GTX295 to GTX480?

coolamasta · 3 Jun 2010 at 12:23

Sorry if this has already been mentioned/asked before but im thinking about selling my Aquatuning water blocked GTX295 and going for a GTX480 and a water block (if any exist yet?!)

Has anyone done this upgrade and thought it was worth it? What is a single GTX480 like vs the Sli'd GTX295 cores? Should I hang tight and see what Nvidia does with newer Fermi models and pricing or just leave it for now? :confused:

Oh and before people start saying ATI ATI ATI I do a lot of folding@home and so sticking with Nvidia purely for that reason and gaming FPS comes second

Cheers for any responses

straxusii · 3 Jun 2010 at 12:25

Looks like it's a little faster but not by much http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Palit/GeForce_GTX_470_Dual/29.html

opethdisciple · 3 Jun 2010 at 13:25

Yea, going from a GTX 295 to a GTX 480 is going sideways.

All you gain is dx11, etc.

If you can get good value for your 295 then yea, go for it, but I wouldnt neccessarily expect top see a huge leap inperformance:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/graphics-card-geforce-radeon,review-31911-7.html

A leap in performance is a 5970.

vertica · 3 Jun 2010 at 13:33

As above, it is a sideways move.

The folding@home ppd is better on a gtx295 aswell:

the new GPU3 beta units are only giving ~16kppd on a gtx480
the GPU2 units can net 18-22kppd on a overclocked gtx295

but this may change with time and when GPU3 becomes fully stable/work units regularly released

RavenXXX2 · 3 Jun 2010 at 13:42

I was going to say it's better to go a single GPU because of the less power and heat associated with a single GPU compared to a dual GPU, but it's the 480 were talking about so none of the above apply lol.

Alex74 · 3 Jun 2010 at 13:53

RavenXXX2 said:
I was going to say it's better to go a single GPU because of the less power and heat associated with a single GPU compared to a dual GPU, but it's the 480 were talking about so none of the above apply lol.

In fairness it's tough to say anything like that in all seriousness about any high end card since the 5870 release. The 480 just...pushed it further

Anyway if you can really afford it, the 5970's probably the way to go. Otherwise performance increase will be rather marginal. All you'll really be getting out of the 480 is DX11 support.

harryohh · 3 Jun 2010 at 14:22

I'd keep the GTX 295.The small gain in performance isn't worth the expense incurred.

coolamasta · 3 Jun 2010 at 15:50

Yeah I can see what you all mean by a sideways move and the only advantage would be DX11, hmmmm only really considering it because I like to stay on top of technology haha, might leave it for a while and if they drop then consider it, the 295 does everything I want to really besides DX11 of course

coolamasta · 3 Jun 2010 at 15:53

vertica said:
As above, it is a sideways move.

The folding@home ppd is better on a gtx295 aswell:

the new GPU3 beta units are only giving ~16kppd on a gtx480
the GPU2 units can net 18-22kppd on a overclocked gtx295

but this may change with time and when GPU3 becomes fully stable/work units regularly released

I've never got that sort of PPD out of my 295 lol, 16-18k is as much as I've got from it with quite a big overclock on water!

One thing I have wondered about is how much power would a single GTX480 use in comparison with the 295 being as it has the 2 cores, while folding the 295 munches the power but not sure if the 480 would use less, technically it should do buy a reasonable amount! Need to do some googling I think!...

mrh2019 · 3 Jun 2010 at 15:55

Hi have just done the move, at this moment of time there's not a lot of difference, but I'm sure when newer driver comeout there will be .
With the games that don't use SLi very well there is a big gain.
Then again you could do what I'm going to do and stick another GTX480 in..

I must get around to updating my sig.....

Exsurgo · 3 Jun 2010 at 16:33

Does not seem like a very logical upgrade path. I thought the whole point of high-end dual GPU cards (4870X2, 9800GX2, 295GTX) was that they were supposed to (and often can) last you through the next generation, effectivelly allowing you to skip a new purchace every generation.

Particularly unusuall problem this upgrade presents, is that the GTX480 is maybe 10% faster, but uses about the same amount of power, and actually runs hotter and louder than the dual GPU card from the last generation. Also the GTX480 waterblocks are not cheap either.

As others have said, you should try to hang on a while.

coolamasta · 3 Jun 2010 at 16:57

mrh2019 said:
Hi have just done the move, at this moment of time there's not a lot of difference, but I'm sure when newer driver comeout there will be .
With the games that don't use SLi very well there is a big gain.
Then again you could do what I'm going to do and stick another GTX480 in..

I must get around to updating my sig.....

Thanks for that bud, food for thought and interesting on the SLi information, whats the power consumption & heat like compared to the 295 if you know?

coolamasta · 3 Jun 2010 at 17:02

Exsurgo said:
Does not seem like a very logical upgrade path. I thought the whole point of high-end dual GPU cards (4870X2, 9800GX2, 295GTX) was that they were supposed to (and often can) last you through the next generation, effectivelly allowing you to skip a new purchace every generation.

Particularly unusuall problem this upgrade presents, is that the GTX480 is maybe 10% faster, but uses about the same amount of power, and actually runs hotter and louder than the dual GPU card from the last generation. Also the GTX480 waterblocks are not cheap either.

As others have said, you should try to hang on a while.

You think that the 480 is louder and hotter than the 295? :eek:

the 295 was noisy as hell above 40% fan duty and got uber hot with a slight overclock hence why I watercooled it!

The 480 would have to be a pretty nuts card for it to be hotter and louder and im surprised it uses same about of power! Is this based on fact? Not saying you are making it up but im genuinely interested

vertica · 3 Jun 2010 at 17:02

coolamasta said:
I've never got that sort of PPD out of my 295 lol, 16-18k is as much as I've got from it with quite a big overclock on water!

One thing I have wondered about is how much power would a single GTX480 use in comparison with the 295 being as it has the 2 cores, while folding the 295 munches the power but not sure if the 480 would use less, technically it should do buy a reasonable amount! Need to do some googling I think!...

I run mine at 713/1692/1242 (core/shaders/mem) @ 1.15V under water.
thats up from the stock 576/1242/999.

As i'm sure you know, FAH performance is largely dictated by the shader clock. 11kppd per core was only possible on a few of the very small units a few moths ago, but both cores can consistently churn out 19-20kppd without issue at those speeds on the GPU2 units.

Benched my rig against a mates last week (with an air cooled 480) and there is hardly anything in it fps wise - the difference is only visible by frame rate counters.

mrh2019 · 3 Jun 2010 at 17:13

coolamasta said:
Thanks for that bud, food for thought and interesting on the SLi information, whats the power consumption & heat like compared to the 295 if you know?

The power consumption is a little bit higher not much, what psu do you have?? anything above 700watts for 1 card, 950watts for 2.

As for the heat don't know, had mine runnng with normal cooler for about 1/2 hour, didn't pay much attention just make sure the card worked. Have an EK waterblock on it, using MSI afterburner not overclocked (yet), was getting a max 47deg.

Didn't watercool the GTX295, what temps are you getting from that??

HAz · 3 Jun 2010 at 17:28

Well if your use to wasting money then go for it

coolamasta · 3 Jun 2010 at 20:53

vertica said:
I run mine at 713/1692/1242 (core/shaders/mem) @ 1.15V under water.
thats up from the stock 576/1242/999.

As i'm sure you know, FAH performance is largely dictated by the shader clock. 11kppd per core was only possible on a few of the very small units a few moths ago, but both cores can consistently churn out 19-20kppd without issue at those speeds on the GPU2 units.

Benched my rig against a mates last week (with an air cooled 480) and there is hardly anything in it fps wise - the difference is only visible by frame rate counters.

Ah that'll be why then! Nice overclock mate. Yeah I only overclock the core & shaders for folding and leave the memory @ stock
Wonder what a heavily OC'd 480 on water could do PPD-wise...

coolamasta · 3 Jun 2010 at 20:55

mrh2019 said:
The power consumption is a little bit higher not much, what psu do you have?? anything above 700watts for 1 card, 950watts for 2.

As for the heat don't know, had mine runnng with normal cooler for about 1/2 hour, didn't pay much attention just make sure the card worked. Have an EK waterblock on it, using MSI afterburner not overclocked (yet), was getting a max 47deg.

Didn't watercool the GTX295, what temps are you getting from that??

Yeah I got an 800w PSU so not a problem for 1 card.
How much was the EK waterblock if you dont mind me asking?

I only hit 42-44 degrees with a large overclock @ 100% load on my 295 but I am running 2 big rads in my rig!

mrh2019 · 3 Jun 2010 at 22:56

coolamasta said:
Yeah I got an 800w PSU so not a problem for 1 card.
How much was the EK waterblock if you dont mind me asking?

I only hit 42-44 degrees with a large overclock @ 100% load on my 295 but I am running 2 big rads in my rig!

The Price Overclockers has is very good, The GTX480 do run a lot hotter then GTX295 they can run up to 100 deg and that's normal.

I'm running a Thermochill PA120.3 with Scythe Gentle Typhoon 1450 rpm in push/pull only cooling the GPU.