NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 Final Specs & Pricing Revealed!

[Apokalipse]

re: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 Final Specs & Pricing Revealed!

It's better than the 5870 by a pretty good lot and it holds it's on against the 5970 which is a duel GPU for the same price. Sure sure the wattage is high..but cmon most people use a 750+watt PSU and only use like 400ish watts of it..

The 480 is only about 15% faster than a 5870 using Catalyst 10.3, and uses about twice the power. The 5970 is much faster and even uses less power than the 480.

Also, most people don't have 750W PSU's. Probably about 550W really. A 480 by itself would use about half of that. Whereas you could crossfire two 5870's and use the same power as one 480.

so why not put the wasted watts to good use

They're not being 'wasted'. a PSU only outputs as much power as is needed. If the system only needs 350W, it'll only output 350W.
Putting a GTX 480 in will certainly waste watts by having poor performance per watt. Your system will be using more power than it needs to given the performance.

Yea, that means higher electric bills and heat..but it can't be that bad. Like someone said earlier, if you can afford these types of high end cards you should be able to pay the electric bill that comes with it........It's like buying a hummer but can't afford to put gas in it lol

If you really want the higher performance, you're better off getting a 5970. It's faster and uses less power.
Or you could get two 5870's in crossfire, use the same power, and have even higher performance.
Or instead of two 480's in SLI, you can get three 5870's, or two 5970's in crossfire. Better performance, lower power consumption.

 

[S0ULphIRE]

re: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 Final Specs & Pricing Revealed!

The 480 is only about 15% faster than a 5870 using Catalyst 10.3, and uses about twice the power. The 5970 is much faster and even uses less power than the 480.

Also, most people don't have 750W PSU's. Probably about 550W really. A 480 by itself would use about half of that. Whereas you could crossfire two 5870's and use the same power as one 480.
They're not being 'wasted'. a PSU only outputs as much power as is needed. If the system only needs 350W, it'll only output 350W.
Putting a GTX 480 in will certainly waste watts by having poor performance per watt. Your system will be using more power than it needs to given the performance.
If you really want the higher performance, you're better off getting a 5970. It's faster and uses less power.
Or you could get two 5870's in crossfire, use the same power, and have even higher performance.

ATI just released the 10.3 drivers, which increase the performance of their cards significantly. Nvidia is yet to release optimised drivers.

If you really want higher performance, you're better off getting two 480's and hooking them up in an SLI config. They run much better than the dual-gpu solution of the 5970.

Yes they're loud, yes it uses a lot of power. But when it comes to performance, they'll win.

 

[zedman3d]

re: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 Final Specs & Pricing Revealed!

Well when the 5890 comes out the gap will be reduced if not closed completely.

EDIT:

If you really want higher performance, you're better off getting two 480's and hooking them up in an SLI config. They run much better than the dual-gpu solution of the 5970.

Dont forget though that the 5970 isnt as fast as 5870's in crossfire.

EDIT 2:
What does this mean for mobile computing? Anyone think they can get a mobile version of these cards for laptops that are actually feasible?

 

[Apokalipse]

re: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 Final Specs & Pricing Revealed!

ATI just released the 10.3 drivers, which increase the performance of their cards significantly. Nvidia is yet to release optimised drivers.

Whose to say Nvidia's driver team haven't spent the last 6 months trying to squeeze every last drop of performance out of it before release?

If you really want higher performance, you're better off getting two 480's and hooking them up in an SLI config. They run much better than the dual-gpu solution of the 5970.

Three 5870's or two 5970's will be faster than that. And use less power.
Two 5870's will be only a little bit behind, and use about half the power.

Yes they're loud, yes it uses a lot of power. But when it comes to performance, they'll win.

Single GPU vs single GPU, yes. But not by much at all.
With Cypress, multi-GPU setups are much more feasible.
And even if you went with a single GPU, you'd be saving money and power with Cypress.

okay..... who is holding out for the die-shrink?

By the time 28nm is ready at TSMC, the new architectures from Nvidia and ATI will be just about ready.

 

[S0ULphIRE]

re: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 Final Specs & Pricing Revealed!

Dont forget though that the 5970 isnt as fast as 5870's in crossfire.

Indeed it isnt.
But also don't forget that atm SLI works better than Crossfire, e.g. a higher performance gain is seen. Couple that with the fact that a single 480 will beat a single 5870, and the gap only increases.

 

[Apokalipse]

re: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 Final Specs & Pricing Revealed!

Indeed it isnt.
But also don't forget that atm SLI works better than Crossfire

I don't think it is.
I remember scaling of the 3870's was definitely better than SLI (~70-80%), then Nvidia has caught up so it's about the same.

 

[S0ULphIRE]

re: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 Final Specs & Pricing Revealed!

Whose to say Nvidia's driver team haven't spent the last 6 months trying to squeeze every last drop of performance out of it before release?

Whose to say they haven't? That's a pointless argument.

Three 5870's or two 5970's will be faster than that. And use less power.
Two 5870's will be only a little bit behind, and use about half the power.

Three 480's will be faster than three 5870's or two 5970's too. Where are you going with this? and once again, I DON'T CARE about the extra power.

Single GPU vs single GPU, yes. But not by much at all.
With Cypress, multi-GPU setups are much more feasible.
And even if you went with a single GPU, you'd be saving money and power with Cypress.

A simple "yes single GPU vs single GPU the 480's are better" will suffice.
With or without Cypress, SLI works better that crossfire. 3870's aren't exactly so top of the line anymore, how about a newer example?
I wouldn't be saving enough money for me to care enough to switch to Cypress.

 

[Apokalipse]

re: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 Final Specs & Pricing Revealed!

Whose to say they haven't? That's a pointless argument.

Why is it pointless?
if they have already optimised their drivers by heaps, then there won't be a lot of room left to optimise. Which would mean what you said is false.

Three 480's will be faster than three 5870's or two 5970's too.

and more expensive and way more power hungry.

Where are you going with this?

You know where I'm going with this.
Price:performance and performance:watt are both poor on the GF100 GPU.

A simple "yes single GPU vs single GPU the 480's are better" will suffice.

Not if you want the complete context.

With or without Cypress, SLI works better that crossfire.

Benchmarks? I don't think it is.

I wouldn't be saving enough money for me to care enough to switch to Cypress.

Then it seems you don't really care about money.

 

[S0ULphIRE]

re: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 Final Specs & Pricing Revealed!

Why is it pointless?
if they have already optimised their drivers by heaps, then there won't be a lot of room left to optimise. Which would mean what you said is false.

Because it's all just speculation by you. Not facts. You're saying IF they have. Who's to know if they can't increase the driver performance any more?

and more expensive and way more power hungry.

I don't care.

Not if you want the complete context.

I just want a neat yes or no answer, which card will perform better?

Then it seems you don't really care about money.

No, I just see the amount of money I'd be spending on this as opposed to a 5870 as not worth niggling over. If you bought a 1 dollar icecream at a store outside your house when you KNEW you could get the same one for 50 cents 10 minutes down the road does that mean you don't care about money?

 

[Apokalipse]

re: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 Final Specs & Pricing Revealed!

Because it's all just speculation by you. Not facts. You're saying IF they have. Who's to know if they can't increase the driver performance any more?

Yes, it is speculation. Which is exactly my point.
You don't know if they will make significant performance improvements with newer drivers. You can't count on it happening.

I don't care.
I just want a neat yes or no answer, which card will perform better?

5970 crossfire.

No, I just see the amount of money I'd be spending on this as opposed to a 5870 as not worth niggling over.

Hence you don't really care about money. There is a very significant cost difference to buy and run.

If you bought a 1 dollar icecream at a store outside your house when you KNEW you could get the same one for 50 cents 10 minutes down the road does that mean you don't care about money?

The analogy should be more like: you can buy an ice crean for $4 right outside your house, or you could get one for $5 10 minutes down the road which is very slightly better, but also contains twice the fat.
And even that's not a particularly good analogy, since ice creams don't cost remotely as much as video cards.