Friday, April 9th 2010

My production Fermi arrived!

by
W1zzard
 Discuss (134 Comments)
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.

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134 Comments on My production Fermi arrived!

#51
KainXS
I wonder what the power consumption will be, probably about 580 under max stress for both?
Posted on Reply
#52
W1zzard
blkhoganSo, 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 :laugh:
Posted on Reply
#53
Kreij
Senior Monkey Moderator
LOL .. we had snow yesterday and a hard frost this morning.
Can you point that thing toward WI ?
Posted on Reply
#54
OUTSIDE
My GTX480, at desktop... 54ºC-59ºC

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

Tomorrow... more ;)

ByE!
Posted on Reply
#55
Champ
[I.R.A]_FBiskeet skeet!
x2
Posted on Reply
#56
TheMailMan78
Big Member
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?
Posted on Reply
#57
trickson
OH, I have such a headache
Yeah why not just a piece of electrical tape ? would have done job just as well . LOL it looks so ghetto LOL !
Posted on Reply
#58
Black Panther
OUTSIDEMy GTX480, at desktop... 54ºC-59ºC

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

Tomorrow... more ;)

ByE!
I must say those are good temps.
:toast:
Posted on Reply
#59
Kantastic
W1zzardI 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.
Posted on Reply
#60
TheMailMan78
Big Member
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.
Posted on Reply
#61
EastCoasthandle
I think the user OUTSIDE's PC Case allows him to draw air for the video card outside of the case. Not bad.
Posted on Reply
#62
W1zzard
for the record, i think the foam is a good idea that is cheap to add and easy to put on the cards
Posted on Reply
#63
TheMailMan78
Big Member
W1zzardfor 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.
Posted on Reply
#64
imperialreign
TheMailMan78Thats 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? :p
Posted on Reply
#65
Blacklash
Some folks on the EVGA forums are receiving their 480/470s and posting benchmarks.

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

Overclocked 480 SLi is delivering 60FPS in Heaven v2 with 4xAA|16xAF and extreme tessellation @ 1920x1080.
Posted on Reply
#66
qubit
Overclocked quantum bit
W1zzardfor 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?
Posted on Reply
#67
AKlass
W1zzardfor 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
Posted on Reply
#68
trickson
OH, I have such a headache
AKlassI would feel somewhat bothered that a cheap piece of foam is all that is stopping your expensive card for shorting out
:eek:
Posted on Reply
#69
Solaris17
Super Dainty Moderator
AKlassI 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
Posted on Reply
#70
REVHEAD
W1zzardfor 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.
Posted on Reply
#72
SteelSix
W1zzardlol 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!
Posted on Reply
#73
overclocking101
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??
Posted on Reply
#75
Zubasa
TheMailMan78Thats 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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