EVGA 480 Hydro Copper ***

drunkenmaster · 31 Mar 2010 at 19:32

Does a tree falling over make a noise if no one is around to hear it? Is a 480GTX really the fastest card around........ if no one can actually get their hands on one?

2x5850 IS faster than a 480gtx, and 2 with 2 waterblocks will be cheaper than a 480gtx with waterblocks pre-attached or 3rd party. Infact the 2x5850 will be MILES and miles faster before you overclock them, after overclocking a single 5850 on air is likely to be faster than a 480gtx at its max overclocks, let alone two of them.

I'd quite happily get a 480gtx if the price increase matched or at least came close to the performance increase, but it doesn't, it makes no sense to buy at all. If it was 60% more expensive and 60% more expensive, maybe, 60% faster and rarely more than 10% faster... no. Get 3 stock 5850's and don't watercool and simply overclock as far as you can with fans still running very quiet(not that far to have very very quiet fans) and it will likely cost you very close to the cost of a 480gtx with waterblock.

dazzerd · 31 Mar 2010 at 19:33

Well the question was when will/if the card will be available on ocuk not whether people get a stiffy about ati or nvidia.

There is plenty of that juvenile crap all over forums.

kylew · 31 Mar 2010 at 19:39

dazzerd said:
Well the question was when will/if the card will be available on ocuk not whether people get a stiffy about ati or nvidia.

There is plenty of that juvenile crap all over forums.

No, but it's already been demonstrated to you that for the best performance, a GTX480 is the wrong choice.

Cosimo · 31 Mar 2010 at 19:43

dazzerd said:
Far too many trolls......

whatever happened to a rational discussion based on the op.

.... and too many fanboys.

Indeed, it’s got to the stage where they can’t see the wood from the trees or past what appears to be their pathological hatred for one or the other manufacturer. To get any sense around here you will have to wait for the Fermi storm to pass.

Wilderbeast · 31 Mar 2010 at 20:37

kylew said:
Ah, well he needs a 5870@1Ghz then.

Do you still have to bios flash them to get over 1Ghz? If so does it still invalidate the warranty?

kylew · 31 Mar 2010 at 20:39

Wilderbeast said:
Do you still have to bios flash them to get over 1Ghz? If so does it still invalidate the warranty?

That, I'm not so sure about.

However, to flash the bios doesn't actually invalidate the warranty. To flash the card and break it through a bios flash is what they actually mean, in addition to that, it's quite hard to actually break a card through flashing.

AMG · 31 Mar 2010 at 20:42

yes it will

if they find out

IF the OP wants to use it for software dev rather than gaming now you gotta admit cuda is the way to go, due to the support, for gaming its the wrong choice as the max overclock on the HD5850/70 would beat it and than some

Wilderbeast · 31 Mar 2010 at 20:56

kylew said:
That, I'm not so sure about.

However, to flash the bios doesn't actually invalidate the warranty. To flash the card and break it through a bios flash is what they actually mean, in addition to that, it's quite hard to actually break a card through flashing.

What about eyefinity and crossfire, I'm really tempted to get a couple of 5870's as I've got 3x24" dells and fancy a bit of multi screen gaming (I've used SofTH and its great), but no one seems to be able answer this. People say its been fixed in drivers, but for everyone that says its fixed theres someone else complaining it still doesn't work

Theres also the issue of grey screens, seems not all is rosey in the red camp. Honestly thinking of just skipping this entire generation. Nvidia look carp with the 480 - 470 due to price/heat/power and god only knows what driver problems we'll get from them, then we have the ATi cards and all their little problems with drivers.

AMG · 31 Mar 2010 at 20:57

Also Nvida can only have 3 screens and SLI in order to work (on fermi at least)

Wilderbeast · 31 Mar 2010 at 21:01

AMG said:
Also Nvida can only have 3 screens and SLI in order to work (on fermi at least)

Yeah got nvidia now and I need 2 cards for it to work. Which is what sparked my interest in ATi with eyefinity, but to play games at 1920x1200x3 I think will require a crossfire 58*0 solution.

kylew · 31 Mar 2010 at 21:01

Wilderbeast said:
What about eyefinity and crossfire, I'm really tempted to get a couple of 5870's as I've got 3x24" dells and fancy a bit of multi screen gaming (I've used SofTH and its great), but no one seems to be able answer this. People say its been fixed in drivers, but for everyone that says its fixed theres someone else complaining it still doesn't work

Theres also the issue of grey screens, seems not all is rosey in the red camp. Honestly thinking of just skipping this entire generation. Nvidia look carp with the 480 - 470 due to price/heat/power and god only knows what driver problems we'll get from them, then we have the ATi cards and all their little problems with drivers.

Eyefinity is currently working all well and fine with crossfire, the problems you read about are probably to do with 3x way crossfire and Eyefinity.

As for the GSOD, the latest drivers have supposedly fixed that.

kylew · 31 Mar 2010 at 21:02

AMG said:
Also Nvida can only have 3 screens and SLI in order to work (on fermi at least)

That's correct, on nVidia hardware you need SLi or TH2G for tripple monitor gaming.

Wilderbeast · 31 Mar 2010 at 21:03

kylew said:
Eyefinity is currently working all well and fine with crossfire, the problems you read about are probably to do with 3x way crossfire and Eyefinity.

As for the GSOD, the latest drivers are supposed to have fixed that.

Great news! Think I'll be giving it a go then

kylew · 31 Mar 2010 at 21:08

Wilderbeast said:
Great news! Think I'll be giving it a go then

To be honest though I would suggest you pick up 2 5850s.

Wilderbeast · 31 Mar 2010 at 21:11

kylew said:
To be honest though I would suggest you pick up 2 5850s.

I wont be overclocking at all, with that in mind, do you think they will be up to the job?

kylew · 31 Mar 2010 at 21:13

Wilderbeast said:
I wont be overclocking at all, with that in mind, do you think they will be up to the job?

I would suggest you did overclock to be honest, it's so incredibly simple, 5850s generally overclock to 5870 speeds on stock voltages, so it'd be simply a case of setting a slider and you're done.

AMG · 31 Mar 2010 at 21:17

I think Nvidia did that on purpose and only looking at the perforamce point of view

saying that single AMD cards don't do too badly in that area with 3 on them

you may have got a hint there AMD cards seem to be able to take 3 screen each if its a good idea or not is a different story

I don't think Nvidia have its own overclocking ability in the user control panel that the user can use? but ATI do anyway just unlock it (in CCC and its under "overdrive")

rounddodger · 31 Mar 2010 at 22:05

kylew said:
It's go absolutely nothing to do with that.

You've got the nVidia boys raging about how this is the best GPU ever, fastest and what ever else, when it really isn't.

You can get more performance out of an overclocked 5850 and 5870 when you overclock them, ultimately a 480 can't overclock enough to make this untrue.

It's utterly bizarre that this way of thinking works with CPUs but doesn't work with graphics cards, and people are claiming I'm the fanboy?

What happened to all the "get a Q6600 and overclock it, they all overclock to silly speeds".

The Q6600s overclocked generally higher than most other chips and gave more performance, so they were therefore the higher performing chips.

Rubbish. You have no idea what a 480 can do underwater. If he wants a 480, whats the problem? Not everyone is soley obsessed with bang for buck. Maybe like me the op has had a very good experience with nvidia, and that counts for something. Heat is the only issue IMO and sticking it underwater will sort that.

Greebo · 31 Mar 2010 at 22:10

rounddodger said:
Rubbish. You have no idea what a 480 can do underwater. If he wants a 480, whats the problem? Not everyone is soley obsessed with bang for buck. Maybe like me the op has had a very good experience with nvidia, and that counts for something. Heat is the only issue IMO and sticking it underwater will sort that.

It will help but since the first LN2 results show that the gtx480 still overheats with that I wouldn't hold my breath.

I reckon you will need a good pump, full block and a decent triple rad to get some reasonable results from Fermi so maybe a total spend of £600 to £700

Nivek · 31 Mar 2010 at 22:14

Sharpedge said:
Does anyone know it OcUK are going to stock the EVGA GeForce GTX 480 Hydro Copper ***, if so at what price.

I know that I can get a standard card and fit a cooler myself and save about £150-200 in the process. If I go that route then I'll void the warranty and there is no guarantee the card will OC as well. I currently have a BFG 280 H2O and think that it's time for a new card.

Not sure, they dont have the standard EVGA's yet. On a side note, they have GTX295 hydro coppers and they are almost £600, so I wouldnt put it past being around this price if they do appear. You might be worthwhile going for one of their Asus 480's and putting your own waterblock on it, I'm sure Asus warranty covers the changing of the cooler ? You also get the voltage tweak on those cards.