• 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.

whats bad about the gtx 470?

ashatron

ashatron

ashatron

Associate
Joined
15 Sep 2009
Posts
659
Location
Sheffield
Hi all.

i know it seems like a silly question but ive found on forums some negativity towards the gtx 470, it being referred to as a 'poor card'. It seems to perform well in games and looks good to me. Ive read it runs hot, but also read it overclocks well (which seem to go against each other).

i know the gtx 560 ti is about the same performance, runs cooler and is newer, but the 470 seems to perform very similar as well as having the extra ram and cuda cores, which makes me interested in the 470 more (for specific GPU rendering).

Are there problems with the 470 that im not aware of?
would you recommend it?
 
Double edged sword, 560 clocks higher but has less ram, so your choice depends on what resolution your monitor is I guess.

My personal advice if your going with a 470 is get one with an aftermarket cooler, stock cooler when I originally ran it was mega loud and didn't do a very good job at all

With new cooler on though, I'm happy with performance.
 
Brought one for my pc little while ago, brought another one last week for the wife's pc.

To be frank, I dont notice any difference noise wise than from the card before, the only time I notice the fan is loud is when I start folding before I goto bed.

During gaming I dont hear it, in fact I found the fan on top of the case was louder and now have it unplugged.

Temps it was 81 last night and 82 this morning after a night of folding.

For me the extra cuda cores were also considered over a 460.
 
Never had a problem with mine just make sure u use decent fan profile don't know what the fuss is with the noise u don't spend 200+ on speakers to listen to fans whilst gaming

Some people just a little sensitive, as to heat mine where not to bad on air 70c max @ 70% fan above that they get loud for desk top use
 
Last edited:
They use quite a bit of power, can get noisey - tho under normal gaming use its nothing like as bad as some people make out - and aren't the coolest running cards - but again actual running temps depends a lot on your case cooling they do need to shift a lot of heat tho.

Personally I think the performance and overclocking potential is worth it despite the potential negatives but if I was buying now my money would be very much on the Gigabyte GTX560 SoC unless I needed the extra VRAM and/or played at very high res tho this is still a good buy:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-066-GI&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1810

Was better when it was £219 tho.
 
Michaeljcox24 said:
Double edged sword, 560 clocks higher but has less ram, so your choice depends on what resolution your monitor is I guess.

My personal advice if your going with a 470 is get one with an aftermarket cooler, stock cooler when I originally ran it was mega loud and didn't do a very good job at all

With new cooler on though, I'm happy with performance.
Click to expand...

The gtx470 is a better clocker from what i have seen when comparing to the 560ti. Do not think because the 560 can achieve higher core frequences that it clocks better than the gtx470 ie a gtx470 at 850 core has an overclock of 42%. For the ti560 to match this overclock percentage it would need to have a core clock of somewhere near 1140.

I would say if you are overclocking the gtx470 is probably a better card if you can put up with some more heat and noise.
 
I can echo what Rroff says, they do use a lot of power, but the heat noise issue is a bit overblown, got two of them here, overclocked to 751/1502/1700, ive had them at 800/1600/1700 for benchmarks, but my daily clock is more than adequate, mine idle at 29-30c, max load ive seen in game is 75-76, i use auto fan which never go's above 50% when gaming. This keeps the noise nice and low, above 60% they are loud though, good case airflow really helps. Tbh, theyre quieter and cooler running than the stock sli gtx 275's i was running previously.
 
Rroff said:
They use quite a bit of power, can get noisey - tho under normal gaming use its nothing like as bad as some people make out - and aren't the coolest running cards - but again actual running temps depends a lot on your case cooling they do need to shift a lot of heat tho.
Click to expand...

As there seems to be allot of variation from card to card, this statement is completely false.
 
thanks a lot for your input everyone, really good to hear 470 user opinions.

Seem to be mix feedback though. Maybe the 560 ti is a safer bet...
 
Although I got mine when they were going for nothing (relatively speaking) a few months ago, I'd still recommend the GTX470. Its performance is awesome.

My case is a mess and so isn't exactly cool, but my card still idles at 38-40C and peaks at about 85C with 50% fan speed (it quickly cools down once you've stopped gaming, though). Noise isn't an issue unless you go above 60% fan speed, but you don't need it that high anyway, especially if your case has good air flow.
 
Ejizz said:
^^^
You must have a couple of low leakage cores or something, because my experience was much different.
Click to expand...

No,Settler has a decent case with excellent airflow.

This is half the problem with video card temps, poor airflow in cases.
 
Last edited:
Ejizz said:
^^^
You must have a couple of low leakage cores or something, because my experience was much different.
Click to expand...
Im running two gigabyte reference cooled 630mhz factory oc'd cards, theyre at 751mhz on stock volts, as i mentioned above, case cooling really helps with theese cards, i tried one of them in my other system, in an akasa eclipse 62, not a great case for air intake due to the design of the front panel, and if you have 3 or more hdd's in the bottom drive bay, idle temp was 42c, load 81c at stock. My main rig case is a full tower lian li a70f, dual 140mm intake fans and better airflow through the drive bays, hence the lower idle/load temps and this is with two in sli, pcie slot spacing on my motherboard is really good as well.
 
Last edited:
Stick with the gtx560. An extra 256mb isn't going to make much of a difference. The 560 runs far cooler, clocks to over 1ghz and consumes a lot less power. Go for it!
 
I'm very happy with my GTX 470. Maxes out everything I play (F1 2010, L4D2, BFBC2, Mafia 2) at 1920 x 1080 resolution and found it was a massive upgrade from my existing GTX 260. Again, I think the noise and temperature issue has been blown out of proportion. With a decent case and reasonable airflow and custom fan profile, my doesn't go over about 72-75 degC after a long stint of BFBC2 @Max settings. Prices at the moment aren't making them too attractive (the cheapest OCUK card is almost £45 more than I paid a month ago) and the GTX 560 at present looks like the better buy. Remember they too overclock massively, at 1.050v have had mine at 830/1770/1660, but for 24/7 I'm happy with 800MHz on the core.
 
kmufc77 said:
No,Settler has a decent case with excellent airflow.

This is half the problem with video card temps, poor airflow in cases.
Click to expand...

Actually leakage with Fermi appears to be a bigger factor than the common misconception of airflow (as long as there is actually air flow of course).

In an open case my Gainward 470 idled at 43c and at load went into the mid 90's on auto fan, similar to reviews.
Another guy on hear with the same card was idling 30c and 75c load on auto fan.

So depending on who you ask, the 470 is pretty cool with it's temps and noise way over exaggerated, or it's a toaster.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom