• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Swap Sli 480 for ?

Gtiracer

Gtiracer

Gtiracer

Associate
Joined
14 Jan 2010
Posts
2,424
Location
Essex
I have 2 x 480s aircooled but as playing only a couple of games prooved, these cards get way too hot I am tempted to swap them for something different?

But what would be best - sell my 2 480s and buy a 580?


Would performance difference be noticeable or should I go ATi or wait until the 6990 comes out? what do you recommend - I have decided NOT to go watercooled so it will be aircooled whatever card I have. My case if a HAF X.


I dont want to spend any money, just looking to exchange / swap / buy second hand / save some money
 
Last edited:
Gtiracer said:
I dont want to spend any money, just looking to exchange / swap / buy second hand / save some money
Click to expand...

I think that this may be a problem:(

480's worth about £150 - £200 each.( I think you would be lucky to get £200 today but you never know.)

Cheapest 580 = £440 'ish

And from the reviews I've scanned I do not think that in general 1 x 580 is as powerful as 2 x 480 ( Drver dependant of course).

Have not seen any 2nd hand 580's for sale yet and would guess that for the time being your probably talking near retail price as they are in short supply.

570's in sli would cost £500 + so none starter

To get better performance at a price that would only involve you in 'small' outlay the only viable option appears to be 2 x 6950 which would cost £450'ish and you could look to try to 'convert' to 6970's for even more performance.

Personally I'd look to either cool/reduce noise of the 480's or save and go for the 580.
(Not a great believer in sli/crossfire , I'm afraid - to me 2 cards = more heat + more noise & less space)
 
Why not just sell one of the cards whilst it's still worth something, and keep using the other? A single 480 is no slouch. Then upgrade in a few months when the dust has settled.
 
I'd either get the Zalman 3000F coolers for each card, sell one card and keep the other (unless doing 3 screens or something) or as suggested go for the 6950 CF route (unlocking to the 6970).

I'd also agree that GTX480s are not worth that much 2nd hand, so I doubt you'll find that anything you do that'll give same or near performance will come free.
 
Not offense to people that are suggesting 6970 or 6950 flash to 6970...but they are hardly cooler running than the GTX480, and 6970 is only on par with GTX570/GTX480 in terms of speed and performance, and their cooler is hardly quiet, so it kinda make it a pointless switch (same performance, equally hot...so why bother, especially when it might require paying extra money on top after selling the GTX480s?).

I agree with Marvin...unless you are not running higher than a single 1920 res monitor, you should just sell one of the GTX480, and get a decent GPU cooler like the Zalman 3000F and overclock the remained GTX480, as there is only a few games that an overclocked GTX480 would struggle a bit at that res; alternatively can sell the GTX480s and go for a GTX580...while the it is a bit of downgrade, but at least the reference vapor chamber cooler is reasonbly quiet even at higher fan speed. Personally, I hope the next gen 28nm chip cards will able to deliver decent tessellation performance without the need of eating power like mad and turning the card into like a piece of hot toast.
 
Last edited:
SLI 480 is overkill for everything current gen, so you really don't need to upgrade!

Other cards of similar performance get just as warm, 580 maybe a little less but it's got a hefty price premium atm.

Best bet would be to watercool your 480's than dive into new cards, even though you say you wont - it's really worth the effort though :)
 
Keep a 480 and watercool it, at same clocks a 580 is only 6% faster than a 480 and it's not worth the change, stick with a 480 and upgrade when we have a decent jump in performance with kepler.
 
I would watercool them both myself, whats the pint of selling one of them only to make a loss. just spend some money on some decent cooling.
I am a great believer in adding not taking away.
 
if you're keeping both and have the slot spacing consider replacing the stock hsf with the third party ones this will make each three slots wide though, not a problem with my case and mobo but may be for some, cheaper than a wc setup
 
MooMoo444 said:
SLI 480 is overkill for everything current gen, so you really don't need to upgrade!

Other cards of similar performance get just as warm, 580 maybe a little less but it's got a hefty price premium atm.

Best bet would be to watercool your 480's than dive into new cards, even though you say you wont - it's really worth the effort though :)
Click to expand...


I wasn't necessairly looking to upgrade as such, just for a cooler solution - Playing Race Driver Grid for a couple of hours pushed my cards stupidly high and its not making me feel comfortable, when I had my single 5850 i didn't have to worry about this sort of thing but the performance comparison was obvious and the 5850 clearly wasn't as strong as these two.

The single 580 seems ok to me because it will be cooler and pretty quick but these two will be more than enough to see me through to when the 6990 and 595? (Does it exist?) come out to make an informed decision.
 
580's seems a complete waste of money in most situations.

Stick on aftermarket cooling or water cooling and apparently you could overclock a 480 and end up with a makeshift 580.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom