Sorry, I didn't make myself quite clear enough. Although heat is proportional to power, that only works with identical items.
Efficiency plays a massive role. For example a 60W fluorescent bulb does not generate the same amount of heat as a normal filament light bulb. AGreed?
The gtx480's have much beefier heatsinks and coolers than the gtx 280's ever did. Reason? They generate more heat. That does not necessarily means it consumes more power.
No, sorry, you're completely wrong. a 60W energy saving bulb produces exactly the same amount of heat as a 60W normal bulb, however a 15W energy saving bulb gives off a similar light to the 60W normal bulb but puts out less heat, because its using less power.
A 280GTX mobile processor, which afaik a 280m was massively cut down, probably did not use 100W, though I can't remember anything specific about it to be honest.
The 480GTX runs hotter than a 280GTX because it uses more power, the temperature is neither here nor there.
Under watercooling the 480gtx doesn't get much hotter than a 5870 under load under water cooling, its the heatsink/shroud/blower style thats beyond its limits and causes the high temperature, not the power. Its got roughly 60% higher power usage thana 5870, and 60-70% higher surface area to transfer that heat from, meaning if you can remove the heat effectively theres not going to be a huge amount of difference.
Thing is, a 352SP 465gtx can barely beat a 275gtx, what about one clocked almost half as fast, its not going to be faster than a 9800gtx+ to be honest, and isn't that exaclty what Nvidia has been using as their top end mobile gpu anyway, except with far lower power output.
As with so many other things, its more important to MARKET the availability of new products, than for them to be viable options or sell large amounts.
They don't want people to say "Fermi's so hot you can't even get a laptop version" , so they throw a bit of money/help to a few companies to make a few showcase laptops, lets be honest, a Clevo 480M sli laptop isn't going to be selling by the thousands.
