# The GTX 400 owners club!



## johnspack (Sep 30, 2012)

Now that prices for GTX480 ect have been slashed,  many people who couldn't afford these cards before,  now can!  This series,  especially the 470/480s require a few tricks to oc and get the most out of them.  This club is for discussion on how to deal with the the GTX 400 series.  I receive a brand new EVGA GTX480 in the morning.  Let the games begin!

Member List:

cdawall - 3 gtx470s
clayomax - 2 gtx480s
Maban - 2 gtx470s
rangerone766 - 1 gtx470
Flibolito - 1 gtx480
johnspack - 2 gtx480
[Ion] - 2 gtx460s 1 gtx470
Wrigleyvillain - 1 gtx480
TB13 - 1 gtx480
trt740 - 1 gtx480 1 gtx460
Athlonx2 - 2 gtx470
rainbow dash - 3 gtx470
GreiverBlade - 1 gtx460 1 gtx480
Jstn7477 - 1 gts450 4 gtx460 1 gtx465 1 gtx470
XL-R8R - 1 gtx460


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## cdawall (Sep 30, 2012)

In with my couple of 470's.


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## johnspack (Sep 30, 2012)

I'll try to add some structure to this thread when I get time.  For now,  just list which card you have,  maybe add a screenshot of gpuz.  Perhaps we could show our max stable oces,  and maybe a Vantage run!
Let's add 3DMark11 scores as well!


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## johnspack (Sep 30, 2012)

First discussion I'd like to have,  is what bios to use for unlocking voltage on my EVGA card.  Any ideas,  please throw them out!


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## cdawall (Sep 30, 2012)

Should be the evga superclock bios.


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## sneekypeet (Sep 30, 2012)

all three of the 470s I had from EVGA were ready to go with voltage, you just had to turn on the over voltage in MSI AB.


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## claylomax (Sep 30, 2012)

I swear there was a thread about 400 series ... 
Anyway, I'm in.
Two reference GTX 480
Stock clocks
Stock voltage (load): 0.987v


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## johnspack (Sep 30, 2012)

Nice,  and I tried to find a clubhouse,  but only one for gtx460 owners....
or,  that's all I could find....


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## johnspack (Sep 30, 2012)

And clayomax,  that looks like a nice vid,  have you tried to oc those things?  Although with 2,  not much point....


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## claylomax (Sep 30, 2012)

johnspack said:


> And clayomax,  that looks like a nice vid,  have you tried to oc those things?  Although with 2,  not much point....



Most of the GTX 480 have this voltage. Some batches at launch needed a higher voltage to reach stock clocks resulting in rather hot and noisy cards (especially some EVGA) with little room for overclocking. If your card has a 0.987 voltage you can expect it to do 800mhz at minimum. The highest I reached was 921mhz with 1.138v and the fans at 100%. Don't bother with the memory, it won't overclock well and adds heat to the card preventing you from reaching a higher core clock, at least this is my experience.


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## Maban (Sep 30, 2012)

I have two GTX470's folding in my spare right now. Both are at their max stock voltage stable 725MHz. One at 1.037v and the other at 0.987v.


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## cdawall (Sep 30, 2012)

downloading vantage as we speak since my DVD copy is a bit old...






Trying those clocks until I get on water.


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## johnspack (Sep 30, 2012)

claylomax said:


> Most of the GTX 480 have this voltage. Some batches at launch needed a higher voltage to reach stock clocks resulting in rather hot and noisy cards (especially some EVGA) with little room for overclocking. If your card has a 0.987 voltage you can expect it to do 800mhz at minimum. The highest I reached was 921mhz with 1.138v and the fans at 100%. Don't bother with the memory, it won't overclock well and adds heat to the card preventing you from reaching a higher core clock, at least this is my experience.



Yeah I figured since they use slower clocking ddr5 ram on these,  ocing them is just going to make heat.  Wish it was faster ram.  So I'm hoping I've got a newer stock card with the low voltage...  crossing fingers!


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## cdawall (Sep 30, 2012)

Phsyx is off for this one


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## johnspack (Sep 30, 2012)

Nice,  now I'd like to see if physx runs better on 4 series than 2 series!


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## johnspack (Sep 30, 2012)

Okay,  my basemark...  my sli gtx285s at stock.  I'll compare to my gtx480 tomorrow:




And yes,  physx is on,  I'll have to do a 2nd without.
Edit:  okay that's my 285s at max oc actually...  forgot to downclock them.  Sad kind of....
Edit2:  I'm going to add 3dmark11 as well.
Edit3:  cdawall,  my test at extreme shows 1920x1200 res,  what is yours?
Edit4:  Default settings as presented by Vantage for my system:


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## claylomax (Oct 1, 2012)

johnspack said:


> Okay,  my basemark...  my sli gtx285s at stock.  I'll compare to my gtx480 tomorrow:
> http://img.techpowerup.org/120930/Sli285s.png
> And yes,  physx is on,  I'll have to do a 2nd without.
> Edit:  okay that's my 285s at max oc actually...  forgot to downclock them.  Sad kind of....
> ...



Extreme on Vantage is 1900x1200 if I remember well.


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## cdawall (Oct 1, 2012)

johnspack said:


> Edit3: cdawall, my test at extreme shows 1920x1200 res, what is yours?



Mines normal extreme settings. Only thing I didn't do was run the feature tests since they don't affect the score.






Remember my cards are@800mhz as well that's a pretty sizable overclock.


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## cdawall (Oct 1, 2012)

Just ordered my 3 monitors and wall mounts for NV surround. Can't wait for them all to show up 

3 of these

HP L2045w Black-Silver 20.1" 5ms Widescreen LCD Mo...

1 of these

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=VIV-LWM-26&cat=MON

2 of these

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=STV1024M&cat=MON


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## rangerone766 (Oct 2, 2012)

this is my max benchable single 470, under water ofcourse-







this is my 24/7 gaming settings-





Uploaded with ImageShack.us

it plays battlefield 3 just fine with high settings and 1920x1080. i had a second for sli, but i just wasnt happy with the increase i got. with vsync on, i run steady 60fps. no reason to upgrade yet, as much as i want to.


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## cdawall (Oct 2, 2012)

I can't wait to see what mine do under water. I'm tempted to volt mod the memory up since the Asus card sucks.


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## johnspack (Oct 2, 2012)

Arg,  one more day for me I think.  It seems Ncix is successfully clearing out stock on these...  none left in BC,  so they finally shipped one from Ontario.  So my 480 is currently on a cross-Canada trip!


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## Flibolito (Oct 2, 2012)

got time to tinker with it tomorrow?


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## johnspack (Oct 2, 2012)

Of course!  The wait is killing me....  Looks like getting a 2nd one is going to be a pain.


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## rangerone766 (Oct 2, 2012)

i did mod the bios on my gtx470 to allow higher voltage. i can max it at 1.212 volts. but i game at 1.175 and 900mhz on the core and 1076mhz on the ram. but if i push things any higher i get random crashes in bf3. temps never go above 55-58c under water. but really i have no need to go higher the game runs smooth and looks great.


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## johnspack (Oct 2, 2012)

Yeah,  I'm confused about the max volts for a 480.  It looks like either 1.13 or 1.15?  I might have to mod the bios as well.  Until I get the 2nd one,  I'll be pushing this one!


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## Wrigleyvillain (Oct 2, 2012)

Indeed...a few months ago I wanted to try the NV drivers again (mainly dude to handling AA better in BF3) plus have a little bit more VRAM and a $200 GTX 480 was just the ticket. It has been one of the better bang-for-buck single card options for some time now.


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## johnspack (Oct 2, 2012)

Yep,  still pretty much a top dog card,  but now at an entry level price!  I think stocks are starting to get low though,  so grab one while you can everyone.
Edit:  realized I will finally be able to max out textures ect in ROF,  takes well over 1gb ram.  Man I can't wait to get my hands on this card!


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## johnspack (Oct 2, 2012)

Got a question for current owners...  if I run 2 monitors off it,  will it still downclock?  Or do I have to add a 2nd card like a 260 to run it,  or use inspector to force it?
Edit:  and for that matter,  would adding a 260 help at all with physx,  or is that pointless?  I know the 4 series has improved cuda performance,  so not sure.


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## cdawall (Oct 2, 2012)

johnspack said:


> Got a question for current owners...  if I run 2 monitors off it,  will it still downclock?  Or do I have to add a 2nd card like a 260 to run it,  or use inspector to force it?
> Edit:  and for that matter,  would adding a 260 help at all with physx,  or is that pointless?  I know the 4 series has improved cuda performance,  so not sure.



Add the GTX260 for physx. My 9800GT helped vs not having a physx card at all.

As for down clocking 2 monitors forces low power 3d clocks







the idle card in sli however still goes to base 2d clocks


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## johnspack (Oct 2, 2012)

Hmm,  images are showing only black...


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## Wrigleyvillain (Oct 2, 2012)

Man A dude a XS tried to sell a 580 *with* an EK block for 6 weeks and it dropped form $275 to $175 before it finally went. I missed it. :/


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## cdawall (Oct 2, 2012)

johnspack said:


> Hmm,  images are showing only black...



That's odd used tpu capture for them I will try uploading them again later.






There we go dual monitor card on the left single monitor card on the right.


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## johnspack (Oct 3, 2012)

My new basemark.  My sli gtx285s and cpu @ 4.15ghz:


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## cdawall (Oct 3, 2012)

Ordered another GTX 470. At some point I will have to try 3 way sli, but for now it will be in my deployment box.


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## johnspack (Oct 4, 2012)

Nice!  I'd like to see the results of tri-sli with these.  I do have a tri-sli capable mobo...  but no nuclear reactor to power them.  My patience with Canada Post is wearing thin,  still no card.  But it was processed this morning,  and is probably on the local delivery truck right now.  I have zero patience as it is...  this is driving me nuts!


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## cdawall (Oct 4, 2012)

johnspack said:


> Nice!  I'd like to see the results of tri-sli with these.  I do have a tri-sli capable mobo...  but no nuclear reactor to power them.  My patience with Canada Post is wearing thin,  still no card.  But it was processed this morning,  and is probably on the local delivery truck right now.  I have zero patience as it is...  this is driving me nuts!



I don't have a board or powersupply for it but I will snag some bits and bobs while deployed to finish it up. Then again I am bidding on another card on fleabay so it might happen sooner.


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## Wrigleyvillain (Oct 4, 2012)

Yeah the power req's are probably gonna keep me from 480 SLI, to say nothing of tri. Also going mini-itx soon anyway.


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## cdawall (Oct 4, 2012)

Wrigleyvillain said:


> Yeah the power req's are probably gonna keep me from 480 SLI, to say nothing of tri. Also going mini-itx soon anyway.



I want to pick on of these up and run a pair of the TPQ-850's I like the racing stripes


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## johnspack (Oct 4, 2012)

Okay,  with my cpu backed down to 4ghz,  and the 480 at stock settings,  it already takes out my sli 285s!  Oh,  and I finally get to join my own club!




Oh,  and check out the vid on this thing...  lots of room there!


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## johnspack (Oct 4, 2012)

Still at stock vid:


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## johnspack (Oct 4, 2012)

Oh c'mon really?  50% faster than my sli 285s already,  with a small voltage bump..  last post for now,  I have to go game some now!


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## cdawall (Oct 4, 2012)

Looks good now run with physx on the cpu already


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## VulkanBros (Oct 4, 2012)

Ohh....found my old ASUS GTX480.....and yes now I remember...It was running hot like hell..

I bought a Accelero Xtreme PLUS II - took down the tempertures as much as 24 degrees celsius.....and was quiet compared to the ASUS stock cooler....

Actually a great card......


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## johnspack (Oct 4, 2012)

Yes,  I can confirm it now.  Just threw a very high resourse game at it,  and at my current settings,  my 480 demolishes my sli 285 setup.  In every way.  High max,  and min fps.  And I still have more oc headroom to go!  Yes cdawall,  I'll retest without physx,  I just need to game for a bit first!


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## johnspack (Oct 4, 2012)

Sorry,  still game testing...  just threw a game that could bring my 285s into the 30s in some scenes,  this thing is like 50-70 in the same game.  And that's running the game in dx11 mode.  Wow.


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## Wrigleyvillain (Oct 4, 2012)

Yeah dude the scaling was not as good on those older cards either so...


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## johnspack (Oct 4, 2012)

Wow, okay, now I'm really impressed.  My WW1 flight sim which takes massive power to run..  I just maxxed out all setting on it,  which I could never do before,  and fired it up,  60fps constant...  never seen that before!  I officially love this card!


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## Wrigleyvillain (Oct 4, 2012)

Yep and while it may not *absolutely need* more than 1GB even in that sim the additional VRAM is surely not hurting at 1200P.  Afterburner shows BF3 using about 1400MB on my system with 4x MSAA at same resolution.

Update your System Specs on here.


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## johnspack (Oct 4, 2012)

Pure gpu score...  seems to be the sweet spot for this card at 850/1700:


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## cdawall (Oct 4, 2012)

Good score I will have to pull out my stock cooler card and try the card with a VF3000F on it and see how that maxes out.


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## johnspack (Oct 5, 2012)

Yeah,  at this point I'll verify it does upto 50% faster max fps,  and probably 100% more min fps than sli gtx285s.  I said goodbye to my 285s very quickly after a few tests....  next...  gtx6 series!


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## Flibolito (Oct 5, 2012)

Nice work dude, 850MHz is solid for a 480. The real life smoothness is almost unmatched compared to a previous gen SLI setup. Fermis are still very nice card when you poke a stick at them. Your temps seems well in line too I saw 71C max during 3D Mark which is well below anything to worry about. I'm happy your games just got a whole lot more fun!!!


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## johnspack (Oct 5, 2012)

Yep,  temps not over 71c,  and every game has higher fps,  and much higher min fps.  Best upgrade I've done in a while!


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## johnspack (Oct 5, 2012)

I'd rather not mention the names of the games I've tried on this,  but you all play them right now....   The performance difference between sli gtx285 and just one gtx480 is huge.  The minimum fps is much higher,  and in most most games it's just constant 60+ fps now.  And you can use ultra settings,  and max aa.  And that's in dx11 mode if the game has it.  I can't wait to get a 2nd 480!


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## johnspack (Oct 5, 2012)

Oh,  and about the fan noise.  At 100% this is the loudest fan I've ever heard.  It overpowers my 8 case and 2 cpu fans, which all run at 100%.  It's louder by far than the 2 fans on my old 285s at 100%.  But for this performance at 71c max..  I'll take it.  And yes,  I like the loud noise!  If you like quiet,  get water....


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## Maban (Oct 5, 2012)

How many of you found that the lower the temp, the lower the power usage? With my 1.037VID GTX 470, when I popped on an aftermarket sink, it dropped not only by about 40 degrees but also 40 watts.


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## johnspack (Oct 5, 2012)

Didn't like the downclocking,  so I enforced it,  not bad!  :


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## johnspack (Oct 5, 2012)

Not sure what this means,  as I've never had a dx11 card before:


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## cdawall (Oct 5, 2012)

Here is mine at EVGA Superclocked stock.


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## 3870x2 (Oct 5, 2012)

How does the 480 compare to some of the recent 6xx series cards?


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## cdawall (Oct 5, 2012)

3870x2 said:


> How does the 480 compare to some of the recent 6xx series cards?



I would assume somewhere between a 660 and 660Ti


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## johnspack (Oct 5, 2012)

Pretty sure my oced 480 could take on a ti.  Got lucky though,  this thing walked up to 850/1700 at 1.05v!  Doesn't seem to like 900 though,  so I'll work my way up somewhere in between.


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## 3870x2 (Oct 5, 2012)

johnspack said:


> Pretty sure my oced 480 could take on a ti.  Got lucky though,  this thing walked up to 850/1700 at 1.05v!  Doesn't seem to like 900 though,  so I'll work my way up somewhere in between.



That is irrelevant, an overclocked TI would then overtake the 480.

I am surprised 480s still sell, they are at newegg for a nice $199.


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## johnspack (Oct 5, 2012)

The tis are nice,  but still cost way more up here.  Ncix.com has 480s for 199can right now,  even cheaper!
Edit:  here's a nice priced ti,  after taxes and shipping..  $350can.  Is it faster by that much to pay 150 more...  not sure.
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=75201&vpn=N660TI PE2GD5/OC&manufacture=MSI/MicroStar


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## johnspack (Oct 5, 2012)

Okay,  here's a run with a properly updated Vantage:


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## cdawall (Oct 5, 2012)

johnspack said:


> Pretty sure my oced 480 could take on a ti.  Got lucky though,  this thing walked up to 850/1700 at 1.05v!  Doesn't seem to like 900 though,  so I'll work my way up somewhere in between.



I doubt it.






Expect the 480 to be similar stock to the GTX 570 overclocked similar to the 660Ti stock


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## johnspack (Oct 5, 2012)

Well yeah,  pretty much what I meant,  my quite oced 480 can match a stock ti.  I'm still going to get a 2nd 480 before I get tired of playing with this series though! Next step after that will be a 680,  and then sli 680s...  I like high end,  I just can't afford to be current!


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## cdawall (Oct 5, 2012)

johnspack said:


> Well yeah,  pretty much what I meant,  my quite oced 480 can match a stock ti.  I'm still going to get a 2nd 480 before I get tired of playing with this series though! Next step after that will be a 680,  and then sli 680s...  I like high end,  I just can't afford to be current!



I will stick to my stack of 470's watercooled they should still perform better when I crank them out to 900-940mhz core or so.


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## johnspack (Oct 5, 2012)

Dam I wish I could get 900 out of this card,  but even at 1.1v it won't do it.  Weird that it will do 850 at 1.05v though....
I guess there is a sweet spot for voltage and clocks.  If I could push 1.13v into it and keep it cool,  I guess that would work,
I'm just not willing to push more volts for such a small increase...  oh well.


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## johnspack (Oct 5, 2012)

Okay,  got a bit more out of it,  but temps start to climb with speed just like with 1st gen i7s...


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## johnspack (Oct 5, 2012)

Validated:  http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/ffvbk/


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## Wrigleyvillain (Oct 6, 2012)

Hey dude please edit your last post instead of double (and especially triple) posting in a row. Not a huge deal but just better etiquette and helps keep the forum "clean".


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## johnspack (Oct 6, 2012)

Please just remove your above post,  and try to be social?


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## johnspack (Oct 6, 2012)

And now I'll double post...  Wrigley,  could you post some specs,  numbers,  anything at all to add to this thread other than a complaint about my double posting?  I'd really like to see what you are doing with that card!  Anything to help the rest of us out?


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## trt740 (Oct 6, 2012)

Im selling my GTX 480. It is just to big of a power hog, great card but hot. I just picked up a MSI Hawk GTX 460 TWINFR  for 70.00. So, I will pocket some cash and hopefully not skip a beat.


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## johnspack (Oct 6, 2012)

Talk to Buck,  he's trying to get one more for me,  maybe we can make a deal if you can wait a month.


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## trt740 (Oct 6, 2012)

johnspack said:


> Talk to Buck,  he's trying to get one more for me,  maybe we can make a deal if you can wait a month.



It is not for sale yet but maybe very soon we will see.


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## Flibolito (Oct 6, 2012)

The reason power consumption scales with temps is that the hotter a conductor get the more resistance there is which in turn breeds more heat. Higher voltages are required then to keep them working with increase temps/resistances further. It's an up hill battle. My 480 stays under 45C at all times so consumption goes down, but then again i have to run a pump and radiator fans. Can't beat physics nothing is free. 

Super-conducting states are excluded.


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## johnspack (Oct 6, 2012)

Still think I got lucky with a lower than average vid...  861/1722 at 1.05v ain't nothing to sneeze at! On another train of thought....  trying to test physx with and without a 260 in the mix..  not sure what is a good way to test?  I tried newest version of fluidmark,  and I get 90fps when using the 480 for physx,  and 60fps when I use the 260...   so maybe it's not properly simulating a physx game where the main tasks are on the 480 and physx is on the 260?  I have to run a pile of games now to figure this out.....
Edit:  nevermind,  I found a game that showed it to me,  60fps av using the 480,  80fps av using the 260.  Nice improvement,  so the 260 stays for now!


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## johnspack (Oct 6, 2012)

Well,  this card may be old tech ect,  but I can throw supersampling,  and even 32x csaa on some games,  and still get 50fps or more....  I couldn't use any of that on my sli 285s,  this is a dam strong card,  and for $179can,  really worth it!   Having fun testing the hoo hoos out out of this thing!


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## Wrigleyvillain (Oct 6, 2012)

Was thinking about running a few benches for this thread...and it's a perfect night as it is cold today but not yet ready to flip on the heat for the first time this season!


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## [Ion] (Oct 7, 2012)

Count me in!  I'm running two GTX460s and a GTX470.  Pictures here


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## Flibolito (Oct 7, 2012)

Try 1.12-1.135 volt. your temps are still good just to see if you have hit the wall on that chip. 880+ maybe doable for gaming. From my experience that's well within safe ranges as long as temps don't go crazy on you. Like is said I have been @960+MHz and 1.168v for more than 2.3 years and no issues. Just a suggestion don't want you to hurt anything 860MHz is still a very strong 480. At that speed it would be slightly stronger than a GTX580 @790MHz ishh.
The 580 needs about 70Mhz less to attain very similar performance so not too bad bro.


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## johnspack (Oct 7, 2012)

Yeah,  seems to hit the wall at 875,  bummer.  But below that it happily runs at 1.05v with the nice cool temps.  I haven't tried above 1.1v yet,  but not sure it's worth the gain.  Might try just for a bench run.  I didn't realize these cards have a locked core/shader ratio,  don't remember reading that anywhere!  Well after digging through some reviews I saw it is mentioned,  so guess I missed that little tidbit of info....


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## johnspack (Oct 7, 2012)

Oh well.  Tried pumping 1.138v into it,  still not stable at 900.  Guess I'll have to be happy with my 860 at 1.05v!


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## johnspack (Oct 7, 2012)

Heh,  tried a certain game that I complained killed my sli 285s...  in the 20s at times...  on this card I was able to actually increase settings to ultra,  and add 2x ssaa forced,  and 60+fps now.  Jeez,  I had no idea it was this much faster.  Can't wait until I can afford 680s!


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## claylomax (Oct 7, 2012)

johnspack said:


> Oh well.  Tried pumping 1.138v into it,  still not stable at 900.  Guess I'll have to be happy with my 860 at 1.05v!



Which is your max overclock on stock voltage?
Also when applying 1.138v you must have the fan at 100% (assuming your card is reference); it should be able to do at least 900mhz. Is your room hot?


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## johnspack (Oct 8, 2012)

No,  ambient temps are quite cool,  outside temps are dropping to 0c at night now,  and I open windows to bench.  On top of that,  certain games are unstable at even 850,  but all games are stable at 800.  Oh well, considering that when I get a 2nd 480 I won't be able to oc anyways,  guess it doesn't matter.  I get stable in most games at 860/1722,  using 100% fan,  but certain games just wont take it,  like crysis2.  I have to drop to 800/1600,  but then I can also drop fan speed as temps go way down.  Weird card...  but fun!
At 800/1600 I can use the stock vid of 1.025v,  for 866/1722 I use 1.050.  Don't know why only certain games won't run stable at 866.  I probably still need to learn how to tweak it better.....


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## rangerone766 (Oct 8, 2012)

just finished a 2 hour bf3 session at 940mhz on the core and 1.212volts with no issues. i'm using msi afterburner, but my sliders are maxed out. is there a software that will let me set more the 940mhz on a gtx470?


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## Flibolito (Oct 8, 2012)

Afterburner extreme might.
John are you OCing the memory at all? I did mine a little but just a tad. Going to high there can make higher GPU overclocks hard and unstable.

Some game are easier on the GPU than others. Some are more texture heavy, some might use more polygons and some are coded different that stress the gpu in different ways. BC2 and BF3 for a few hours are my stability tests as that are much harder than stress tests and benchmark loops. Battlefield will hit the GPU very hard but also use alot of memory therefore stressing the memory controller more. My 480 will do 985MHz in benchloops but only 970MHz in BF3. I run it at 962MHz just to not be riding on the edge that 1 extra frame doesn't do anything anyway.


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## cdawall (Oct 9, 2012)

Here are the cards at stock running 5040X1050 in dirt 3 all settings high 4x MSAA.

http://img.techpowerup.org/121008/dirt stock 5040x1050.jpg


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## claylomax (Oct 9, 2012)




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## johnspack (Oct 9, 2012)

Yeah,  I'm only doing a mild oc on the memory,  didn't think it would do much to increase fps anyways.  Think I'll just try 1.1v for my oc settings,  and see if that stabilizes it.  Don't mind the fan at 100% when I game,  as I'm wearing closed headphones anyways.  Can't believe however after years of really noisy fans at 100% that didn't bother me,  I actually have to crank down the fan speed when I'm not gaming.  It's realllly loud!  Oh,  and claylomax,  very nice score!  But might be easier to compare scores if you update your Vantage to ver 1.1.0,  or turn off phsyx.


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## johnspack (Oct 9, 2012)

Well,  that was confirmed.  1.1v I'm rock solid at 860.  However temps run between 80 and 84c with fan at 100% and low ambient.  So now I have to start dropping volts bit by bit to see what the max is required to maintain 860.
Edit:  Think I may have found sweet spot... again..  1.088 seems to be ok,  I'll keep gaming until I can say for certainty!


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## TB13 (Oct 9, 2012)

In with my GTX 480, no oc yet because it runs so hot, but I am planning on ocing the snot out of it when I get a waterblock. If anyone knows where I can get a used waterblock from let me know!


----------



## johnspack (Oct 9, 2012)

Yeah,  you'll probably need one,  I'm running at 80c+ in games,  wish I had watercooling.  Of course I'm at 860,  but only when gaming.....


----------



## TB13 (Oct 9, 2012)

johnspack said:


> Yeah,  you'll probably need one,  I'm running at 80c+ in games,  wish I had watercooling.  Of course I'm at 860,  but only when gaming.....



I've overclocked it in the past and managed to hit 100c so I decided it was time for watercooling...


----------



## johnspack (Oct 9, 2012)

I'm finding dx11 games run the hottest,  saints row third really heats up my card...


----------



## Wrigleyvillain (Oct 9, 2012)

Makes sense.


----------



## cdawall (Oct 9, 2012)

My 3rd GTX 470 and 1st of 3 DD-GTX470 blocks showed up today.


----------



## johnspack (Oct 10, 2012)

Oh man,  it's almost time for insane benchie time!  Can't wait to see what those 470s can do...


----------



## cdawall (Oct 10, 2012)

That is the one that is going to be watercooled in my deployment rig


----------



## johnspack (Oct 10, 2012)

Wrigleyvillain said:


> Makes sense.


Yes,  that was a kind of d'oh moment for me.  I've never run games in dx11 before.
Also why I needed a small voltage bump.  Fun little,  beastie,  loud,  hot,  voltage hungry card!!
Edit:  and if you have sli gtx285s,  get rid of them and get one gtx480,  it blows the doors off them....
Edit2:  of course I want 2....  hint hint....  no,  must be patient.... arrg!


----------



## TB13 (Oct 10, 2012)

cdawall said:


> http://img.techpowerup.org/121009/20121009_170842.jpg
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/121009/20121009_181634.jpg
> 
> That is the one that is going to be watercooled in my deployment rig



Sexy block, I need one of those for my 480.


----------



## cdawall (Oct 10, 2012)

TB13 said:


> Sexy block, I need one of those for my 480.



Find someone near a microcenter

http://microcenter.com/product/392324/GTX480_GPU_Cooler_Satin_Finished_Copper_Version


----------



## TB13 (Oct 10, 2012)

cdawall said:


> Find someone near a microcenter
> 
> http://microcenter.com/product/392324/GTX480_GPU_Cooler_Satin_Finished_Copper_Version



Do want...


----------



## cdawall (Oct 10, 2012)

TB13 said:


> Do want...



I can't wait to see how mine does. Sneeky is selling me two more of them for my main rig's GTX 470's. The temp change will be night and day.


----------



## TB13 (Oct 10, 2012)

cdawall said:


> I can't wait to see how mine does. Sneeky is selling me two more of them for my main rig's GTX 470's. The temp change will be night and day.



I have someone over in [H] that might be willing to sell me one in the next few days, I am getting sick of 80c+ and being forced to use my headset...


----------



## claylomax (Oct 10, 2012)

I let the cards bios control the fan speed while gaming; I use Afterburner only for benchmarks. I don't use headphones and can't hear the cards, my speakers are not loud. Temps are: idle 47c and load 85c. You guys should turn off your central heating!


----------



## trt740 (Oct 10, 2012)

Listed my gtx 480 in the sales area. I am still in the club with my GTX 460 Hawk. These Gtx460/560 cards are great cheap gaming video solutions especially with Nvidia constantly releasing optimized drivers.


----------



## rangerone766 (Oct 11, 2012)

seems to be luck of the draw trying to game at anything over 935mhz on this 470. hitting ocp and black screening.

i am going to disable the ocp and see what this card will do then. as it sits though, i run all settings on ultra in BF3 and get solid 60fps with vsync on and an occasional drop into the 40's.

i want to upgrade so bad, but there is 0 need for the games i play. so i'm throwing caution to the wind and gonna do some hard modding and see what it will do. if i kill it, oh well.


----------



## cdawall (Oct 11, 2012)

rangerone766 said:


> seems to be luck of the draw trying to game at anything over 935mhz on this 470. hitting ocp and black screening.
> 
> i am going to disable the ocp and see what this card will do then. as it sits though, i run all settings on ultra in BF3 and get solid 60fps with vsync on and an occasional drop into the 40's.
> 
> i want to upgrade so bad, but there is 0 need for the games i play. so i'm throwing caution to the wind and gonna do some hard modding and see what it will do. if i kill it, oh well.



That's the same position I am sitting in with my sli setup. The 5040x1050 does however seem to make the setup think twice in certain games...


You will have to post a link to the ocp mod so I can try it on mine when I get my other two blocks.


----------



## johnspack (Oct 11, 2012)

trt740 said:


> Listed my gtx 480 in the sales area.


Hmmm,  well it's a match for my first 480,  so it would be perfect.  Looks like around 200can delivered,  which is also a match for my first one!  Problem is I'd have to get someone to buy it,  as I'm broke until end of month around-ish.  They went back up in price locally,  so this would still be the cheaper route by like 70can.  I'll have to see if I can scare up some assistance....


----------



## rangerone766 (Oct 11, 2012)

about 2/3 down the page shows which resistor to ground out to disable ocp.

http://www.overclockers.com/bios-mod-gtx400-series


----------



## cdawall (Oct 11, 2012)

rangerone766 said:


> about 2/3 down the page shows which resistor to ground out to disable ocp.
> 
> http://www.overclockers.com/bios-mod-gtx400-series



Well that's pretty simple


----------



## Wrigleyvillain (Oct 11, 2012)

First quick run, 480 at 800/1200 CPU at 4.0


----------



## cdawall (Oct 11, 2012)

(physx off)

CPU is a major let down on these...


----------



## johnspack (Oct 13, 2012)

Yes they are,  it's why I left amd after running them since the amd286...   well enough of that, 480s should do 850 at 1.1v,  some may need more,  some less.  Mine does 860 at 1.088v all day long...  took a while to get it right,  but it's rock solid now.  It's worth spending the time to tweak your card!
Edit: sorry,  still ticked off I had to go intel....


----------



## TB13 (Oct 13, 2012)

I bought a Heat Killer water block today, it should be here sometime next week with the rest of my watercooling stuff. I am soooo stoked!


----------



## johnspack (Oct 14, 2012)

Still testing like crazy on this thing.  Despite the stupid hot temps,  and noise,  it's just so nice and fast.  I love using things like 32x csaa,  and 8x supersampling on games I never could before.  I'm still planning on adding a second one in a month.  I'll only be able to run it at stock,  but should still be a wild ride!  I'm still amazed at how this thing eats my sli gtx285s alive......


----------



## Flibolito (Oct 14, 2012)

Fermi was a huge step for Nvidia, Kepler is based in it from what I understand the was the GPU is structured but it was a bigger step than people think. Benchmarks are one thing but once I got my 480 it was just so damn smooth in all my games I fell in love. I prolly won't replace it for a while.


----------



## johnspack (Oct 14, 2012)

Wow,  didn't see you had a 680 too.  I know it should be over twice as fast as a 480.  Want me one soon.  For now I'll have to settle for a room heating 2 480s.....


----------



## TB13 (Oct 14, 2012)

johnspack said:


> Wow,  didn't see you had a 680 too.  I know it should be over twice as fast as a 480.  Want me one soon.  For now I'll have to settle for a room heating 2 480s.....



Winter is coming, the 480's will keep you nice and tosty


----------



## claylomax (Oct 14, 2012)

I reckon I can still lower the voltage one notch:


----------



## Flibolito (Oct 14, 2012)

My 480 runs about as good as a 580 at almost 900MHz. So while the 680 is a beast of a card the 480 definitely holds its own. I think if I put the WQHD monitor on the 480 it would start to struggle and that's where the 680 shines right now.


----------



## claylomax (Oct 14, 2012)

This is a list of the voltage "notches":
0.925 (some 480's can run stock clocks at this voltage)
0.938
0.950
0.963 (GTX 480 idle voltage)
0.975
0.987 (load voltage of most reference 480's)
1.000 (load voltage of some reference 480's)
1.013 (as above)
1.025 (as above)
1.038 (as above)
1.050 (as above)
1.063 (as above, this is the highest I've seen, EVGA)
1.075 (some factory overclocked cards have this voltage, eg: Gigabyte SOC) 
1.088 (as above)
1.100
1.113
1.125
1.138 (max voltage available by default in Afterburner, you can go higher though)

This list also applies to the GTX 470; however I don't know the idle/load voltage that most reference 470's ship with.


----------



## Wrigleyvillain (Oct 14, 2012)

johnspack said:


> I'm still amazed at how this thing eats my sli gtx285s alive......



I'm really not...


----------



## trt740 (Oct 14, 2012)

Back in the club, my son wanted his GTX 480 back because his room was too cold using a GTX 460 Hawk.


----------



## Wrigleyvillain (Oct 14, 2012)

lol


----------



## johnspack (Oct 14, 2012)

Wow,  claylomax,  that's a cherry chip you got there.  I'm stuck at 860 no matter how much voltage I pump into it.  Luck of the draw I guess!
Edit:  heh,  updated member list....


----------



## TB13 (Oct 16, 2012)

Got my block today and threw it into my crappy loop. Idles around 40c and saw a max of 74c in Skyrim at 99% gpu usage. I know, these temps aren't that impressive but it is in a very small loop with 1/4in ID tubing and a H40 rad. I have a 240mm and 120mm rad on the way to create a loop with my CPU and my GTX 480. Here it is in all of its sexyness... Oh, and it weight around 5lbs with the backplate, the HeatKiller block is a beast.


----------



## claylomax (Oct 16, 2012)

TB13 said:


> Got my block today and threw it into my crappy loop. Idles around 40c and saw a max of 74c in Skyrim at 99% gpu usage. I know, these temps aren't that impressive but it is in a very small loop with 1/4in ID tubing and a H40 rad. I have a 240mm and 120mm rad on the way to create a loop with my CPU and my GTX 480. Here it is in all of its sexyness... Oh, and it weight around 5lbs with the backplate, the HeatKiller block is a beast.
> 
> http://i368.photobucket.com/albums/oo127/traxxasbasher13/IMG_20121015_1615341_zps87e63fb1.jpg



Beautiful!


----------



## johnspack (Oct 18, 2012)

Now deciding whether to order a 2nd 480 next week.  I really want one,  but even at stock clocks I'll be pushing my psu.  And they won't put the things back on sale,  so I have to pay 270can..  after 135 for cable that leaves 75 bucks to live on for a month!  Time to sell some cards....


----------



## claylomax (Oct 20, 2012)

johnspack said:


> Now deciding whether to order a 2nd 480 next week.  I really want one,  but even at stock clocks I'll be pushing my psu.  And they won't put the things back on sale,  so I have to pay 270can..  after 135 for cable that leaves 75 bucks to live on for a month!  Time to sell some cards....



Your PSU will hold unless you overvolt your cards; if you want to run benchmarks on two GTX 480's you're going to need a bigger PSU. I've seen my system pulling 1100w off the wall with both cards overvolted, but at that time I had Phenom II cpu's.


----------



## johnspack (Oct 21, 2012)

Ouch,  1100 watts!  Well,  my silverstone is supposed to be able to peak at 900,  so hard to say.  Have to put off the 2nd one for now anyways,  need to sell off my 285s first.  Kind of wanted to keep them,  but I'd rather have a 480!


----------



## cdawall (Oct 21, 2012)

johnspack said:


> Ouch,  1100 watts!  Well,  my silverstone is supposed to be able to peak at 900,  so hard to say.  Have to put off the 2nd one for now anyways,  need to sell off my 285s first.  Kind of wanted to keep them,  but I'd rather have a 480!



1100W at the wall with 80% efficiency is 880 watt at the powersupply should be fine on any HIGH END 850W unit.


----------



## TB13 (Oct 21, 2012)

Like said above, a quality 850 watt will be more than enough for 2 GTX 480's


----------



## Flibolito (Oct 21, 2012)

Should be good, but a little headroom is always nice. 1.168v on my GF100 in system #1 is about 600 watts so im almost at the limit of my 12v rail.

But this thing also runs the pump and a ton of fans and such so overall is pretty stretched


----------



## johnspack (Oct 21, 2012)

Sounds good,  my EVGA does stock at 1.025v,  so if I get a second one and stay at stock,  I'll more than likely be okay.


----------



## johnspack (Oct 21, 2012)

Anyone,  what's a fair asking price for 2 well taken care of EVGA GTX285s?  250can?


----------



## johnspack (Oct 27, 2012)

Well,  still stuck with a single 480,  and can't be happier with it!  I didn't know about things like 32x csaa before.  Still really want a 2nd one,  but guess I'll bide my time and wait to snatch one up cheap used.....  or just wait for a 670....


----------



## cdawall (Oct 27, 2012)

johnspack said:


> Well,  still stuck with a single 480,  and can't be happier with it!  I didn't know about things like 32x csaa before.  Still really want a 2nd one,  but guess I'll bide my time and wait to snatch one up cheap used.....  or just wait for a 670....



My second rig is close to benchmarking...single GTX 470 on water will likely keep clocks lower on this one for power consumption.


----------



## cdawall (Oct 27, 2012)

Got the HTPC up and running I think this is were I am going to keep it. Should be a good balance between the CPU and GPU for speed in games etc.


----------



## claylomax (Oct 29, 2012)

cdawall said:


> 1100W at the wall with 80% efficiency is 880 watt at the powersupply should be fine on any HIGH END 850W unit.



Our psu's (johnspack's and mine) are 88% efficient, not 80%.


----------



## TB13 (Nov 2, 2012)

Little update on my watercooling and OC. I added a few more fans today on my rad and got to  overclocking, here is what I have so far






Overall I am pretty happy with it, I am thinking about going a little further, but I don't want to stress my little 550w PSU too much


----------



## johnspack (Nov 7, 2012)

Not sure what results others are getting,  but I do notice a performance increase with the 310.33 betas,  but for some reason I had to back off 10mhz on my gpu clock.  Was running Warhead at 860 like I usually do,  and within a minute or 2 driver crash.  Backed off to 850 and played for over an hour stable.  Noticed something strange too...  have Warhead at all enthusiast and 4xaa and I noticed 1460mbs of vid memory used,  since when did it use that much?


----------



## TB13 (Nov 8, 2012)

johnspack said:


> Not sure what results others are getting,  but I do notice a performance increase with the 310.33 betas,  but for some reason I had to back off 10mhz on my gpu clock.  Was running Warhead at 860 like I usually do,  and within a minute or 2 driver crash.  Backed off to 850 and played for over an hour stable.  Noticed something strange too...  have Warhead at all enthusiast and 4xaa and I noticed 1460mbs of vid memory used,  since when did it use that much?



My OC is still stable with 310.33. In Heaven the Min FPS is quite a bit better, but the max and average are about the same, check it out:

306.97





310.33


----------



## cdawall (Nov 8, 2012)

310.33 crashes when SLi is enabled on mine. :shadedshu

Good news however is I have 3 GTX 470's and 3 DD-GTX470's waiting on a tri SLi board to get testing. Been looking between the sabertooth 990FX and 990FX-UD5/7.

Good news is my TPQ-850 should be able to at least handle them stock






This guy was running an overclocked i7 965 watercooling cold cathodes etc. I am planning on running a dual PSU setup on this for a bit using my SFX-450w to run the fans, water cooling and one card.


----------



## TB13 (Nov 8, 2012)

cdawall said:


> 310.33 crashes when SLi is enabled on mine. :shadedshu
> 
> Good news however is I have 3 GTX 470's and 3 DD-GTX470's waiting on a tri SLi board to get testing. Been looking between the sabertooth 990FX and 990FX-UD5/7.
> 
> ...



That sucks... I like the look of the UD7, very minimalistic and sexy. I couldn't tell you which would be better though, it has been a while since I have had an AMD setup.


----------



## cdawall (Nov 8, 2012)

TB13 said:


> That sucks... I like the look of the UD7, very minimalistic and sexy. I couldn't tell you which would be better though, it has been a while since I have had an AMD setup.



Yea Dave is talking me into the UD7. Apparently my age old Asus love is going to come to an end.


----------



## cdawall (Nov 10, 2012)

Getting ready for tri-sli


----------



## Flibolito (Nov 10, 2012)

Great deal on that board, that is going to make a sick setup!

Which PSU setup are you going to use?


----------



## cdawall (Nov 10, 2012)

Flibolito said:


> Great deal on that board, that is going to make a sick setup!
> 
> Which PSU setup are you going to use?



TPQ-850






psu calc of 
cpu@4ghz 1.55v
4xdimms DDR3
3XGTX470's
2xD5's
10xhigh performance fans

If it makes you feel any better the TPQ-850 and TPQ-1000 are identical in all ways. At least mine is 25A CB's on all 4 12v rails etc.


----------



## Flibolito (Nov 10, 2012)

I think you'll be just fine. since you are watercooling the card will actually draw less than most think. Low temps definitely help alot, just wondering if you were sticking with the dual setup or not


----------



## cdawall (Nov 10, 2012)

Flibolito said:


> I think you'll be just fine. since you are watercooling the card will actually draw less than most think. Low temps definitely help alot, just wondering if you were sticking with the dual setup or not



Oh I am after I get back from the desert.


----------



## Flibolito (Nov 10, 2012)

You could maybe even throw the cpu 8 pin onto the silverstone to split up the rails more, not sure how you have it set up now, from my experience running a pump is just lightly more juice than a standard blower fan on 1 videocard at high speed. again in triple SLI its going to be beast, with the propper drivers there should be no micro-stuttering just bawls out BF3. I have always been a bigger fan of 3 vs 2 GPUs.


----------



## johnspack (Nov 10, 2012)

Going to try for my 2nd 480 by the end of the month.  I was just playing with Warhead again,  and decided to try for 16x aa as it crushed my 285s.  No drop in min or max fps from 4x,  actually I think it picked up a couple of fps min.  These cards still surprise me!


----------



## cdawall (Nov 12, 2012)

Flibolito said:


> You could maybe even throw the cpu 8 pin onto the silverstone to split up the rails more, not sure how you have it set up now, from my experience running a pump is just lightly more juice than a standard blower fan on 1 videocard at high speed. again in triple SLI its going to be beast, with the propper drivers there should be no micro-stuttering just bawls out BF3. I have always been a bigger fan of 3 vs 2 GPUs.



Looked into how the rails are split on my Antec TPQ-850. So going to skip the group regulated Silverstone and run the Antec on its own. Should be able to hold its own without any issues. 

Rails will be split

12v1 8 Pin EPS connector+pumps (4 pin->molex adapter)
12v2 1 card (via molex adapters)+fans+HDD
12v3 24 pin+1 card
12v4 1 card

My unit for whatever reason is listed at 25A per rail unlike every other TPQ-850 I have seen which are all rated to 18A per rail. However at 25A that leaves the ability to draw 1200w via the 12v rail alone...I will have to keep a close eye on the voltages.


----------



## Flibolito (Nov 12, 2012)

It's a quality PSU I think it will handle the load just fine, GPU overclocks might not go super high but then again who needs massive clockspeed when 3 are alternating frames.


----------



## cdawall (Nov 12, 2012)

Flibolito said:


> It's a quality PSU I think it will handle the load just fine, GPU overclocks might not go super high but then again who needs massive clockspeed when 3 are alternating frames.



After looking at the card reviews average consumption per card will be around 150w I assume it will be similar with mine overclocked and the temp cut in half. I am possibly getting an immensely good deal on an 8150 which at 5ghz 1.55v pulls 247w that puts me just shy of 700w for the hefty components if everything was running pretty close to max. The TPQ-850 is rated for 768w continuous from the 12v rail. That leave next to nothing for the fans...may have to run the ultra kaze's alone instead of all the nidecs I had planned or I could run all of the fans off of my 12v pyramid PS-36KX.

(sorry trying to convince myself I wont blow my TPQ-850)


----------



## Flibolito (Nov 12, 2012)

I think you'll know fairly quick if the PSU is up to the task. It's got safety mechanisms I'm sure to when if it's overdrawn it will just shut down. Plus Antec sells quality PSU and just like most companies that deal in high end power units slightly underrate them.


----------



## claylomax (Nov 12, 2012)

@cdawall You'll be fine; when the GTX 400 series launched most reviewers used X58 motherboards which consumed quite a bit; that's why all the graphs show figures that high. I've had my cards with a Phenom II x4, a Phenom II x6 and now an i7 3820 and idle power consumption is around 180w and load (depends on the game) can go from 400w to around 550w.


----------



## Athlon2K15 (Nov 12, 2012)

I can vouch for the tpq-850,I ran one for 4 years with multiple SLI and Xfire setups.


----------



## cdawall (Nov 12, 2012)

Shoot I don't know what I was getting worked up about its all of 30w more than the dual 4870X2 setup I ran a while back I should be fine. Albeit I lacked the crazy fans at the time. Will be interesting to see how noisy the PSU gets with 510w worth of GPU's alone pulling off of it.


----------



## johnspack (Nov 13, 2012)

Hmm,  after seeing the above posts,  I may have to consider a 1000w psu soon.  My 950 is pretty power hungry at 4ghz,  with 24gbs ram,  4 hds,  8 case fans....   Wonder if I'd go over my psu's peak of 900w with 2 480s?


----------



## cdawall (Nov 15, 2012)




----------



## johnspack (Nov 15, 2012)

Nice setup cdawall!   Well it looks like I get my early xmas present next week if stock holds out.  Should be ordering my 2nd 480 on wednesday.....


----------



## cdawall (Nov 16, 2012)

Turns out the CHVF was DOA :/ will have to see if Newegg will cross ship me another board.


----------



## TB13 (Nov 17, 2012)

cdawall said:


> Turns out the CHVF was DOA :/ will have to see if Newegg will cross ship me another board.



That sucks... Usually Open Box boards and GPU's are great, but there are times when NewEgg will ship out a dud. They will get you fixed up in no time.


----------



## cdawall (Nov 17, 2012)

TB13 said:


> That sucks... Usually Open Box boards and GPU's are great, but there are times when NewEgg will ship out a dud. They will get you fixed up in no time.



No big Asus is cross shipping a new one.


----------



## TB13 (Nov 17, 2012)

cdawall said:


> No big Asus is cross shipping a new one.



Nice, thats the first good thing I have heard about ASUS in a while, I have read quite a few horror stories about them lately. Will be watching for pics and results  

Just throwing this out there, I put my 480 up in the classifieds, I hate to sell her, she is so pretty, but I need a card with more vram.


----------



## cdawall (Nov 17, 2012)

Went ahead and installed the board to test fit everything. Looks real pretty in there.


----------



## TB13 (Nov 17, 2012)

cdawall said:


> http://img.techpowerup.org/121117/20121117_030542.jpg
> 
> Went ahead and installed the board to test fit everything. Looks real pretty in there.



Nice! how many rads do you have in that loop?


----------



## cdawall (Nov 17, 2012)

3 mcr 220qp, mcr 320qp and mcr420qp.


----------



## TB13 (Nov 17, 2012)

cdawall said:


> 3 mcr 220qp, mcr 320qp and mcr420qp.



Dang, thats a lot of rad...


----------



## cdawall (Nov 18, 2012)

TB13 said:


> Dang, thats a lot of rad...



Got all of the rads a while back. Did crazy good as a single GPU/CPU look idle and load temps were pretty similar. I spent the extra money back in the day so the main parts of the loop would never need upgrading. Even with a multi CPU/GPU setup I will never need more radiator surface area.


----------



## johnspack (Nov 20, 2012)

Looking for a 2nd 480 if anyone knows where to find one.  Can't get any more up here now.  If not,  I've got a brand new 480 for sale.  Unless I can find a 670/680 for half off on black friday....


----------



## TB13 (Nov 21, 2012)

johnspack said:


> Looking for a 2nd 480 if anyone knows where to find one.  Can't get any more up here now.  If not,  I've got a brand new 480 for sale.  Unless I can find a 670/680 for half off on black friday....



Mine is up for sale in the For sale section.


----------



## johnspack (Nov 21, 2012)

I saw that,  but water cooling is beyond my budget.  I could of got this 2nd 480 on sale for $179can brand new,  but all sold out now.  So now I'm on a saving/selling spree for the next month or so until I can get a 680,  the only way I can get 2x 480 performance now.  I guess 2 months of not eating is worth it....  Going to try to keep the 480 for my folding box,  lots of ppd!  For now I'll install the latest beta driver and see what this 480 can do!


----------



## cdawall (Nov 22, 2012)

johnspack said:


> I saw that,  but water cooling is beyond my budget.  I could of got this 2nd 480 on sale for $179can brand new,  but all sold out now.  So now I'm on a saving/selling spree for the next month or so until I can get a 680,  the only way I can get 2x 480 performance now.  I guess 2 months of not eating is worth it....  Going to try to keep the 480 for my folding box,  lots of ppd!  For now I'll install the latest beta driver and see what this 480 can do!



Have you checked ebay? I saw a couple clicking through ebay.ca


----------



## TB13 (Nov 22, 2012)

cdawall said:


> Have you checked ebay? I saw a couple clicking through ebay.ca



On eBay stuff sells for way to high, I sold a 5870 for like $270 on eBay a little while back... There are a few 480's for sale over at OCN.


----------



## cdawall (Nov 22, 2012)

TB13 said:


> On eBay stuff sells for way to high, I sold a 5870 for like $270 on eBay a little while back... There are a few 480's for sale over at OCN.



There are a handful of buy it now's for ~$200 ca.


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## johnspack (Nov 22, 2012)

Ebay's not really convenient,  takes 9 days for me to send funds to paypal for one.  I also notice most of those cards are from the us,  will go through customs,  and have upto $60 shipping.  I think I'll wait for the the 6pm black friday sales to start at ncix,  and see if I can snag a 670 for dirt cheap.  If not,  then I guess I'm back to hunting down a 2nd 480!


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## rainbow dash (Nov 22, 2012)

hey, i have got three gtx 470s and sold one 2-3 weeks ago, so i'm currently on zotac amp + zotac referance with gelid icy vision. 

http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/5193/59022077.jpg
http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/8840/74159356.jpg
http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/1643/sli1z.jpg
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/6335/sli2k.jpg


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## Athlon2K15 (Nov 22, 2012)

Im not really how far these cards can go but this is all i have managed to get so far.


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## cdawall (Nov 22, 2012)

Those cards will go a lot further. If you are looking for a good cooler for it I have a V3000F up for sale


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## johnspack (Nov 22, 2012)

Ah,  new members,  will add.
Getting bummed out, seems I'm in the minority with a single card!  Really wish I could find a 2nd 480....
Updated again!


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## cdawall (Nov 22, 2012)

johnspack said:


> Ah,  new members,  will add.



Can you update mine to 3 cards as well.


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## johnspack (Nov 23, 2012)

10 mins to black friday...   also,  ncix finally notified me and said if I had just ordered the last 480 on sale,  they would of held it for me.   Nice hindsight!


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## johnspack (Nov 23, 2012)

Heheh,  yep,  figures,  6pm sale starts,  and ncix.com goes down.....


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## Athlon2K15 (Nov 23, 2012)

Small update from me...






http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5012621


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## johnspack (Nov 23, 2012)

Seriously miffed,  ncix's idea of black friday prices is 350 for a 670.  That's almost 400 delivered.  I live on 475 total a month after rent.  Grrrrr.....


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## johnspack (Nov 29, 2012)

Darn,  stellar vram performance,  but can't believe only half the texture fillrate of a 660ti:
My current gaming stable settings.  I might be able to up the vram speed more,  haven't tried.


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## johnspack (Nov 29, 2012)

Interesting:


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## johnspack (Nov 29, 2012)

Hmm,  might just keep my 480/260 combo for a bit:


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## Flibolito (Nov 29, 2012)

Aye i have both a 680 with a strong oc of 1219Mhz sustained and a 962Mhz 480 and at 1080p most games cannot tell the difference.


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## johnspack (Jun 25, 2013)

Necro!  Finally adding a 2nd 480,  (yes it took me this friggin long to get one) hoping it will match a 680 in performance.  Must be some out there like me who are poor,  and starting to sli these things because they are cheap!  Anyone else out there brave enough to run 2 of these things?  I'm waiting to see smoke come out of my 850w Silverstone....  I'll post benchies when I get it.


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## MxPhenom 216 (Jun 25, 2013)

johnspack said:


> Necro!  Finally adding a 2nd 480,  (yes it took me this friggin long to get one) hoping it will match a 680 in performance.  Must be some out there like me who are poor,  and starting to sli these things because they are cheap!  Anyone else out there brave enough to run 2 of these things?  I'm waiting to see smoke come out of my 850w Silverstone....  I'll post benchies when I get it.



Till be right about 680 performance, but consume about 400w more at the same time, and run way hotter, and louder.


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## johnspack (Jun 25, 2013)

Oh,  I'm painfully aware of that.  But for an investment of under 300can,  guess I'll make do....


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## claylomax (Jun 25, 2013)

johnspack said:


> Oh,  I'm painfully aware of that.  But for an investment of under 300can,  guess I'll make do....



Enjoy your system John! Just don't overclock with voltage too much or your psu will shut down.


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## cdawall (Jun 25, 2013)

Good deal glad I'm not the only guy still kicking some gtx 4x0's.


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## dhdude (Jun 25, 2013)

I realise I'm very late to the party, but can you guys add me to the Clubhouse? Many thanks!


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## GreiverBlade (Jun 26, 2013)

cdawall said:


> Good deal glad I'm not the only guy still kicking some gtx 4x0's.



well i would too if 













duh ... luckly i brought it for 50$ state unknown (it was stored in a box, in a computer store unused) caught fire directly after powering on 

lucky me it didnt damaged anything else and the card still look good for a display sample 

so i can say i still own a 4xx serie ... but non working 

cheers


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## TB13 (Jul 12, 2013)

Woot, I'm back with a GTX 460 this time. I sold my old system with my 480's to buy a car and now I'm rocking a C2D and a GTX 460 I got from EVGA's B-Stock. Not exactly a 3570K and SLI 480's, but at least I can game again at 1080p.


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## johnspack (Jul 12, 2013)

I'm about to do 2 gtx480s,  but one got lost in the mail....  good ol Canada Post....  it still may happen,  we'll see.


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## TB13 (Jul 12, 2013)

johnspack said:


> I'm about to do 2 gtx480s,  but one got lost in the mail....  good ol Canada Post....  it still may happen,  we'll see.



You're going to love it. I had 2 for a while and it was an incredibly powerful setup. It blew my 1200mhz 7970 out of the water. I kind of regret selling my rig, but it may return sometime in the near future...


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## johnspack (Jul 12, 2013)

Well,  they are supposed to keep up with a 680 or 770 right now.  For 100 bucks more for a used one after I bought one for 179 new,  I figured it was a nice budget powerhouse combo.....


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## cdawall (Jul 12, 2013)

johnspack said:


> Well,  they are supposed to keep up with a 680 or 770 right now.  For 100 bucks more for a used one after I bought one for 179 new,  I figured it was a nice budget powerhouse combo.....



Yup I still plan to test out the 3xGTX470+FX9370 combo I have accumulated to see how it compares to my dual 7950's.


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## GreiverBlade (Jul 12, 2013)

ohhh well i will have a new baby at home ... since my burnt 460 is of no use xD 

i got a Zotac GeForce GTX480 AMP! for a bit more than 80$ but is still wait on the delivery atm.


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## johnspack (Jul 13, 2013)

Darn,  so close...  Canada Post seems to have misplaced my 2nd 480.  The seller is now setting up a trace.  Sigh.  100can incl shipping,  I was a happy camper!  They've done stuff like this before with my parcels,  if they weren't the only ones with a key to my building,  I'd drop them so fast.  Crossing my fingers it will show up Monday.....


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## johnspack (Jul 19, 2013)

Arg,  I can't believe they lost it!  I may be winding up to try a 2nd buy on a gtx480 if anyone in Canada has one.  Have bought from the US without issues as well.  It just depends on friggin Canada Post.  Must have tracking #,  but I found out they will send out stuff on unsuspecting customers without a tracking #.  Without that,  they can just keep it.....  shame on CP.  Sorry for the rant,  but CP has actually lost my 2nd gtx480 in the mail,  just lovely!


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## GreiverBlade (Jul 23, 2013)

aww thats just plain stupid, they lost it ... 

i just recieved mine today 1week delay but still its home and you will see its funny xD
and here is the ... box 




oh wait now i know for what the previous user traded it a rebadged GTX680 aherm 770

and here goes the beauty




Zotac, indeed, did well by choosing the VF3000F from Zalman

i've put it in the mITX build i have to test if she was fully funtional buuuttt since she take 2.5slot (near 3 in fact) and my Node304 have only a 2slot, unless i remove the VGA dustfilter (and even like that it doesnt fit very well  ) i cant put the cover back 













Hiting 99c during a Kombustor stress test and still no artifact, well i remember 400 series being hot as hell and watt/$ ratio not extra 
still it does fit well my mainrig and putting the 7950 in the mITX build is funny

also not mentioning even at 100% fan the 480 is a wayyy quieter than the 7950 (but 99c versus 78c at max  )

After a little Firefall session it seems that FPS are much stabler with the 480 (duh...) 49min 69max while with the 7950 it was 39min 89-90ish max (no Vsync) i still have to see with Crysis 3 FC3/BD and Tomb Raider


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## johnspack (Jul 24, 2013)

Should mention,  kombustor,  furmark ect not a good idea on these.  I can say with confidence that this is a stable oc on a reference 480:







And yes,  I have high ambient temps right now,  usually idle is low 40s.  And my 285 is pretty much choking the 480s intake....


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## johnspack (Jul 25, 2013)

Well,  hopefully I have rescued a 2nd evga 480 from another TPU member.  I'll have to do a small soldering job on it,  but nothing I haven't done before.  I will have my monster dual 480 setup,  whether it blows up my psu or not!


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## GreiverBlade (Jul 29, 2013)

well you can also add this MSI GTX460 Hawk










i will recieve it before the end of the week (hopefully before the 01.08.2013 since its the national day in switzerland ... no post xD no delivery  )

i find that card a bit Overkill for a 460 but i needed a cheap card for my thrid rig and i got that one for 60$ + port


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## johnspack (Jul 29, 2013)

Well,  it will take me another month to get the 2nd card...  ran out of money.  But the seller is holding it,  already sent him a good sized payment towards it.  On another note,  end of an era...  RIP my gtx285.  Red light of death came on,  and it's done.  Was only for physx and to drive my 2nd monitor,  so not a biggie.  Swapped a 260 in.  I've now had 2 280s,  1 285,  and a 260 die on me!


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## GreiverBlade (Aug 16, 2013)

funny one ... for fun i switched the HS of my GTX460 Hawk and my burnt GTX460 AMP!
i did this because i needed to use the ram HS of the Hawk and the Zotac cooler has an integrated aluminium plate for them ... so i switch from a dual 80mm with 4 heatpipes to a plain cooper base with no heatpipes and only a single 80mm... i didnt believed it ... temp are 2c less in idle ... and near same in load ...(even a bit cooler and quieter ... funny)


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## Jstn7477 (Aug 16, 2013)

I have a GTS 450, 4 GTX 460 768s, a 465, and a 470 all actively folding right now. I'm probably going to sell the 460s soon, though.


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## johnspack (Aug 19, 2013)

Added...  and hopefully within a couple of weeks I'll have my 2nd 480.  My poor psu.....


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## Wrigleyvillain (Aug 19, 2013)

My poor lonely 480!


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## johnspack (Aug 27, 2013)

johnnyfive,  come join us!  And yes,  I'm getting Wrigley's 480,  which will need a small repair,  which I'm up for.  Like johnnyfive,  I think the 480s just rock,  and I have to run them in sli to see the stupid power usage,  heat generation,  and noise.  Actually I hate quiet computers...  if mine shuts down at night when I'm asleep,  I wake up....


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## johnspack (Aug 28, 2013)

Soon,  soon comes my lovely!  Finally get to sli these biotches!  Just a week or so....


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## XL-R8R (Aug 28, 2013)

I just snagged another GTX460 to play with; this time a Gigabyte SOC model (HERE) with the 'Windforce X2' cooler. The 460 also came with a Gelid Icy Vision and is in great shape for a used card.

The stock cooler is nice and quiet and pretty decent by all accounts.... but the Gelid it also came with performs (by no surprise) a whole lot better lol



I'm kinda glad there's still a club going for these cards... they offer great value for money regardless of you intended (mis)use is and are quite fun to play around with too.


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## johnspack (Aug 30, 2013)

List your 4 series cards and I'll add you into the club.  My 2nd 480 shipped today,  wheee!


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## johnspack (Aug 30, 2013)

And yes XL,  can't wait to throw 2 480s at my poor 850w psu....  now that's abuse!


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## GreiverBlade (Aug 30, 2013)

well i would say : i have two 460 (ok one is burnt xD) not one

and you should list the brand and model : reference 480 sucks Zotac rock! references 460 sucks MSI HAWK ROCKS (im joking on the last part xD)


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## johnspack (Aug 30, 2013)

Yeah,  I might go through this thread and add brands.  Looks like I'll have 2x EVGA 480s.  The second one shipped out today.  Well,  with the cooler weather coming,  it's nice to know I won't have to turn on the heat!


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## johnspack (Sep 9, 2013)

Not sure what went wrong here,  this is all I get in Vantage in sli...  although in games getting much better fps:





Edit:  may have to do a 2nd run,  my cpu #2 score is like a quarter what it usually is...  have to figure this out.


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## johnspack (Sep 10, 2013)

Hilarious!  Tried to run Vantage with X settings,  and psu reset...  oh well.  I guess 900w peak isn't enough.


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## cdawall (Sep 10, 2013)

Lower the temps and wattage drops a ton. Try colder weather


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## johnspack (Sep 10, 2013)

Not sure that's it,  it rebooted within seconds of the graphics test starting,  didn't even have a chance to warm up.  I've put at least a dozen games through them now though,  zero issues.  Seems like I would need a 1000w+ psu to do a high stress test.  I was actually considering ocing them,  but now think probably not a good idea....


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## johnspack (Sep 13, 2013)

Well,  despite the psu limitations in extreme benches,  I'd had no issues in any game I've thrown at the sli 480s.  Fps is way up,  scaling is very good.  Dam fun cards!


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## johnspack (Sep 13, 2013)

Oh well, just for the heck of it,  tried Vantage x settings again,  ambient temps under 16c,  got throught jane test,  then,  reset!  My psu is just enough it seems,  but I can't bench my 480s with it,  how frustrating!


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## johnspack (Sep 15, 2013)

Well,  Vantage doesn't seem to scale very well in sli,  at least it isn't for me....  Got tired of the power shortage,  so pulled my 800w psu from my server and added it to the mix.  Seems 1650w is enough!  First run of Vantage X at stock:


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## Wrigleyvillain (Sep 15, 2013)

Haha a server rig doesn't need 800W anyway!


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## johnspack (Sep 16, 2013)

Starting the benching now...  looks like my cpu is a slight bottleneck.  Posted a Valley bench,  looks like at 800mhz I pass a stock 670...  need to juice it up a bit more to hit 680 level.  Just waiting for the cooler weather to start tomorrow!


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## johnspack (Sep 18, 2013)

Well,  a 680 owner challenged me in the Valley thread,  and I just beat him.  I'm happy,  for basically what you can get for 200 bucks,  you can take on a 450 dollar card + taxes = 500 up here.  You should be able to get a used 480 for 100 bucks now,  unless it's an uber version,  then maybe 20 bucks more.  Shipping is extra of course.  But it is on the new 680 too,  so 510-520 up here.  I had to do this,  and it's fun!  Next.... sli gtx680s.....


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## johnspack (Sep 19, 2013)

Thank god fall arrived!  Now my bottom card drops to 39c and my top card to 43c at idle,  and in my hottest running games I stay in the 80s....  just a week before I saw 97c before I stopped.  I've already almost finished several games I've been sitting on for years....  just so much easier when you can crank settings and still get 60...100fps....  these little monsters are the most fun I've had in a while!


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## johnspack (Sep 20, 2013)

Again,  loving fall...  idle temps for a sli 480 system:


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## claylomax (Sep 20, 2013)

Enjoy your cards!


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## johnspack (Sep 23, 2013)

I am,  until I can afford sli 680s,  these cards are just a dam hoot!  Pull so much power,  make so much noise,  but strap on headphones, crank up the settings,  and go for a trip!  It's like under 60fps,  what's that?  Except maybe crysis3 maxxed....


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## Wrigleyvillain (Sep 23, 2013)

You don't play BF3 right?


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## johnspack (Sep 26, 2013)

No,  but if I did,  I'd get 120fps at max settings....   wish I had a copy!


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## Wrigleyvillain (Sep 26, 2013)

That high, really? As for getting a copy it's on sale often lately as BF4 approaches. Hell you just missed the Humble Origin Bundle too.


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## johnspack (Sep 26, 2013)

Darn,  I gotta start sending money to my paypal and wait for a sale....


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## johnspack (Nov 4, 2013)

Still impressed with my 480s,  still maxxing out everything I can throw at them.  Certain newer games instantly use all 1.5gbs vram,  but I think I can hold out the 6 months I think I'll have to wait for 680s to start dropping to 200 used.  I never buy a video card for more than 200....  nor on my budget should I.....  Anyone else still using 4xx series,  come say hi before we are all gone!


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## ISI300 (Nov 4, 2013)

Yeah, Sure the 480 is a monster. And I like how the reference design cooler looks. Shame it's only available as second hand buy... Still rocking a GBT GTX 460 here. This is probably the best card I've ever owned, notwithstanding performance. Never gets  above 65c. Comes with a relatively high stock voltage (1.05) but overclocks like a charm (core: 875 with voltage untouched). No noise, fans are very delicate. I have it at 1600/1000 with voltage dropped to 0.987 (VRMs tend to get hot, reviews say 100c+).
Say whatever you want but this is sufficient for my 1080p gaming and at decent framerates 'cause it's essentially a 560.


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## Kissamies (Nov 4, 2013)

I've had a Gigabyte GTX470 SOC for almost 2 years, and still runs games very nicely for me.. Think I'm getting another one and install the HyperSLI, so my non-SLI Z68 motherboard can run them. 

My card has lost some surface-mount caps and its heatspreader, but works like new (well, I re-soldered the surface-mounts), and it's had a Twin Turbo II for about a year now, so the temps are also not too bad. At least there's straight contact with GPU and cooler without heatspreader on the way.


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## GreiverBlade (Nov 4, 2013)

im out for my 480 (i keep it on my hall of honor shelf) i still run my 460 Hawk on the 2nd rig (for quietness sake!) i went thru a 580 Matrix and a SLI of them i tested BF4 with a single 580 Matrix and the 480 both of them offer a "acceptable" gameplay in campaign (not much a MP fan) 

now that I've found a 770(aherm i mean a enhanced 680)2gb  for 250$


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## johnspack (Jan 21, 2014)

Yep,  still rockin my 2 480s.  Other than 2 particular games that don't like them in sli,  I can still pretty much max out every game out there.  Still waiting for used 680s to drop to 200 or below.....


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## Tuna Yücer (Sep 24, 2014)

I have got a VX7 W/ GTX 460M


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