Legit Reviews

NVIDIA Solves Multi-Monitor Temp Issue on GeForce GTX 480 GPUs

Legit Reviews got our hands on the latest video card BIOS revision for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 reference graphics card! We were told is the version that will be used on the GeForce GTX 480 graphics cards when they come out next week it should fix the high temperature issue that we saw in our original coverage. This time it looks like NVIDIA has solved it!

The main issue that we had with the GeForce GTX 480 in our initial review were the high temperatures and we were shocked to see dozens of review sites give the GeForce GTX 480 video card an award when the reviews went up on March 26th, 2010. When we tried to use the GeForce GTX 480 on a multi-monitor setup we knew that 90C at an idle was not right and even though some at NVIDIA might not have liked our review it was the truth! We knew something wasn't right and over the past two weeks we have worked with NVIDIA and made sure our concerns were heard and that something was being done about it. From the looks of things the latest version of GPU-Z and the latest BIOS update make running a dual monitor setup possible without cooking your system internals.

Article Title: NVIDIA Solves Multi-Monitor Temp Issue on GeForce GTX 480 GPUs
Article URL: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1271/1/

Well done guys this one deserves a beer!

Dugg

Yeah, I was pretty surprised at reviews sites giving their recommendation to this card. When it first came out for reviews, the temps were just too hot. Great job testing it and calling the problems, which helps us, end-users/consumers.

I've been working with NVIDIA again today on this after this was posted and another BIOS was released late this morning....

.19 added changes fan ramp profile to maintain lower temperatures in multi-monitor idle which you have

.1a is just a minor VBIOS structure change. Nothing that would impact the user experience.

I have tested 70.00.1A.00.02 and no temperature changes were noted, so this article is still valid.

Thanks for these updates!
It's great to see companies work closely with review sites so that the products are always kept in check for us consumers.

crowTrobot wrote:Thanks for these updates!
It's great to see companies work closely with review sites so that the products are always kept in check for us consumers.

I agree. Thanks LR. ;)

I just thought of this and it pertains more to Fermi than it does the BIOS fix. Anyway you can run a quick video conversion with Badaboom? I'm curious if the more CUDA cores means anything in video encoding.

I did want to add this earlier. Thanks for having the gonads to tell it like it is.

Nice to have a temperature fix, but what about the actual problem? Why does the card need to use so much more power just because there are two monitors connected? Increasing the fan speed is more a hack than a fix, it wont fix the power use and will increase noise. Instead of your computer cooking it will just push that heat out to your room and still increase your electricity bill unnecessarily.

Also how is the GTX 470 when it comes to this issue?

Frostbyte wrote:Nice to have a temperature fix, but what about the actual problem? Why does the card need to use so much more power just because there are two monitors connected? Increasing the fan speed is more a hack than a fix, it wont fix the power use and will increase noise. Instead of your computer cooking it will just push that heat out to your room and still increase your electricity bill unnecessarily.

Also how is the GTX 470 when it comes to this issue?

Not sure... NVIDIA has not sent any over and has ignored my requests for a GTX 470 or another GTX 480 for SLI testing... I'm assuming I'm being punished for speaking up on the temp issues as sites much smaller than LR has gotten additional cards, but then again they gave the GF100 series awards on day 1 too... Sometimes being honest has its downsides.

I don't think the fundamental problem has been solved. It looks like Nvidia just cranked up the fan speed with 2 monitors. The core clock with 2 LCDs is still 8 times higher than with 1 LCD, the mem clock is 16 times higher, and the shader clock is 8 times higher. The real solution would be to crank down the clocks with 2 monitors down to levels similar to with 1 LCD.

xilocient wrote:I don't think the fundamental problem has been solved. It looks like Nvidia just cranked up the fan speed with 2 monitors. The core clock with 2 LCDs is still 8 times higher than with 1 LCD, the mem clock is 16 times higher, and the shader clock is 8 times higher. The real solution would be to crank down the clocks with 2 monitors down to levels similar to with 1 LCD.

Two monitors need more juice and that isn't a bug... All ATI and NVIDIA cards have higher clock rates and power consumption with two cards - http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1258/15/

Fermi has 3 Billion transistors, is a large core and runs hot. NVIDIA knew that a year ago and told us that it was going to be huge and run hot... It works and they said it was designed to run this hot, so it is what it is. Nothing is broken and this is how the card was designed to run... just imagine if they left all 512 Cuda cores enabled...

I got a question apop. Nvidia claims these cards were "Designed" to run this hot. Nvidia cards are made by TSMC, just like ati cards, all on the same node. So i have to ask, how are their cards special, and how can they tolerate these high temperatures over extended periods of time? Am i missing something, or is that just Nvidia PR?

TSMC just builds the designs they are given, so if NVIDIA designed their card properly and for heat like this then there is no reason for major alarm.

i understand that part. What i am asking is do you know what specific design elements were put in place (if any) to prevent the card from dying prematurely? Are they using better materials of some kind? Because if not i dont understand how it can be "designed" to run at those temperatures.

Are you kidding me? This must be a joke or something, right?

How can you call this BIOS update -band-aid- procedure a fix???? Nothing has been fixed! Merely patched to cover the problem? Yes! Fixed? Certainly NOT!!! The *actual* problem is the card inability to clock down both the GPU and the RAM with 2 LCD. We are talking about an abysmal 355Mhz deficit for the GPU and an unbelievable 856.5Mhz delta for the memory compared with idle figures for 1 LCD. LMAO.

Where I don't laugh at all is when I realize the 480 is STILL consuming an insane amount of power at idle (235W, 24/7), is STILL heating *way* too much at idle (75c), transferring heat to other components inside your casing, AND the card is even LOUDER than ever at an unbearable 54dB!!!! That's freakin 54dB at Idle folks!! Those numbers are no where close to be in the vicinity of the region of the area of the ball park of the neighborhood of what deserve to be called a fix... The 480 still suck as much as ever, no matter how much you spin it.

There is no fix for this broken puppy. The 5850 in crossfire destroys it in all games, at all resolutions, for roughly the same $$$, less power, less heat and less noise. Just look up the benchmarks, it's impressive how badly the 480 get slapped by this specific configuration. The only thing missing is a 5950 to put this aberration of a 480 out of its misery, once and for all.

NOTE: I'm not trolling. I'm only speaking my mind and arguing with facts. The day ATI suck as much as Nvidia do right now, you can be sure I'll be the first to throw them rocks! BTW, I currently own an Nvidia card...

Ramon

Im glad they got that fixed now, the card should run great for a long time. I run my one of my stock factory overclocked EVGA video card 24/7 at 90c for the last 2+ years, praying every day it will die, so I can get a free upgrade.

I'm also happy with this fix!! Really good I Flight Systems news, well done!