PRetty much every 6 months the Nvidia guys come around saying the only thing the 480 was mocked for was heat and thus anyone mentioning heat is being hypocritical, unfortunately that ignores the facts of the situation.
The 480gtx was 6+ months late, launched three times effectively, had a WOOD SCREW FAKE paraded around by the man himself(during iirc the first 'launch' which again iirc was soon after the 5870 was available... it was a media stunt to pretend the card was due soon when it wasn't).
After being late it cost significantly more than a 5870 which you could have had for 6months, and WAY more than the fantastic value 5850(which I can't recall if they unlocked to 5870's, or was that 6950's unlocking to 6970's?). The 5850's overclocked like demon spawn, mine hit something nuts like 1150Mhz with low voltage and I never bothered going for significantly higher voltage.
6 months late, was SLOWER than an overclocked 5850, cost over twice as much and the 5970 had already launched meaning it was significantly slower than the fastest single card solution while costing around the same.
On top of all these downsides it was also loud, power hungry etc.
They are worth mentioning but to pretend most AMD users cared significantly about those problems with the card is just ridiculous.
If the 480gtx was out the same time as the 5870, cost say 15% more to be 15% faster, then it would still be louder and hotter... but it would still be a good card. They are facts, that doesn't make them game changers or deal breaking. They were just the 9th and 10th issue in a long list of issues that made the 480gtx a completely unattractive card. In the majority of games it would be harder to tell the difference between a 5870/480gtx than between either card and the midrange card that was 40-50% slower.
It is also why the 980gtx is a bit meh, the power and heat are again way down the list of important factors in the card. It's expensive, VERY expensive for the same ballpark performance as a card out over a year ago that now costs significantly less.
Power and heat being lower would make it a 100% certain buy over a 290x IF it cost the same, it doesn't.
performance with cost factored in are pretty much the two most important factors of a card that 99% of people think about when choosing a card. Other things are way further down the list and make the difference when performance, cost and performance vs cost are equal then you start thinking about other factors.
The 290x has some small downsides but it is still a great card.
