to the 2xGTX480's when available.

Thanks for the evaluation guys.
 
Next up: Welcome to Cooking with [H]ard|OCP where we show you how to make tasty snacks using your video card's exhaust. :p

Thanks for the review, [H]. :)

GTX 470 & 480 were quite dissapointing in performance. The GTX 480 SLI was impressive but for the cost, to me it is not worth the silver rating.
 
At the bottom of the last page it says "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 SLI". Shouldn't it be GTX 480 SLI"?
 
You fart knockers! I just got inside after installing new pipes on my Harley and saw you posted the review. :D
Love the videos showing wattage and the sound. Man those 480 are loud.
 
faugusztin said:
Don't make big hopes, one eshop put up the prices today. You will not like them :

ZOTAC GeForce GTX470 - 327,65 €
GAINWARD BLISS GTX470 - 327,65 €
ASUS ENGTX470 - 360,42 €
MSI N470GTX - 351,05 €

ZOTAC GeForce GTX480 - 468,09 €
GAINWARD BLISS GTX480 - 468,09 €
MSI N480GTX - 496,18 €
ASUS ENGTX480 - 505,54 €

In other words - GTX470 has a price of HD5870, and GTX480 has a 140-150 euro premium on top of that.
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EEK! :eek:
 
I think the 480 is great card. I was waiting for the release of fermi. I think I will go with a 5970 now just becuase of the heat and power draw from the 480. I play at a 1920x1080 and they both flip flop, but I feel the lower power consumpation from the 5970 will work best for me. I have a couple months before I buy and maybe there will be talk of the refresher cards from ATI and I could hold out a couple of more months. Overall the 480 is a killer for a sinle gpu, but also the heat and power is making me walk towards ATI this time. Also sounds like the 10.3 drivers are doing great.
 
OK Kyle I have an issue with your 480 SLI test.

We know the it will be impossible for Nvidia to put two 480 chips on a single PCB. They will settle for two 470s on one PCB, so I would have liked to see a 470 SLI test go against the 5970. The GTX 295 used GTX 260 chips not GTX 280s, so it not accurate to use two GTX 480s.

Also the Silver award is not deserved here. This is clearly a tie after six months of waiting which equals no rating at all.
 
I was expecting a bit more out of the new cards. I actually was hoping they'd fair better so I would have an excuse to upgrade. And since ATI cards don't play nicely in my graphics applications, I have no choice but to stick with Nvidia. Time to wait for the next cards after these.
 
Damn, I take back what I said about the 5870's at 80% sounding like planes.

GTX480 gets the new crown.
 
IRSmurf said:
Sure, every other review on the internet recorded 1680x1050, 1920x1200, and 2560x1600, but [H] normally provides this data, too.
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Because if you can afford a card like this, you should be able to afford a monitor with 1920x1080(or 1200). At 1680x1050, you are better off buying a 5850.
 
i said it from the day Kyle posted the review on eyefinity, i will wait to see what nvidia has coming (wow that took a long time) and then i will make a choice. it looks like a 5870 will be making its way into my system soon. iv gone back and forth between ati and nvidia for years and this time is ati's win. it took 3.5 damn years to find a worthy upgrade to 8800GTX SLI.
 
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