• 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.

gtx 480 - power hungry?

It is a well known fact these cards are power hungry and run hot. However, it remains a fast card even though it is 3 years since launch. Not many can claim that.
 
My main gaming PC is still running with a GTX 470 and I'd agree that by all accounts it is fairly power hungry/hot and the fan noise is very noticeable when gaming.

Having said that I'm still happy with it's performance gaming at 1080p 3 years after buying it so can't really complain!
 
Still a great card, it does run hot on stock cooling but power consumption isn't as high as people or Nvidia make it out to be. I'm pulling less than 600w from the wall with my two in SLI and a overclocked 2700k. I have them under water and the hottest I've seen the top card was 53c :)

It's so good in fact that I bought another for a smaller HTPC build while OC had them going cheap.

I've undervolted 3D clocks down to .987v and Idle down to .825v and it's knocked a fair bit off temps and power consumption :)
 
Last edited:
They are power hungry.
They are not as power hungry as people make out.

It is one of those cards that used more power then the competition back when it came out so people acted like it was a big deal when in fact it was approx 10% - 15% difference max.
 
thanks for this guys, just the guy that was gonna swap me a 7870 isnt too sure now, so im just looking at keeping it or selling it on the MM when i gain access. probably be the latter to be honest, Id prefer to run Displayport. thanks
 
It is a well known fact these cards are power hungry and run hot. However, it remains a fast card even though it is 3 years since launch. Not many can claim that.

Hit the nail on the head there, 3yrs old or not its like the best thing since sliced bread to me at the moment lol
 
GTX 480 is one of the best cards I've owned. I bought one new for an absolute bargain just as the 580 came out. It had the first Windforce 3 cooler and as a result didn't run that hot at all even overclocked.

I wouldn't get one now though, obviously. Time moves on quick in GPU land.
 
I had a gigabyte super overclock GTX480. It ran cool, quiet and was bought when approximately half price. One of the very best cards I've owned. Eventually it started to artifact a little more than to my liking, so it was replaced with a GTX570 SOC - which was even better in every way, though on paper it looked as if it was a tight replacement. If that had had something around 30% more grunt, then I'd probably still be using it now. Fairly big 'if', though.
 
Back
Top Bottom