NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 GF100 DX11 Video Card Review

[Apoptosis]

Had a reader e-mail in this morning and asked this:

I read your piece about dual LCDs on the GTX 480, one question I had is, how is the sound level when it's running in dual LCD mode?
I know you said it runs at 90c and the fan RPMs are ~1700, but is it much louder than the 5870 when running dual LCDs, in general desktop usage (browsing, watching movies, etc.)?

I'll be 100% honest and I tell you that I need to invest in a better sound meter. My RadioShack model goes down to 50dB and that is it.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 - Idles at 52dB with either one or 2 monitors as the fain profiles don't change.
ATI Radeon HD 5870 - Idles lower than 50dB as it does not get picked up by the sound meter at all.

I am testing 4.5" inches away from the motherboard at roughly the center of the board.

5870_sound_idle.jpg (55.44 KiB) Viewed 5238 times

gtx480_sound_idle.jpg (47.21 KiB) Viewed 5239 times

[Calamar]

Quite disappointing, isnt it? I mean, after all that hype, hype, hype... ...a little bit faster than AMD cards. AMD stuff has been out for a good time, so they are able to lower the prices at any time, 3 display support, less power, the noise issue... Maybe we will have to wait until 495?

I would like to see a 285 vs. 295 vs. 480 to see the actual performance improvements among nvidia products.

Nice review, and quite sincere given legit's rove for nvidia stuff ;)

[Apoptosis]

@Apop. The idling and load temperatures for an open test bench and when in a computer case is huge. Were you worried that you were gonna kill the GPU?

I asked NVIDIA this very question and they said the card was designed to run this hot. At 105C there is a thermal profile to start turning things down as that is the high limit for normal operation. I couldn't get the card over 100C and when I did that it was with two monitors in the Corsair 800D while gaming in the afternoon with the sun on the window and the room the hottest it gets.

[kenc51]

Nate, do you know why there's so few reviews of this card?
TR or x-bit don't even have one up. Was it limited availablity or are they are just late with posting theirs?

I think this "launch" is the worst yet. Just PR (suppose all launch days are), but no availability till April 14 or so it a joke.
Performance is "meh" and it's a step backwards in effeciency.
At least with the Intel 6 core launch, it's only limited availabity, the product is sound.
Even ATI's fiasco of a launch with the X800XT card back in the day was better, again just limited availibity; with the product being sound.

Nvidia had 6 months to tweak this card, sure there was/is problems with tsmc but to me that just proves the gpu is too complex and shouldn't have got past the design stage.

[Apoptosis]

I just want to let everyone know that I spent the past 5 hours benchmarking the Sapphire Radeon HD 5970 and have updated all the charts to include the performance of that card!!! Enjoy the added results and I hope it makes the review more well-rounded for all of you in your purchasing decisions.

@ Ken - I talk about card availability in page 2 of the review. No less than 150 review sites got cards... I think it was too many reviews as there are too many to read

Here are over 30 GeForce GTX 480 Reviews - Another 120 reviews are out there though... I talked to a few site owners and I know Tech Report, Techgage and others are waiting till Monday I think as they felt rushed and wanting to post it on a bigger traffic day as 7PM EST on a Friday night is usually a dead time on tech sites. I know it is on LR as most are our or playing games and not reading reviews.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1258/1/
http://hothardware.com/Articles/NVIDIA- ... Has-Landed
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-g ... 80-review/
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=24000
http://www.legionhardware.com/articles_ ... ves,1.html
http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3783
http://techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/G ... 480_Fermi/
http://hardocp.com/article/2010/03/26/n ... sli_review
http://www.computerbase.de/news/hardwar ... x_480_470/
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=888
http://www.legionhardware.com/articles_ ... ves,1.html
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews.php?reviewid=950
http://www.elitebastards.com/index.php? ... &Itemid=31
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2 ... 767,00.asp
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/ha ... eview.html
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardw ... 480launch/
http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,7434 ... s/Reviews/
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/3203/ ... index.html
http://www.pcworld.fr/article/materiel/ ... st/481611/
http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/hard ... e_gtx_480/
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gef ... ,2585.html
http://www.hardwareluxx.de/index.php/ar ... eback.html
http://www.tweakpc.de/hardware/tests/gr ... 80/s01.php
http://www.ninjalane.com/reviews/video/nv_gtx480
http://www.sweclockers.com/articles_sho ... 236&page=1
http://www.techspot.com/news/38385-nvid ... rives.html
http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx ... 668&pgno=0
http://www.hardware.fr/articles/787-1/d ... x-480.html
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/nvidia_gtx480/
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/featur ... wer_hungry
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac ... 629/review
http://www.erenumerique.fr/geforce_gtx_ ... 603-1.html
http://www.ixbt.com/video3/gf100-2-part1.shtml
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/nvi ... rformance/

[kenc51]

Nate, I didn't and still can't see that mentioned on page 2
Thanks for clearing that up and putting in all those hours.

You've done an excellent job on covering this card

[Apoptosis]

Nate, I didn't and still can't see that mentioned on page 2
Thanks for clearing that up and putting in all those hours.

You've done an excellent job on covering this card

sorry page 3 - 5th paragraph

[JMMD]

Personally I would not spend that much on any video card but the performance is impressive for a single GPU. The heat and power consumption seem to be a flaw in the design, I wonder if nVidia is just being cheap and not putting the best cooling into their cards to keep their profits higher. I just may go with AMD/ATi this round.

[Apoptosis]

I wonder if nVidia is just being cheap and not putting the best cooling into their cards to keep their profits higher. I just may go with AMD/ATi this round.

I don't think they did at all as if they wanted to go cheap they wouldn't have put the black nickle plated finish on it. A five heat-pipe cooler like this can't be cheap and it even uses a name brand Delta fan... This might be the most expensive cooler that we have ever seen on a GPU since LR opened our doors back in 2002. Like I noted in the overclocking section I overclocked the core from 700MHz to 800MHz and the temps were in the 40's at idle.

[hark]

Yeah, the GTX 480 is monstrous. If I had money lying around I would totally buy this.

[countcristo]

Yeah, the GTX 480 is monstrous. If I had money lying around I would totally buy this.

OMG. I was thinking why would anyone want to buy this because it's monstrous, power-hungry, and not exactly efficient in the "performance/watt". These reviews help me so much in deciding what to buy next and if I had the money I'd stick with the radeon even if it meant a small amount performance drop.

[DeusEx]

the card is good for folding, but not for gaming. Expected more....

[DL13]

That is sweet, if I could I would build a PC just for Folding using the 480 since ATI still doesn't Fold to good.

[shaolin95]

Yeah, the GTX 480 is monstrous. If I had money lying around I would totally buy this.

OMG. I was thinking why would anyone want to buy this because it's monstrous, power-hungry, and not exactly efficient in the "performance/watt". These reviews help me so much in deciding what to buy next and if I had the money I'd stick with the radeon even if it meant a small amount performance drop.

Well let's see, because it has CUDA, Phsyx and REAL 3D Gaming.
Because performance over the 5870 seems to be 15-20% avs FPS and more importantly based on other reviews the Min FPS seems to be even better for the 480.
Oh, and that muched hyped tessellation DX11 features that ATI boys used as their main weapon when they were the only ones with DX11 cards...well, several tests show that when tessellation is pushed HARD the advantage goes to the 30% level so this card is REALLY ready for future games.
I think those are VERY nice reasons.

[countcristo]

Because performance over the 5870 seems to be 15-20% avs FPS and more importantly based on other reviews the Min FPS seems to be even better for the 480.
Oh, and that muched hyped tessellation DX11 features that ATI boys used as their main weapon when they were the only ones with DX11 cards...well, several tests show that when tessellation is pushed HARD the advantage goes to the 30% level so this card is REALLY ready for future games.
I think those are VERY nice reasons.

Yep, those are pretty good reasons as well as the "need" for having the latest and greatest (especially if money is no issue). I guess I'm more of a efficiency person though where performance/dollar/watt counts for me more.

[Mike89]

Good review. I'm still gaming on a good 19" LCD monitor (NEC 90GX2). Just never made the jump to widescreen and really don't plan to. This size works for me just fine , I play a lot of games (currently running a GTX 280) and don't feel I'm missing a thing. Anyway, it's nice to see a review that still shows comparisons in 1280 x 1024. I thought us low life behind the times regular monitor screen users were relegated to the old timers out of touch bin. I will say I think there are a lot of us still left.

Anyway back to the review. I think nvidia was rushed to put this product out to let the public know they were still in the video card market. I'm just not impressed with nvidia this time. Way too much heat, power draw, noise. This review didn't touch much on noise but the hardocp review actually provided sound samples of this thing. Wow, talk about loud!

I don't know what the attraction of this video card is except for the people who just have money to burn and buy things just because they can. With the res I game at, I'll happily stick with my 280 for now. For my resolution, it's still got some life in it yet.

Most of the time when a new video card comes out I can't afford, I think it's a bummer I don't have it. This time I'm actually in the frame of mind of I'm glad I don't have it.

I think nvidia has some work to do.

[pwcmed]

Yeah, the GTX 480 is monstrous. If I had money lying around I would totally buy this.

OMG. I was thinking why would anyone want to buy this because it's monstrous, power-hungry, and not exactly efficient in the "performance/watt". These reviews help me so much in deciding what to buy next and if I had the money I'd stick with the radeon even if it meant a small amount performance drop.

Well let's see, because it has CUDA, Phsyx and REAL 3D Gaming.
Because performance over the 5870 seems to be 15-20% avs FPS and more importantly based on other reviews the Min FPS seems to be even better for the 480.
Oh, and that muched hyped tessellation DX11 features that ATI boys used as their main weapon when they were the only ones with DX11 cards...well, several tests show that when tessellation is pushed HARD the advantage goes to the 30% level so this card is REALLY ready for future games.
I think those are VERY nice reasons.

Not in my opinion, if I was doing more than gaming this would be an option but guess what my applications for any video cards are gaming and video playback. I will admit that I do favor ATI more but I have no problem jumping ship if there was a better video card out there for my money. The hype machine was strong with this video card and I guess it worked on some people.

This card kind of reminds me of the ATI 2900 generation, had great potential but didn't live up to the hype. Maybe GTX 680 will be a beast or maybe it will be GTX 780 after a couple re-badged products.

[Apoptosis]

it's nice to see a review that still shows comparisons in 1280 x 1024. I thought us low life behind the times regular monitor screen users were relegated to the old timers out of touch bin. I will say I think there are a lot of us still left.

I use to get crap from AMD and NVIDIA about not testing on a 30" panel, but less than 1% of gamers have a monitor of that size. I really see very little point in testing at that resolution due to that fact alone. You aren't alone as the majority of gamers are not using crazy high resolutions.

[Guru]

I totally agree. My friend has GTX295 and still uses on 19" screen at 1280 x 1024. The highest people uses would be 1920x1080.

[shaolin95]

The hype machine was strong with this video card and I guess it worked on some people.

You mean the hype machine like when a company hypes to insanity a feature that many uers have been enjoying a LONG time before they came up with it (SoftTH, TripleHead)?
Yeah I agree hype machines can be powerful indeed.