Right, I've been a lurker here for a while now and thought I should probably contribute something! So this is my way of introducing myself...
I know a lot of you have shown interest in these cards, especially with the current 10% off promo taking them to just over £200. Mine arrived this morning and I've had an afternoon of playing and tweaking. Firstly, this is not a reference card with the Gigabyte cooler strapped on. It seems like it's the same PCB as the SOC version, only without the factory overclock and the dual bios function. Everything else seems the same, including better power management and those 12 green LEDs. Nice.
The card is not as long as I thought it would be, it easily fits in my CM690 II with about an inch to spare. After a quick BFBC2 session I installed MSI afterburner and had a go at some tweaks. After 30 minutes or so I've got a stable OC of 845 Core/1690 Shader/4400 Memory at 1.100v. Under furmark this pushes temps up to 81c with the fan speed on max. During actual gaming I'm seeing temps of 76c with fan on 60% load. I suspect I could squeeze a bit more from it, to be honest, but it would be a struggle to hit the 900MHz core speed that a lot of the SOCs are hitting.
My opinion of the 480s have always been that they seemed super fast but were way too loud and hot. However, this card has neither of these drawbacks. It's whisper quiet, even with a decent OC, and load temps of 80c aren't anything to worry about. Load temps at stock were more like 68c with the fan set to 60%, which is great.
To say you can hit close to 580 speeds for a little over £200 is incredible, if you're on the fence about one of these cards due to the typical flaws of the 480 series then forget about them, they're not an issue here.
The only thing I can't comment on is the power draw, I have no way of measuring the wattage of my system. All the reports I've read has said the later revisions of the 480 are a lot less leaky in regards to power, so as long as you have 600W+ I'm sure you'll be fine. For reference, I have a 750w Cooler Master and have had no problems.
I know a lot of you have shown interest in these cards, especially with the current 10% off promo taking them to just over £200. Mine arrived this morning and I've had an afternoon of playing and tweaking. Firstly, this is not a reference card with the Gigabyte cooler strapped on. It seems like it's the same PCB as the SOC version, only without the factory overclock and the dual bios function. Everything else seems the same, including better power management and those 12 green LEDs. Nice.
The card is not as long as I thought it would be, it easily fits in my CM690 II with about an inch to spare. After a quick BFBC2 session I installed MSI afterburner and had a go at some tweaks. After 30 minutes or so I've got a stable OC of 845 Core/1690 Shader/4400 Memory at 1.100v. Under furmark this pushes temps up to 81c with the fan speed on max. During actual gaming I'm seeing temps of 76c with fan on 60% load. I suspect I could squeeze a bit more from it, to be honest, but it would be a struggle to hit the 900MHz core speed that a lot of the SOCs are hitting.
My opinion of the 480s have always been that they seemed super fast but were way too loud and hot. However, this card has neither of these drawbacks. It's whisper quiet, even with a decent OC, and load temps of 80c aren't anything to worry about. Load temps at stock were more like 68c with the fan set to 60%, which is great.
To say you can hit close to 580 speeds for a little over £200 is incredible, if you're on the fence about one of these cards due to the typical flaws of the 480 series then forget about them, they're not an issue here.
The only thing I can't comment on is the power draw, I have no way of measuring the wattage of my system. All the reports I've read has said the later revisions of the 480 are a lot less leaky in regards to power, so as long as you have 600W+ I'm sure you'll be fine. For reference, I have a 750w Cooler Master and have had no problems.
