# My production Fermi arrived!



## W1zzard (Apr 9, 2010)

This morning the first of the long awaited retail GeForce GTX 480 cards arrived. The card came from Zotac and photos are below. It is from the same shipment that will be sold on store shelves in the next days. At first glance the card looks completely identical to the NVIDIA press sample, with the exception of some black foam on the back of the card. Another diffence is the BIOS which I put up for download here.

I am told that the reason for the black foam is to ensure some spacing between the cards when running in SLI mode, so that they can breathe. It also acts as safeguard against short circuits which could happen when the metal cooler surface of one card touches the back of the other card.



 

 



*View at TechPowerUp Main Site*


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## trickson (Apr 9, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> This morning the first of the long awaited retail GeForce GTX 480 cards arrived. The card came from Zotac and photos are below. It is from the same shipment that will be sold on store shelves in the next days. At first glance the card looks completely identical to the NVIDIA press sample, with the exception of some black foam on the back of the card. Another diffence is the BIOS which I put up for download here.
> 
> I am told that the reason for the black foam is to ensure some spacing between the cards when running in SLI mode, so that they can breathe. It is also a safeguard against short circuits which could happen when the metal cooler surface of one card touches the back of the other card.
> 
> [url]http://www.techpowerup.com/img/10-04-09/zotac1_thm.jpg[/URL] [url]http://www.techpowerup.com/img/10-04-09/zotac3_thm.jpg[/URL]



BENCHMARKS !!! Give us some scores !!!


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## Black Panther (Apr 9, 2010)

I sense a busy weekend! 

Enjoy the toy


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## W1zzard (Apr 9, 2010)

trickson said:


> BENCHMARKS !!! Give us some scores !!!



i dont expect any change in benchmark results vs. the press samples .. running sli testing now


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## wiak (Apr 9, 2010)

hey i love your wall and your floor w1zzard!
any pic of your workbench?


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Apr 9, 2010)

skeet skeet!


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## Mussels (Apr 9, 2010)

the foam is interesting, if rather... primitive, for the problem with SLI.


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## Sasqui (Apr 9, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> i dont expect any change in benchmark results vs. the press samples .. running sli testing now



 Sweet!  Hopfully an SLI review will follow.

After seeing the four cards in SLI, It'll be interesting to see if the foam will do anything at all - they looked pretty sqeezed together.


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## Dyno (Apr 9, 2010)

trickson said:


> BENCHMARKS !!! Give us some scores !!!



Dude there are MULTIPLY benchmarks on the internet for the GTX 480/470 since a week ago. Where have you been?


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## Kenshai (Apr 9, 2010)

Any teaser on sli performance?


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## Mussels (Apr 9, 2010)

Kenshai said:


> Any teaser on sli performance?



so fast its smokin'

(or maybe thats the PSU...)


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## DOM (Apr 9, 2010)

how many think the foam is going to catch on fire


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## MoonPig (Apr 9, 2010)

When should we expect SLi benchmarks?


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## Mussels (Apr 9, 2010)

DOM said:


> how many think the foam is going to catch on fire



might be used for warranty purposes - if the foams melted, it got too hot.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Apr 9, 2010)

On the pic showing the foam,it looks like they put the sticker over the screw holding the cooler on,i guess they dont want no one changing the cooler.


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## DOM (Apr 9, 2010)

Mussels said:


> might be used for warranty purposes - if the foams melted, it got too hot.





tigger said:


> On the pic showing the foam,it looks like they put the sticker over the screw holding the cooler on,i guess they dont want no one changing the cooler.



so they want these to burn and your going to be out 500 buck cuz you cant put on a better cooler :shadedshu


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## Munki (Apr 9, 2010)

*must retain self....will not have a spaz attack...breath breath* 

I second whoever said that they wanna see pictures of your workbench. I wanna see it too, I'm unsure whether these are elsewhere or not.


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## trickson (Apr 9, 2010)

Why didn't they just put a back cover over it ?? 

I really want to see what it looks like inside your case any chance of getting some pic's . W1zzard ?


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## Mussels (Apr 9, 2010)

Munki said:


> *must retain self....will not have a spaz attack...breath breath*
> 
> I second whoever said that they wanna see pictures of your workbench. I wanna see it too, I'm unsure whether these are elsewhere or not.



i believe that's his kitchen table.


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## trickson (Apr 9, 2010)

Mussels said:


> i believe that's his kitchen table.



Nice ! That is what I use too! I do it to piss the wife off .


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## Munki (Apr 9, 2010)

Mussels said:


> i believe that's his kitchen table.



That's one lucky kitchen table 

thanks.


I wouldn't piss off my wife.....although my mom would get rather upset....LETS DO IT


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## Mussels (Apr 9, 2010)

actually i take that back, might be his kitchen FLOOR - you can see where floor meets wall in the first pic, lol.
Unless its like a bench built into the wall, thats possible too i guess.

anyway, back on topic. burning flaming powerful fermi SLI.


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## trickson (Apr 9, 2010)

Mussels said:


> actually i take that back, might be his kitchen FLOOR - you can see where floor meets wall in the first pic, lol.
> 
> 
> anyway, back on topic. burning flaming powerful fermi SLI.



What I want to know is why they just put a ghetto piece of foam ? when they could have used some kind of cool cover .


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## DailymotionGamer (Apr 9, 2010)

Cool , enjoy it  
I would like to see Crysis in game benchmarks no SLI tho.


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## OnBoard (Apr 9, 2010)

Is it just me or do ZOTAC products always look good? Might be that orange/black combination that's hard to go wrong


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## W1zzard (Apr 9, 2010)

nothing on the screw


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## Mussels (Apr 9, 2010)

trickson said:


> What I want to know is why they just put a ghetto piece of foam ? when they could have used some kind of cool cover .



if they used a backplate the card would be larger, and there'd be no room for air intake in SLI.


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## aCid888* (Apr 9, 2010)

<-  Waiting on SLI results.


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## steelkane (Apr 9, 2010)

cool if they had add-on heat pipes that connected to the other cards for sli or quad setup


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## Deleted member 24505 (Apr 9, 2010)

Thanks W1zzard,it did kinda look like the sticker was on the screw.The piece of foam is,but i guess thats not a problem when replacing the cooler.


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## trickson (Apr 9, 2010)

Mussels said:


> if they used a backplate the card would be larger, and there'd be no room for air intake in SLI.



Yeah well the foam is so ghetto . Looks like some just said here this should do they will buy it up any ways . IDK maybe it is just me but some thing that runs so screaming hot shouldn't be using foam to keep it from contacting the other , But hey who am I to say other wise ? 

I bet one thing is going to happen your power bill is going up ,  Man like running Chernobyl . What kind of cooling are you getting for your room / office ?


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## W1zzard (Apr 9, 2010)

trickson said:


> What kind of cooling are you getting for your room / office ?



feels like a mid-summer day here


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## Deleted member 24505 (Apr 9, 2010)

Does running them in sli noticably warm the room up?


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## trickson (Apr 9, 2010)

tigger said:


> Does running them in sli noticably warm the room up?



Man you bet it does ! I bet at 90*c that room right now is at 29*-30*c ! LOL LIKE an Easy Bake Oven Just put in the loaf and bake !


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## HalfAHertz (Apr 9, 2010)

The black foam is a last moment cheapo solution - totally ghetto modded


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## W1zzard (Apr 9, 2010)

lol can you say epic fail .. i ran single card all day .. for some reason sli was not enabled in the nvidia control panel t.t


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## Mussels (Apr 9, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> lol can you say epic fail .. i ran single card all day .. for some reason sli was not enabled in the nvidia control panel t.t



but at least the second card was keeping you warm, eh?


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## DOM (Apr 9, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> feels like a mid-summer day here


the foam is covering a screw that needs to be taken off to put in an after market cool right


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## trickson (Apr 9, 2010)

HalfAHertz said:


> The black foam is a last moment cheapo solution - totally ghetto modded



Like some engineer came running down the production line saying STOP  !!! You need to put this on ! some dude in the back of the production line is all pissed off he is having to put this POS foam on all the boards coming off the line .


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## MilkyWay (Apr 9, 2010)

Mussels said:


> actually i take that back, might be his kitchen FLOOR - you can see where floor meets wall in the first pic, lol.
> Unless its like a bench built into the wall, thats possible too i guess.
> 
> anyway, back on topic. burning flaming powerful fermi SLI.



I think that is a kitchen counter/worktop meeting the wall, like a granite counter or one of those fake granite ones that's like wood just with a pattern on top.

Could be floors but there is no skirting board in that picture.

So there is no difference in the cards? Just re badged?


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## trickson (Apr 9, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> lol can you say epic fail .. i ran single card all day .. for some reason sli was not enabled in the nvidia control panel t.t



You can fix this MAN this aint nothing you can't handle .


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Apr 9, 2010)

granite is boss


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## DonInKansas (Apr 9, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> lol can you say epic fail .. i ran single card all day .. for some reason sli was not enabled in the nvidia control panel t.t



W1zzard's like "these cards have the worst scaling ever!"

Then comes the check and epic facepalm.


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## OUTSIDE (Apr 9, 2010)

Mine arrive too! This morning!

Here you have a pic:





Direct form manufacturer for review it

ByE!


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## trickson (Apr 9, 2010)

WE want to see some action ! I want to see what they look like all nice and tucked in there home .


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## 95Viper (Apr 9, 2010)

Dyno said:


> Dude there are MULTIPLY benchmarks on the internet for the GTX 480/470 since a week ago. Where have you been?



But, they are only the one's that count and they are the W1zzard's  benches, tests and reviews!



trickson said:


> Why didn't they just put a back cover over it ??





trickson said:


> What I want to know is why they just put a ghetto piece of foam ? when they could have used some kind of cool cover .



Probably,  lowest cost and easier.  Plus a rear cover would reduce air flow and limit access;  would involve more expense to develop it.

Foam can be removed/replaced easier and it probably was in the product bin at the time.


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## erocker (Apr 9, 2010)

..and foam is cheap. These cards are already priced sort of high, no need to add anything fancy to drive the prices up more. Today I saw a few retailers jack up their prices. Buy one now before prices go up further, if you can find one... If you even want to bother.


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## DaveK (Apr 9, 2010)

Yay Fermiiiiiii


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## Black Panther (Apr 9, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> lol can you say epic fail .. i ran single card all day .. for some reason sli was not enabled in the nvidia control panel t.t



I honestly can't understand why the moment a new driver is loaded and you have 2 cards, the Nvidia CP sets default to single card. 

It happened to me a couple of times on the laptop, I'd update the drivers then go straight to benchmark or game, and start thinking that my cards are on the good road to become obsolete. 
Then I'd have a fffuuu moment when I remember that the driver had disabled my SLI and I was running on one card :shadedshu


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## blkhogan (Apr 9, 2010)

So, when does your home version "nuke power plant" show up to power it? W1zz will soon be adding to the global warming problem. Bad W1zz. Killing kittens and puppies to run his new fermi. :shadedshu


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## qubit (Apr 9, 2010)

Rock on W1zzard, enjoy your new toy.  _< qubit is green with envy >_ I wish there was a smiley for that. 

BTW my GTX 285 is a Zotac, too.


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## KainXS (Apr 9, 2010)

I wonder what the power consumption will be, probably about 580 under max stress for both?


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## W1zzard (Apr 9, 2010)

blkhogan said:


> So, when does your home version "nuke power plant" show up to power it? W1zz will soon be adding to the global warming problem. Bad W1zz. Killing kittens and puppies to run his new fermi. :shadedshu


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## Kreij (Apr 9, 2010)

LOL .. we had snow yesterday and a hard frost this morning.
Can you point that thing toward WI ?


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## OUTSIDE (Apr 9, 2010)

My GTX480, at desktop... 54ºC-59ºC

After 3 minutes of 3DMark Vantage... 75ºC

Tomorrow... more 

ByE!


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## Champ (Apr 9, 2010)

[I.R.A]_FBi said:


> skeet skeet!



x2


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## TheMailMan78 (Apr 9, 2010)

Foam? That seems kinda ghetto. I mean it will work fine but......foam? That looks like some kinda half ass mod I would do.

@W1zz: You said the new card you have is a different bios than the press release? Are the temps any better with this new bios?


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## trickson (Apr 9, 2010)

Yeah why not just a piece of electrical tape ? would have done job just as well . LOL it looks so ghetto LOL !


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## Black Panther (Apr 9, 2010)

OUTSIDE said:


> My GTX480, at desktop... 54ºC-59ºC
> 
> After 3 minutes of 3DMark Vantage... 75ºC
> 
> ...



I must say those are good temps.


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## Kantastic (Apr 9, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> I am told that the reason for the black foam is to ensure some spacing between the cards when running in SLI mode, so that they can breathe. It also acts as safeguard against short circuits which could happen when the metal cooler surface of one card touches the back of the other card.



Finally, something done right with this crap card.


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## TheMailMan78 (Apr 9, 2010)

I would have used rubber or something. That would be much better IMO. Foam just seems like "Man we built a badass video card that can run SLI and........DAMN IT if they touch they will fry! Quick cut off a piece of packing foam and give me some Elmer's glue. We got work to do!".

This would also explain why Fermi was 6 months late.


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## EastCoasthandle (Apr 9, 2010)

I think the user OUTSIDE's PC Case allows him to draw air for the video card outside of the case.  Not bad.


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## W1zzard (Apr 9, 2010)

for the record, i think the foam is a good idea that is cheap to add and easy to put on the cards


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## TheMailMan78 (Apr 9, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> for the record, i think the foam is a good idea that is cheap to add and easy to put on the cards



Thats really my only gripe about it. The damn thing looks cheap with it. Other than that its a great idea.


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## imperialreign (Apr 9, 2010)

TheMailMan78 said:


> Thats really my only gripe about it. The damn thing looks cheap with it. Other than that its a great idea.



Yeah, if someone hadn't mentioned it, I would've assumed it was packing foam that somehow stuck to the card . . . 


So, is the PSU squealing for mercy yet?


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## Blacklash (Apr 9, 2010)

Some folks on the EVGA forums are receiving their 480/470s and posting benchmarks.

http://www.evga.com/forums/tt.aspx?forumid=10

Overclocked 480 SLi is delivering 60FPS in Heaven v2 with 4xAA|16xAF and extreme tessellation @ 1920x1080.


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## qubit (Apr 9, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> for the record, i think the foam is a good idea that is cheap to add and easy to put on the cards



I just wonder if the spacing problem could have been solved in a more professional way, perhaps? That foam looks like it is likely to degrade and fall off / break apart with time, especially with the high temperature it's gonna be exposed to all the time.

Perhaps a built-in spacer made of teflon or something would have been better? I mean the card costs enough to buy, so surely spending a tiny bit more to make it would be reasonable?


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## AKlass (Apr 9, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> for the record, i think the foam is a good idea that is cheap to add and easy to put on the cards


I would feel somewhat bothered that a cheap piece of foam is all that is stopping your expensive card for shorting out


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## trickson (Apr 9, 2010)

AKlass said:


> I would feel somewhat bothered that a cheap piece of foam is all that is stopping your expensive card for shorting out


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## Solaris17 (Apr 9, 2010)

AKlass said:


> I would feel somewhat bothered that a cheap piece of foam is all that is stopping your expensive card for shorting out



I dont see how it would anyway. If you use an SLI cable it will force you to space your cards anyway. So I dont think it really matters if you have it in a little crooked. The second you add a second cards It will be spaced


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## REVHEAD (Apr 10, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> for the record, i think the foam is a good idea that is cheap to add and easy to put on the cards



 I think a metal backplane like ATIs would do a better job, and act as a kinda heatsink, but I guess Nvidia want to ramp up profit margins and charge a bomb for there GPU and not force parters into extra costs on referance desighn's.


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## CDdude55 (Apr 10, 2010)

GTX 480 unboxing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGZcafP0kIM&playnext_from=TL&videos=HZvRRFOqb1U&feature=sub


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## SteelSix (Apr 10, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> lol can you say epic fail .. i ran single card all day .. for some reason sli was not enabled in the nvidia control panel t.t



Oops!


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## overclocking101 (Apr 10, 2010)

nice w1zz! some are saying the retail cards run a hair cooler than review samples and they supposedly OC better. can you confirm or deny this w1ZZ??


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## Scrizz (Apr 10, 2010)

meh,


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## Zubasa (Apr 10, 2010)

TheMailMan78 said:


> Thats really my only gripe about it. The damn thing looks cheap with it. Other than that its a great idea.


Exactly, if they want us to pay the big bucks for that card, at lease make it looks high quality.
I just hate it when the Fermi looks so half-assed in terms of cooling. :shadedshu
Everything on that card have a "last minute solution" feeling to it....


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## SteelSix (Apr 10, 2010)

Zubasa said:


> Exactly, if they want us to pay the big bucks for that card, at lease make it looks high quality.
> I just hate it when the Fermi looks so half-assed in terms of cooling. :shadedshu
> Everything on that card have a "last minute solution" feeling to it....



Wow I have to disagree. 480's cooler looks to be very well crafted. Look at wiz's pics, that baseplate is intricate and very well designed. The heatsink is top notch. 470's heatsink is very good quality too. If anything, it's what they're cooling that makes them look bad. Imagine that cooler on a 5870..


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## Zubasa (Apr 10, 2010)

SteelSix said:


> Wow I have to disagree. 480's cooler looks to be very well crafted. Look at wiz's pics, that baseplate is intricate and very well designed. The heatsink is top notch. 470's heatsink is very good quality too. If anything, it's what they're cooling that makes them look bad. Imagine that cooler on a 5870..


Looks can be deceptive. By making the cooler "look good" nVidia hinders its performance.
They could easily make that card run cooler if they remove that 5th heatpipe and make that part of the heatsink as wide as the rest.






They could also use a larger diameter blower which will reduce the noise.





*At last sorry guys for de-railing this thread. :shadedshu*


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## gigabit942007 (Apr 10, 2010)

i think they put that piece of foam just to piss of people *WTF!! a piece of sticky foam?*


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## EarlZ (Apr 10, 2010)

@Zubasa

Nvidia needs guys like you to design their heatsink


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## R_1 (Apr 10, 2010)

It is well designed, just needs some steroids, because can't keep up with the GF100 TDP.


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## Kaleid (Apr 10, 2010)

Seems to me that the all too tightly spaced fins require a high RPM fan...
I just hate the idea of using the stock cooler because not only will it be noisy but it will also trap in tons of dust into it in the end.

Stock coolers are generally epic failures.. :shadedshu


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## SteelSix (Apr 10, 2010)

EarlZ said:


> @Zubasa
> 
> Nvidia needs guys like you to design their heatsink



Nice work Zubasa, I see what you mean about 480's heatsink. They could have greatly increased 480's fin surface area. It looks like they were thinking more about SLI interface clearance than maximum fin surface area. Damn nice spot.

I hadn't considered the fan diameter either. They have room for a larger diameter fan. Yep, nice work sir..


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## vagxtr (Apr 10, 2010)

Zubasa said:


> Looks can be deceptive. By making the cooler "look good" nVidia hinders its performance.
> They could easily make that card run cooler if they remove that 5th heatpipe and make that part of the heatsink as wide as the rest.
> 
> 
> They could also use a larger diameter blower which will reduce the noise.



While i agree that they could use a Much Better Cooler, concerned not only to that 10x60mm alu fins that they sliced out, for 250W+ power hungry monster (even if it was only 210-220W). I think you're on wrong path if you think that HP reduction would improve situation at all. TR HR-03 Plus popular in times when first power hungry monster 8800Ultra arrived, had 6 heatpipes specially for these babies and was much larger. And you still needed high CFM fan blower to cool it down.

As 80mm fan goes. It's pretty standard as no G80/GT200 chip hasnt have better stock alike blower. These kind of things arent produced in as many aftermarket sizes as other fans and 100mm is first in line and it would probably mess up with pcb layout. And they're simply not interested to design special fans just for overclockers dream cards like GTX280/GTX480 that are produced in extremely low volumes.

Maybe MSI gives us one of theirs *OC SuperPipe* editions like their GTX285


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## HalfAHertz (Apr 10, 2010)

I agree. The problem with the GTX480 isn't the cooler, it's the chip. We can't but help it to always compare it to a dual chip solution, not only because it delivers similar performance but because it runs just as hot, there's no denying the fact - it produces just as much hea if not more. But the problem is that unlike a dual chip solution, where you have the luxury to dissipate the heat from each chip separately, it focuses all that heat in one point and it;s only natural that  the less hinders heat dissipation.


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## Zubasa (Apr 10, 2010)

vagxtr said:


> While i agree that they could use a Much Better Cooler, concerned not only to that 10x60mm alu fins that they sliced out, for 250W+ power hungry monster (even if it was only 210-220W). I think you're on wrong path if you think that HP reduction would improve situation at all. TR HR-03 Plus popular in times when first power hungry monster 8800Ultra arrived, had 6 heatpipes specially for these babies and was much larger. And you still needed high CFM fan blower to cool it down.
> 
> As 80mm fan goes. It's pretty standard as no G80/GT200 chip hasnt have better stock alike blower. These kind of things arent produced in as many aftermarket sizes as other fans and 100mm is first in line and it would probably mess up with pcb layout. And they're simply not interested to design special fans just for overclockers dream cards like GTX280/GTX480 that are produced in extremely low volumes.


Oh I was just pointing out some of the most apparent problems.
The fins can easily be extended towards the fan for at lease 1/2 an inch.
As for the heatpipes, their job is only to help heat transfer, if the fins can't cool down fast enough more heatpipes are just useless.
Thermalright is known for designing top notch coolers, and it is not the number of HPs that makes them so good.



HalfAHertz said:


> I agree. The problem with the GTX480 isn't the cooler, it's the chip. We can't but help it to always compare it to a dual chip solution, not only because it delivers similar performance but because it runs just as hot, there's no denying the fact - it produces just as much hea if not more. But the problem is that unlike a dual chip solution, where you have the luxury to dissipate the heat from each chip separately, it focuses all that heat in one point and it;s only natural that  the less hinders heat dissipation.


The cooler certainly have something to do with it.
You make a hot chip, you better get us to STFU with a good cooler.
If nVidia actually put more effort in the cooling and manage to cool this thing down, I will hardly have much to bitch about.


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## OUTSIDE (Apr 10, 2010)

NEW TEMPS!

With ONE monitor:

IDLE with 100% FAN: 35ºC!
IDLE with AUTO-fan: 43ºC!

Core -> 51MHz / Shader -> 101MHz / Mem -> 135MHz

With TWO monitor:

IDLE with 100% FAN: 42ºC!
IDLE with AUTO-fan: 72ºC!

Core -> 405MHz / Shader -> 810MHz / Mem -> 1848MHz

In furmark... NOT PASSES THAN 88ºC!

All that it's mounted "in the air": not in a case.

ByE!


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## KainXS (Apr 10, 2010)

what??? you have the core at what


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## trickson (Apr 10, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> This morning the first of the long awaited retail GeForce GTX 480 cards arrived. The card came from Zotac and photos are below. It is from the same shipment that will be sold on store shelves in the next days. At first glance the card looks completely identical to the NVIDIA press sample, with the exception of some black foam on the back of the card. Another diffence is the BIOS which I put up for download here.
> 
> I am told that the reason for the black foam is to ensure some spacing between the cards when running in SLI mode, so that they can breathe. It also acts as safeguard against short circuits which could happen when the metal cooler surface of one card touches the back of the other card.
> 
> [url]http://www.techpowerup.com/img/10-04-09/zotac1_thm.jpg[/URL] [url]http://www.techpowerup.com/img/10-04-09/zotac3_thm.jpg[/URL] [url]http://www.techpowerup.com/img/10-04-09/zotac5_thm.jpg[/URL]



My question is how well is this one holding true to your previous review ? Performance wise and heat wise ? 
Is it now working in SLI mode ? and if so any chance to see some pic's of the final install ?


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## mdsx1950 (Apr 10, 2010)

OUTSIDE said:


> NEW TEMPS!
> 
> With ONE monitor:
> 
> ...



Wow. The core, shader, memory speeds suck but the temps are so high?? I gotta say... What the fuck is that?????  

P.S : Is that real?


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## Deleted member 24505 (Apr 10, 2010)

OUTSIDE said:


> NEW TEMPS!
> 
> With ONE monitor:
> 
> ...



You can sure see it dont like running two monitors.


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## trickson (Apr 10, 2010)

Yeah all this is much ado about nothing ! 
I mean I want pictures posted up lets see what they look like in SLI show some screen shots of benchmarks and temps ! Come on we know you did a review but lets see some action now with non reference cards !


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## twistedneck (Apr 10, 2010)

TheMailMan78 said:


> I would have used rubber or something. That would be much better IMO. Foam just seems like "Man we built a badass video card that can run SLI and........DAMN IT if they touch they will fry! Quick cut off a piece of packing foam and give me some Elmer's glue. We got work to do!".
> 
> This would also explain why Fermi was 6 months late.



Typical production start up - you dont know how the launch will work out until the actual cards start coming in.. engineers have years of lessons learned, but its impossible to stuff them all inside your brain. even the so called proven design methods go out the window when you are late - when that $ / month delay figure gets pinned on you.

I have been there, am there now with a product launch. not electronics but another part. still, its the same thing - humans can only remember 5 things at once.


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## Black Panther (Apr 10, 2010)

OUTSIDE said:


> NEW TEMPS!
> 
> With ONE monitor:
> 
> ...



The stock speeds for the GTX 480 are core 750Mhz 700Mhz, Mem 3800Mhz.
I'm assuming that you either made a lot of typos here, or you purposely underclocked the card to get low temperatures


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## KainXS (Apr 10, 2010)

stock is 700 panth


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## DOM (Apr 10, 2010)

in idle NVIDIA runs the card at clocks of 50 MHz core, 68 MHz memory and 100 MHz shaders!


from wiz review didnt any of you look at it ? noobs


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## sneekypeet (Apr 10, 2010)

n00bs my foot, who cares about idle temps From what he is showing my 275 runs hotter


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## TheMailMan78 (Apr 10, 2010)

I want screens.


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## erocker (Apr 10, 2010)

OUTSIDE said:


> NEW TEMPS!
> 
> With ONE monitor:
> 
> ...



Sounds awesome, could we have a screenshot or two?  Your idle temps with your fan on AUTO is lower than every review I've seen on the internet!


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## WSP (Apr 10, 2010)

maybe that has got to do with ambient temp?


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## Assimilator (Apr 10, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> I honestly can't understand why the moment a new driver is loaded and you have 2 cards, the Nvidia CP sets default to single card.
> 
> It happened to me a couple of times on the laptop, I'd update the drivers then go straight to benchmark or game, and start thinking that my cards are on the good road to become obsolete.
> Then I'd have a fffuuu moment when I remember that the driver had disabled my SLI and I was running on one card :shadedshu



Ah yeah, reminds me of the days of quad SLI'd 7950 GX2s... every time I installed a new driver performance would go down and only then would I remember to manually go into the nVidia CP and enable Quad SLI.

Even better, with a 9800 GX2 it defaults to PhsyX enabled and SLI disabled... WHY???


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## fritoking (Apr 10, 2010)

erocker said:


> Sounds awesome, could we have a screenshot or two?  Your idle temps with your fan on AUTO is lower than every review I've seen on the internet!



so its mounted in a  benching type case  ?no sides ? no "oven effect?"...at least thats what i am assuming when you say "in air...not in a case"  which would explain the lower temps....lol...i quoted the wrong comment....heres the one i meant to quote....
 Originally Posted by OUTSIDE  View Post
NEW TEMPS!

With ONE monitor:

IDLE with 100% FAN: 35ºC!
IDLE with AUTO-fan: 43ºC!

Core -> 51MHz / Shader -> 101MHz / Mem -> 135MHz

With TWO monitor:

IDLE with 100% FAN: 42ºC!
IDLE with AUTO-fan: 72ºC!

Core -> 405MHz / Shader -> 810MHz / Mem -> 1848MHz

In furmark... NOT PASSES THAN 88ºC!

All that it's mounted "in the air": not in a case.


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## PopcornMachine (Apr 10, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> I am told that the reason for the black foam is to ensure some spacing between the cards when running in SLI mode, so that they can breathe. It also acts as safeguard against short circuits which could happen when the metal cooler surface of one card touches the back of the other card.



While that explanation makes sense, my question to the one giving it is why hasn't this ever been necessary on any other graphics card?

More likely it's a lame attempt to prevent a SLI caused china syndrome event.


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## PopcornMachine (Apr 10, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> for the record, i think the foam is a good idea that is cheap to add and easy to put on the cards



Again, never ever been needed on any other card before...that I know of.  Doesn't that strike you as a little odd?


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## Black Panther (Apr 10, 2010)

No one can appreciate the 'foam' until it's function is tested and tried in an SLI setup...


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## ShiBDiB (Apr 11, 2010)

REVHEAD said:


> I think a metal backplane like ATIs would do a better job, and act as a kinda heatsink, but I guess Nvidia want to ramp up profit margins and charge a bomb for there GPU and not force parters into extra costs on referance desighn's.



Troll go awayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy... mods?


but where r the wizz benches dammit


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## Duffman (Apr 11, 2010)

Personally I think the 480 looks pretty cool.  Even if the foam is an after thought, at least they thought about it and prevent possible embarrassment in the future if people's SLI rigs start catching fire from short circuits...


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## OnBoard (Apr 11, 2010)

OUTSIDE said:


> With ONE monitor:
> 
> IDLE with 100% FAN: 35ºC!
> IDLE with AUTO-fan: 43ºC!
> ...





Black Panther said:


> The stock speeds for the GTX 480 are core 750Mhz, Mem 3800Mhz.
> I'm assuming that you either made a lot of typos here, or you purposely underclocked the card to get low temperatures



No typo there, that what happens to clock speeds when you plug in second monitor. Wish W1z would add two monitor testing on the power consumption pages as this happens on all GDDR5 cards. As in, stick another monitor in and 2D clocks/voltages are gone.

At least NVIDIA "improved", Fermi goes to video clocks, while my GTX 280 goes straight to 3D clocks.


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## Relayer (Apr 11, 2010)

nVidia changed the bios on the retail cards from what was on the review samples. To lower temps they sped up fan speeds. legit reviews

kinda contradicts the, " Don't worry they're designed to run hot", response from nVidia when they were originally queried about temps. Now it'll be, "They aren't loud the fans are designed to sound that way".


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## Hayder_Master (Apr 11, 2010)

Mussels said:


> the foam is interesting, if rather... primitive, for the problem with SLI.





Sasqui said:


> Sweet!  Hopfully an SLI review will follow.
> 
> After seeing the four cards in SLI, It'll be interesting to see if the foam will do anything at all - they looked pretty sqeezed together.





Kenshai said:


> Any teaser on sli performance?





MoonPig said:


> When should we expect SLi benchmarks?





aCid888* said:


> <-  Waiting on SLI results.




just hold on to the next wave, i mean next release cuz first release is very limited im glad to see w1zzard get one first, cuz i knew there is only 10,000 GPU will be sell in the hole world


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## OUTSIDE (Apr 11, 2010)

I will try upload screens today.

These clocks are because it enter to 2D mode when you are at Desktop, in IDLE.

ByE!


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## Black Panther (Apr 11, 2010)

Thanks for explaining OUTSIDE.
Tbh though we here are more interested in the_ load_ temperatures...


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## OUTSIDE (Apr 11, 2010)

Black Panther said:


> Thanks for explaining OUTSIDE.
> Tbh though we here are more interested in the_ load_ temperatures...



LOAD? Gaming (like FarCry2), with the FAN at 100% not passes than 56ºC. With automatic-fan not passes than 85ºC. In furmark... not arrive to 90ºC.

ByE!


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## Kantastic (Apr 11, 2010)

ShiBDiB said:


> Troll go awayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy... mods?
> 
> 
> but where r the wizz benches dammit



Meh... despite his post being a little eccentric, I think the guy's got a point. You have a high-end card with a fancypants heatsink sold at a premium price... then you have this little piece of foam on the back? Sorta throws the entire image off doesn't it?

Oh and people, stop asking for SLI reviews or W1z is going to crack another bad joke *not* on April Fools day, this time he'll be selling the site to the MSI forum dude who started the 'RTFM' joke, THEN we're in trouble. With all kidding aside, W1z is going to get to it like he always does... just wait.


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## Zubasa (Apr 11, 2010)

Kantastic said:


> Meh... despite his post being a little eccentric, I think the guy's got a point. You have a high-end card with a fancypants heatsink sold at a premium price... then you have this little piece of foam on the back? Sorta throws the entire image off doesn't it?
> 
> Oh and people, stop asking for SLI reviews or W1z is going to crack another bad joke *not* on April Fools day, this time he'll be selling the site to the MSI forum dude who started the 'RTFM' joke, THEN we're in trouble. With all kidding aside, W1z is going to get to it like he always does... just wait.


Nah, asking W1z for a SLI review just shows that we like his reviews


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## DOM (Apr 11, 2010)

he siad he was already going to do SLI, but idk about a review lol


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## Judas (Apr 11, 2010)

DOM said:


> how many think the foam is going to catch on fire



Maybe the card comes with a fire extinguisher


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## Kenshai (Apr 11, 2010)

PopcornMachine said:


> Again, never ever been needed on any other card before...that I know of.  Doesn't that strike you as a little odd?



Umm, throw out another reference design heatsink that has metal on the exterior? Everything uses plastic shrouds which won't cause an issue with shorts.



hayder.master said:


> just hold on to the next wave, i mean next release cuz first release is very limited im glad to see w1zzard get one first, cuz i knew there is only 10,000 GPU will be sell in the hole world



Where did this number come from?


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## Benetanegia (Apr 11, 2010)

Kenshai said:


> Where did this number come from?



Charlie Demerjian.


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## shevanel (Apr 12, 2010)

> this just in!
> 
> Toyota has implemented a new heavy duty foam strip to apply to all bumpers for model later than Feb 10
> 
> This foam strip is to reduce impact of a collision just incase the accelerator pedal sticks and the user cannot slow the vehicle in time.





> In other news, Mdonalds has been accused of injecting crystal meth into it's hamburgers. sources say that Mcdonalds injected the crack to keep people from gaining weight.



WTF does this foam strip really do? If OUTSIDES temps are so low as they are then why the hell is this strip even there? To prevent short circuiting? Ummm... What?

is it really because of that metallic grid on the front ?


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## Zubasa (Apr 12, 2010)

shevanel said:


> WTF does this foam strip really do? If OUTSIDES temps are so low as they are then why the hell is this strip even there? To prevent short circuiting? Ummm... What?
> 
> is it really because of that metallic grid on the front ?


That metallic grill is actually part of the heatsink 
The heatsink design is kind of a dumb idea if you ask me.


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## tkpenalty (Apr 12, 2010)

I'm bamboozled over how much discussion there has been over one foam strip


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## option350z (Apr 12, 2010)

I wonder how long till one of these cards die in Sli. I've seen a gtx 280 go out pretty quickly. W1zzard, I hope you can do a review soon.


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## shevanel (Apr 12, 2010)

Isnt the product supposed to really hit the stores hard tomorrow, the 12th?


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## Mussels (Apr 12, 2010)

shevanel said:


> WTF does this foam strip really do? If OUTSIDES temps are so low as they are then why the hell is this strip even there? To prevent short circuiting? Ummm... What?
> 
> is it really because of that metallic grid on the front ?



also remember that the cards beeeeend and sag. if the top card sagged down, it'd have no air intake  - it'd be sucking on the back of the bottom card.


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## DOM (Apr 12, 2010)

shevanel said:


> Isnt the product supposed to really hit the stores hard tomorrow, the 12th?


yes there going to be sold tomorrow, i say there not even going to be in stock for long 



Mussels said:


> also remember that the cards beeeeend and sag. if the top card sagged down, it'd have no air intake  - it'd be sucking on the back of the bottom card.



its going to be sucking hot air no matter what  its so the grill/hs wont short out the 2nd card, its to give it the clearance it needs


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## Mussels (Apr 12, 2010)

DOM said:


> its going to be sucking hot air no matter what  its so the grill/hs wont short out the 2nd card, its to give it the clearance it needs



there is a difference between sucking hot air, and sucking NO air.


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## DOM (Apr 12, 2010)

Mussels said:


> there is a difference between sucking hot air, and sucking NO air.



are you sure  

i just wanna see of wiz does a SLI review see if the top cards goes past 100c


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## Bundy (Apr 12, 2010)

DOM said:


> its going to be sucking hot air no matter what  its so the grill/hs wont short out the 2nd card, its to give it the clearance it needs



The foam piece is positioned so that the intake would not draw a lot from the hot zone. Well it seems like that for me.


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## caleb (Apr 12, 2010)

Attaching foam to direct air ? I wont believe that one. I think its just because a lot of computer cases now dont use screws for slot cards but have some fancy locking plates and they (specially the cheapo cases) tend not to keep everything as they should (90 degree gfx/mobo angle) hence a piece of foam just to help you *position* (NOT HOLD IT) the card properly.


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## DOM (Apr 12, 2010)

Bundy said:


> The foam piece is positioned so that the intake would not draw a lot from the hot zone. Well it seems like that for me.



the whole card gets hot so i dont think it matters lol


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## OnBoard (Apr 12, 2010)

Hmm, lots of foam theories, when W1zzard said in the review that it's for SLI not to short back of the card with front.

It's not really a new concept, NB coolers have had similar things as well. One uses zip-ties in the corners as insulators for not shorting GPU.


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## Hayder_Master (Apr 12, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> http://img.techpowerup.org/100409/Capture652.gif



, w1zzaed you remember me of old our lair minister,when i seen the fu**ing U.S M1A1 in my street and this man show in T.V "we push U.S forces 100KM away from baghdad"


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## R_1 (Apr 13, 2010)

OUTSIDE said:


> NEW TEMPS!
> 
> With ONE monitor:
> 
> ...



Man, what is the actual RPM of that Delta fan on 100%? I can imagine somewhere around 5000-6000RPM. IDLE with 100% fan on 5000+ RPM? It must be 55+ dbA at this particular fan setting.


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## MoonPig (Apr 13, 2010)

I have 3 deltas and their 4000RPM. If the GTX480 sounds like a delta, then all i can say is "fail".


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