Friday, April 9th 2010

My production Fermi arrived!

Apr 9th, 2010 10:40 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!

#101

fritoking

erockerSounds 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.

#102

PopcornMachine

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.

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.

#103

PopcornMachine

W1zzardfor 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?

#104

Black Panther

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

#105

ShiBDiB

REVHEADI 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

#106

Duffman

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...

#107

OnBoard

OUTSIDEWith 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

Black PantherThe 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 :confused:

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.

#108

Relayer

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". :rolleyes:

#109

Hayder_Master

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

Sasqui:toast: 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.

KenshaiAny teaser on sli performance?

MoonPigWhen should we expect SLi benchmarks?

aCid888*<- 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

#110

OUTSIDE

I will try upload screens today.

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

ByE!

#111

Black Panther

Thanks for explaining OUTSIDE.
Tbh though we here are more interested in the load temperatures... ;)

#112

OUTSIDE

Black PantherThanks 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!

#113

Kantastic

ShiBDiBTroll 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. ;)

#114

Zubasa

KantasticMeh... 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 :p

#115

DOM

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

#116

Judas

DOMhow many think the foam is going to catch on fire :p

Maybe the card comes with a fire extinguisher :p

#117

Kenshai

PopcornMachineAgain, 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.masterjust 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?

#118

Benetanegia

KenshaiWhere did this number come from?

Charlie Demerjian.

#119

shevanel

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 ?

#120

Zubasa

shevanelWTF 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 :respect:
The heatsink design is kind of a dumb idea if you ask me.

#121

tkpenalty

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

#122

option350z

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.

#123

shevanel

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

#124

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator

shevanelWTF 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.

#125

DOM

shevanelIsnt 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

Musselsalso 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 :laugh: its so the grill/hs wont short out the 2nd card, its to give it the clearance it needs

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My production Fermi arrived!

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