TigerDirect has the Galaxy GTX 480 for $520 - $64 Bing Cashback

Putz said:
so what your saying is "PNY" should now show up on the forums a P** or *n*

at the very least their cards should have some extra "thermal grease" when the warranty claim rolls around.


Nice to see more card packaging companies stand behind the stuff they put stickers on, getting sick of buying my stuff based around a small amount of good warranty providers.
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Not sure what you mean on PNY.

This first round of 480 and 470 cards are all built by NVIDIA / Flextronics. NVIDIA rolled back a good portion of its NVTTM program this year, so that means we will see more cards built by folks that are not "reference" boards.
 
SKL1 said:
Any one get their cards from TD yet ?
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Mine comes in this afternoon. I'll take pics and put them up here around six CST.

On a more unsettling note, I have not yet received my 'pending' cashback from tigerdirect. It's usually a very easy process to straighten out, simply shooting an email to the retailer with your transaction number and bing account email address... I'll give it another day.
 
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Archaea said:
I also know that a few guys here had some issues (failures) with their heatsinks on the Galaxy 8600GTs in HP slimline cases. Guys here on this board actually had their Galaxy 8600GT heatsink fan casing melt because of 1. poor design, 2. poor ventaliation in the HP slimline case.
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Yeah, as far as gtx480 goes, its HSF is gonna melt in a slimline case no matter who you get it from :D
 
470 GTX Galaxy Here.

Reading about Kyle and how he's watching out for people with Galaxy on [H] and then the pic of him with the weapon......I Came...
 
TehQuick said:
Yeah, as far as gtx480 goes, its HSF is gonna melt in a slimline case no matter who you get it from :D
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Ha, I think the HP would melt before this 480... it has a wicked heatsink.

I run my fan at 70% constantly. The fan isn't any louder than my GTX 285 and the temps never go over 81°C

However, I am having an issue with my Cashback. TigerDirect has not yet added it to my account as "pending." This has happened before and I just send an email to TigerDirect and ask them to add it, including my order number, date, and time. I'll keep you all updated.
 
The Galaxy rep responded in the slimline thread that he would take care of the issues on the 8600GT cards that I reported above. Thumbs way up for that type of personal support for [H]ardforum members directly from our Galaxy rep!
 
Galaxy cards arrived today.

  • Better box than the PNY GTX 480 cards.
  • Better, or rather slightly different card labelling for the plastic cover.
  • Sans labelling both the Galaxy and the PNY cards are basically the same boards.
  • No power Y adapters for the GTX 480. The PNY kit had them.
  • Different HDMI cable. The Galaxy kit has a regular cable. The PNY kit has an MDHI extension. I think I like the Galaxy kit better.
  • Blue HDMI-VGA adapter in the Galaxy kit. But otherwise the same adapter.
Running Ubuntu 9.10. Recklessly shoved in the Galaxy GTX 480 in place of the eVGA GTX 295 CO-OP that was in the system. The best i can say is at least Ubuntu worked through the video issues without entirely throwing up and dying. Reverted back to the low end driver by itself (with a few questions to me, the user) and kept going. Unfortunately no Nvdia GTX 480 driver for Linux x64 so a new OS is in the cards for this system.

The Galaxy GTX 480 is so far meeting expectations. Will post more after the new OS install.

Tiger Direct has been great for this purchase. liked the fact they held the order to verify the shipping address. it was different from my billing address. After a quick call it was in the mail. Cool they help my place in queue so i didn't have to wait for the next card batch.


Bing on the other hand is sucking eggs. This will make the second time in a month I have had to follow up with those SOB's on a transaction. One that should have been completely automated. I am no Bing newbie either.


Galaxy GTX 480 Satisfaction: 100% (so far)
Tiger Direct Satisfaction: 100%
Bing Cash Back Satisfaction: 75% ( update waiting on an actual refund)


Off to reload!


Update:

Galaxy Tech support had no idea of which version of Xtreme Tuner to install with the GTX 480. At first they said to try the GA version (XtremeTuner 2.3). Then when I indicated I already had it installed and the software was reading wrongly, they indicated the beta Fermi version (XtremeTuner HD_beta_Fermi).

Other than Galaxy Tech Support being a little iffy with the new video card every thing went ok with the new OS choice being Win7x64.

Furmark:
SLI, Multi-GPU, Stability Test, Full Screen, 1600x1200, 32x MSAA, Xtreme Burnin Mode, Displacement mapping, Post FX, both cards in PCI-Ex16 slots gives 74 FPS on Win7x64 Ultimate.

Dual Galaxy Setup with two slots in between the cards hovers at 94-96 C for the first card and 95-96 C for the second card. NZXT Beta Evo Case all fans installed.


Update 3:

Bing found the caskback! Hooray!
 
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My EVGA 480GTX from Tiger Direct arrived today. Total price ended up being ~$445 after bing cashback (-$65) and TigerDirect billmelater promo (-$20) :D.
 
notsane, i don't see any unboxing in that link.

Heat: I mean the box the vc came in. The outer box.

edit: found the pics. No plastic but sticker on flaps. The box also says u get two dvi adapters. I got one. I ask about these things in case of RMA.
 
Pkirk618 said:
notsane, i don't see any unboxing in that link.

Heat: I mean the box the vc came in. The outer box.

edit: found the pics. No plastic but sticker on flaps. The box also says u get two dvi adapters. I got one. I ask about these things in case of RMA.
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My bad. Usually the outer box of GPUs is either shrink wrapped or there is a tape seal on the lid. My eVGA 480s were shirnk wrapped.
 
Umm, WTF...

After further research, we are unable to apply cashback savings for this TigerDirect.com purchase. In working with TigerDirect.com we have determined that this purchase is not eligible for Bing cashback rewards.
Per the program terms, you will not earn cashback rewards on purchases where the store does not report the purchase to Microsoft. We have taken extra steps to confirm with TigerDirect.com that program terms have not been met. This entailed submitting your purchase information to TigerDirect.com for review which confirmed you will not earn cashback for this purchase.
As a result, your purchase claim has been closed and we will not be applying cashback for your order. We apologize for any inconvenience or disappointment this may have caused you.

...

Was this Bing thing a complete hoax? I followed the directions here and on Bing's site perfectly because I was worried about messing it up. I had the Bing discount and everything showing up in my shopping cart at Tigerdirect.

Is there anything I can do now or is it just done?
 
TehQuick said:
WTF indeed. I think you should explain the entire situation, we ain't got a clue what happened in the first place.
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I just followed the instructions for buying the cards through a Bing search, saw the Bing cashback on my order, bought and received the cards but never saw the purchase appear on my Bing account. I contacted Bing support, sent them my invoice and the details and that's what they sent me.

Nothing strange happened at all...it appeared to be pretty straightforward but I guess Tigerdirect didn't want to report the purchase to Microsoft?
 
Sometimes it seems that when the site's session gets timed out, it loses
the bing cashback. At least that's what I have noticed.
 
TD got the Galaxy's back in stock - and at a lower price ($509.99)! grab'em while you can.... and remove the temptation :D
 
Was good while it lasted. Surprised it went on as long as it did.....
 
There are some products on TD that say "This item is not eligible for BCB". So be careful.
 
I ordered 2 GTX 470s and received Cashback notification. EVGA lifetime warranty for only $315 a pop? Hell yes. Barely any more expensive than the 5850s on TD, which have only 1-year warranty.

I'm fairly paranoid about Bing. I make sure that the site specifically says somewhere that I'm getting CB, and in this case it calculated the amount I was getting every step of the checkout process. To do that, however, I had to click a very specific link in Bing's browser - not the general 'Bing store' link, but something else I can't recall, that specifically said 12.5% BCB.

EDIT: To respond to the poster's problem, the short answer seems to be that TD fucked up. I would call their customer support and 'strongly suggest' they reimburse you for the amount you lost by not getting BCB. It's their own fault, not yours.
 
IMO, 2 GTX 470s is the way to go. If only I didnt have to spend an extra 100$+ for a waterblock for each card. :(
 
TD has the eVGA GTX 480 SC, now. I'm trying to justify buying one to replace my 5870.
 
sok0 said:
IMO, 2 GTX 470s is the way to go. If only I didnt have to spend an extra 100$+ for a waterblock for each card. :(
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Totally worth it though... My two 480s never go over 51c with the Koolance blocks and OC quite a bit higher than other reports I've seen (although that might just be a coincidence...)
 
sok0 said:
IMO, 2 GTX 470s is the way to go. If only I didnt have to spend an extra 100$+ for a waterblock for each card. :(
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Watercooling hasn't made sense to me since the advent of 120mm fans, giant heatsinks, and thermal-controlled fans. I'm going to cleanse the thick goop that I bet is in there and replace it with Arctic Ceramique, aim a 120mm side intake fan, and set a custom fan noise profile. I'm pretty confident those simple mods will make the noise much more acceptable.

$100 for a waterblock is ridiculous, but I know that is the going rate for full GPU blocks. It's a slab of metal, come on.
 
Graphics cards are definitely the worst offenders with their small loud fans. And I can hear my PSU fan rev up when I start gaming. I doubt youd get anywhere near the performance/noise/temps of a good watercooling system unless you ran fans at 2000+rpm whereas I run my fans at 800rpms.

I actually was able to get a full cover copper block for my gtx 260 for 40$ brand new about a year and a half ago. But I do agree, 100$ for a block sucks after spending 500$ for the card. But at least all the other watercooling stuff you can reuse over and over again.
 
Matrices said:
Watercooling hasn't made sense to me since the advent of 120mm fans, giant heatsinks, and thermal-controlled fans. I'm going to cleanse the thick goop that I bet is in there and replace it with Arctic Ceramique, aim a 120mm side intake fan, and set a custom fan noise profile. I'm pretty confident those simple mods will make the noise much more acceptable.

$100 for a waterblock is ridiculous, but I know that is the going rate for full GPU blocks. It's a slab of metal, come on.
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Meh, gtx 480 is VERY watercooling-friendly compared to other videocards simply because it's HSF is made of two-pieces - the cooling plate on RAM/VREGs and one huge piece with all the heatpipes on the gpu itself. You don't need a full-cover block for it, all you need is a G80-compatible GPU waterblock which many people have lying around or can acquire on the cheap and reuse stock cooling plate.

I don't want to turn my computer into a dust-buster and in fact, with 480s, noise is a secondary issue. I hate the fact that these stupid 480s raise in-case temp to 50C with 75F ambient! and that's in a really well-ventilated case, HAF 932. Maybe you like to cook your components in a hot case, I don't
 
Well, I don't like to run out and spend $250 on watercooling just to deal with inefficient tech. For that reason, I (1) went with 470s instead of 480s, and (2) installed a 120mm side intake fan, and (3) will replace the thermal application, and maybe remove the plastic shroud altogether.

You don't need to go into ALL OUT mode in order to avoid the "dustbuster" scenario. If you already have watercooling, I guess it makes sense; my point is that I, personally, have never seen the need to do watercooling after the community abandoned those idiotic 60mm Delta fans that chop off your fingers.

Not only has the efficiency and intelligence of air cooling increased, but so has the efficiency of components (Fermi excepted). It's become trivially easy to get 1ghz+ overclocks on air since at least C2D.
 
I think you've missed my major point - whatever air-cooling improvement you are referring to, it's not keeping up with tech's growing power consumption and heat production. Fermi is just an extreme example of this trend, which turns computer innards into an oven unless you put it into an open-air bench. Check your in-case temps, and you'll see it for yourself. If you are fine with 50C internal temps, then enjoy your system, if you are not, you gonna have to go watercooling. Your proposed mod of removing the plastic cover will only make matters worse, dispersing even more heat internally rather then throwing it outside
 
Your fundamental assumption is incorrect, though - Fermi is not "just an extreme example" of a "growing trend" of increased heat output. ATI's Cypress line provides more power per watt than its older generation parts. The C2D line ran very cool - far cooler than the Pentium D monstrosity. The 'dustbuster' FX 5900 was followed by two generations of Nvidia cards that ran cooler and quieter.

So, again, there is no inevitable rise in inefficiency or heat production. There is an increase in wattage consumed, but not power delivered per watt, which is the key measure here.

As I wait for my two 470s, I currently have 2 GTX 260s and an i5 in my case. I've got 4 or 5 low-RPM 120mm fans in there. It doesn't run hot, and it doesn't run loud. This is no longer 1999: we have PWM, BIOS and software fan control and fan profiles, and thermally controlled fans up to 240mm in size.

GTX 480, certainly in SLI mode, would likely make air cooling more difficult - but that is an exception, not part of any trend. Which is why I won't buy them.

(I do, however, think that the conventional wisdom on cooling them is wrong. It is, in fact, better to "dump the hot air" back into the case than it is to have a shitty little squirrel fan pumping the air out. Why? Case airflow. What the hell else are all your case fans for? I'd rather have 4 low RPM 120mm fans help move the air than rely on one 40mm little thing. If the motherboard had the right spacing, I'd simply disable the GPU fan and slap a 92mm fan on the heatsink itself to provide the direct cooling. This worked wonders with the Geforce 2 and Geforce 4. Don't see why it wouldn't work here.)
 
though tigerdirect shows in stock right now, I just called and they're actually still backordered. They're not getting any in until some time in May, according to the rep.
 
Matrices said:
As I wait for my two 470s, I currently have 2 GTX 260s and an i5 in my case.
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lols, oh man, you don't have a fermi in your case and you still argue you'll survive with your magic air-cooling tricks? All your arguments will get thrown out the windows once you've installed those bad boys. Advice for the future: instead of trying to persuade others about things your don't have first-hand experience with, why don't you try them first and then argue? You'll get more traction that way, otherwise you just sounding like you are full of it....
 
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How is this not a trend toward increased heat? 1 watt = 3.142 btu, end of story.

8800 GTX - 185w max
GTX 280 - 236w max
GTX 480 - 250w avg

3870 - 105w max
4870 - 157w max
5870 - 188w max

Oh, and extreme is my 5970 @ 1.3v 1 core. It uses at least 550w when fully stressed, a 700w gpu increase at the wall. I'm pretty happy with the passive water cooling on it too. :D
 
TehQuick said:
lols, oh man, you don't have a fermi in your case and you still argue you'll survive with your magic air-cooling tricks? All your arguments will get thrown out the windows once you've installed those bad boys. Advice for the future: instead of trying to persuade others about things your don't have first-hand experience with, why don't you try them first and then argue? You'll get more traction that way, otherwise you just sounding like you are full of it....
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If it's that bad, I'll just sell them and buy more reasonable cards: I'm not fucking married to the things.

The point is simple: if you're rearranging your entire PC setup to accommodate your video cards, instead of choosing video cards that accommodate your PC setup, you're either very wealthy or very unwise.
 
Just a heads up to those of you who are paying Tigerdirect with Paypal. I was charged twice for an EVGA GTX 480, once on the 22nd for $549.99 and again on the 26th for $549.99 So far I spoke with one of their reps who claims that in a week or so the extra charges "should" drop off.
 
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