*** 25/02/2011 EXTENSION! *** DEAL OF CENTURY: Asus GeForce GTX 480 1536MB Graphics Card with 2 FREE

[95thrifles]

Yeah the 480 is at stock 700Mhz, as for power consumption the 560 pulls a lot when at 1000 core so much so that it's not that far behind the 480 in watts pulled, 1GB hurts the 560 in some game with AA/AF.

Don't forget the 460 is down on V-Ram as well, which may not be an issue now, but as you move to a higher res and as newer games come around, I think I'd rather have the extra.

I've not seen that show itself as an issue on any benchmark at any resolution thus far.
Genuinelly torn here. I'd like to understand more about the noise everyone moans about. The way some go on you'd think it was like having a Tornado in your case. From what I can see it's about as loud as a 280, which I wouldnt describe as loud?!

+1

I'd like to know where these people are getting his info from (rhetorical BTW - pretty sure its not the case). majority of people game at 1920 or less, afaik 1 gig VRAM is plenty for this res, you only need more when looking at 2560 etc, and as none of us have crystal balls, replies of "oh well you might need more in the future" are not needed

 

[Mr Krugga]

+1

I'd like to know where these people are getting his info from (rhetorical BTW - pretty sure its not the case). majority of people game at 1920 or less, afaik 1 gig VRAM is plenty for this res, you only need more when looking at 2560 etc, and as none of us have crystal balls, replies of "oh well you might need more in the future" are not needed

They'll tell you that benchmarks and reviews don't show everything

 

[MikeHiow]

as none of us have crystal balls, replies of "oh well you might need more in the future" are not needed

No Crystal balls needed, as mainstream cards have increasing amounts of ram, developers will take advantage of this. Textures are becoming higher and higher in resolution, plus it aids in AA.

 

[[TW]Fox]

No Crystal balls needed, as mainstream cards have increasing amounts of ram, developers will take advantage of this. Textures are becoming higher and higher in resolution, plus it aids in AA.

To be fair I've often taken this line, spent more money on the higher memory version of the card then found it made no difference and by the time it did make a difference the card was so old it didnt run the game anyway.

 

[bhavv]

Just read that review and it seems to tell me that the 480 and 560 Ti SOC are almost unseperable in terms of performance.

Makes me think that for the sake of a much quieter, less power hungry card the 560 Ti SOC is becoming the no brainer? So much so that I'm wondering why you'd pick the 480 over the 560 Ti SOC? What am I missing?

Yea I dont think I even even mentioned noise before, just power consumption.

Two completely silent and cool custom cooled GTX 560s, or two insanely loud, hot reference design hairdryers in my PC, hmmmm, tricky choice for me.

I like silent and cool much more than loud and hot, and the performance between an OC'ed GTX 560 and stock 480 is hardly anything.

As for overclocking the GTX 480, buy two to use in SLI, only use the stock coolers, overclock them heavily and feel free to run OCCT for a few hours. Just watch em die.

Replacing coolers is something I want to stop doing. They are expensive, and no one wants to buy them after you are done with them. I have 4 aftermarket GPU coolers sat in my room that no one wanted to buy after I no longer needed them, likely because they are pretty much useless on modern cards. Why even bother with buying a reference design + aftermarket cooler when you can just buy a nice custom design MSI or Gigabyte card instead?

To be fair I've often taken this line, spent more money on the higher memory version of the card then found it made no difference and by the time it did make a difference the card was so old it didnt run the game anyway.

Yes I've done this a couple of times. I bought a 256 mb 9800 pro over a £100 cheaper 128 mb, and back then it made absolutely no difference. By the time I needed a 256 mb card, I already had 512 Mb ones. By the time I needed 512 Mb, I already had 1 Gb.

More than 1 Gb Vram isnt needed at all yet at 1920x1200 or below. The only game I've seen so far where it makes any difference at that res is in Metro with 4x AA and max details, but the difference between 1 Gb and 2 Gb there is only 3 fps, and either way the minimum framerates were still far too low to make playing the game comfortable at that setting.

By the time 2 Gb is a requirement for mainstream games at 1080p, even a triSLI GTX 580 setup will be obsolete.

 

[MikeHiow]

To be fair I've often taken this line, spent more money on the higher memory version of the card then found it made no difference and by the time it did make a difference the card was so old it didnt run the game anyway.

Funny, I used to be the opposite, and then made the mistake of buying a 512mb 4850 just as 1GB cards started becoming more mainstream, which was useless once I'd gone 1920x1200. I'm certain it would have lasted me a bit longer at 1GB - the 4890 1GB appeared to carry a huge difference at higher resolutions.

For me, if I'm buying a new graphics card, I want to be able to max everything out, and can't help but think that 1.5-2GB is really going to help when AA is whacked up as high as it goes.

 

[[TW]Fox]

Funny, I used to be the opposite, and then made the mistake of buying a 512mb 4850 just as 1GB cards started becoming more mainstream, which was useless once I'd gone 1920x1200. I'm certain it would have lasted me a bit longer at 1GB - the 4890 1GB appeared to carry a huge difference at higher resolutions.

It was useless at 1920x1200 because it was a 4850 not because it only had 512mb of ram!

Which is my point..

 

[bhavv]

For me, if I'm buying a new graphics card, I want to be able to max everything out, and can't help but think that 1.5-2GB is really going to help when AA is whacked up as high as it goes.

Buy two current mainstream 1 Gb cards in crossfire / SLI. Play everything at 1900x1200 fully maxed out with 8x SSAA. Job done. Extra bonus is that they are also silent and cool if you get the right models.

A single 2 Gb card is going to make a few FPS improvement at the most over a 1 Gb one. Its never going to be enough to bring framerates up to acceptable if the same card would be struggling with 1 Gb of Vram.

 

[95thrifles]

It was useless at 1920x1200 because it was a 4850 not because it only had 512mb of ram!

Which is my point..

lol

 

[Boozebeard]

I would be really tempted by this if it wasn't that I would need to upgrade my psu too.

 

[Gerard]

Not sure why anyone would go quad sli, been there done that and its only beneficial in very specific games and benchmarks.

 

[bhavv]

Not sure why anyone would go quad sli, been there done that and its only beneficial in very specific games and benchmarks.

And it also needs like a 1200 watt PSU, and the PC will turn into a barbecue for real

 

[Rimsy]

dont suppose anyone here has gone from a 280GTX to a 480? kind of tempted to upgrade but really want to go for something quieter than what i currently have.

 

[95thrifles]

If you want quieter, get a 6950, then flash it to a 6970, same sort of price, once flashed better performer, and much quieter

 

[atheos]

What is the verdict with upgrading from a 285 OC to one of these babies?

i will be getting a 2500k soon by the way and i don't plan to SLI in the future


A few fps difference or a decent improvement?

 

[Random Guy]

If ETA is Friday, is dispatch also going to be on Friday?

 

[Gibbo]

If ETA is Friday, is dispatch also going to be on Friday?

Yes.

 

[kitch9]

I would imagine these will be made quite a while after the 480's release so they should be less leaky chips which therefore use less power than the first reviews...

 

[555BUK]

I would imagine these will be made quite a while after the 480's release so they should be less leaky chips which therefore use less power than the first reviews...

Not necessarily. As fabs age the production process becomes less sterile and higher levels of defects can occur. Sometimes the best chips are first off of the press. Whenever Intel for example releases a new stepping, the early weeks often are te best with the latter not clocking so well.

 

[555BUK]

If you want quieter, get a 6950, then flash it to a 6970, same sort of price, once flashed better performer, and much quieter

I thought that 570's, 480's and 6970's (real one's not flashed 6950's that may not hit 6970 clocks) were all pretty even in performance terms. Most benchmarks show 570's and 480's are faster below 1920x1200, 6970's are faster above 1920x1200 and at 1920x1200 they are hard to seperate.

For £195 you can get £265 worth of performance, guarenteed, out of the box, without having to flash or risking getting a card that doesn't make the grade. 480's (like 570's) will also overclock MUCH better than 6970's whch AMD have already pushed close to the limits in order to compete with Fermi.

If the 480 consumes an average 100 more Watts of electrcity per day it will take 20 years for the 6870 and 570 to make up the savings.

This is a bargain.