NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 Reference Design Card Final Design Pictured

[Mussels]

no no, there will be a dual GPU fermi - it just takes two PCI-E slots. Due to the spacing being so limited it will only work on Nvidia chipset boards, of course - and since Nvidia dont make any chipsets these days, you just have to buy a mac while you wait.

 

[pjladyfox]

really? 5970 was that high?

edit: yep you're right. so as far as power and heat go, nvidia has to match the 5970 to make this card worthwhile.

*whistle* Holy....

I knew that these cards would be hot but I had no idea a single one would be as hot, or hotter, than a 5970. Goddess, I hope whoever plans to run a pair of these has LOTS of cooling and a high tolerance for heat, watercooling, or a good a/c unit since that thing will be brutal to run during the summer under load.

I do have to admit however that I'm pretty impressed with the HSF for the card if that is the final design. Would be nice if similar ones came out for use on cards like the 8800/9800 GT series since I have a MSI one that I really need to replace the HSF on. Heck, I'd even be curious to see how well that cooler does fitted to a 5870.

 

[Fourstaff]

Use 5870 during summer, then GTX480 during winter. I dont understand why they are releasing GTX480 when summer is coming though.

 

[freaksavior]

Woot! We got another 2900XT on our hands! Hot and underpowered!

still waiting on benchies though.. this really looks like ^ though

 

[HalfAHertz]

You silly fanboys! the W in there doesn't stand for watts. No siree, it stands for Wombats! See Nvidia decided their card is just too awesome for its power to be measured in watts, so they invented a new unit called the Wombat.

And btw one [1] Wombat is over 9000!!!11

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

Sweeeeet! MOAR WOMBAT POWAHHH!

 

[Fourstaff]

I fail to see how they can cram almost 300 wombats into that chip of theirs. Maybe PhysX did it?

 

[afw]

You silly fanboys! the W in there doesn't stand for watts. No siree, it stands for Wombats! See Nvidia decided their card is just too awesome for its power to be measured in watts, so they invented a new unit called the Wombat.

And btw one [1] Wombat is over 9000!!!11

Sweeeeet! MOAR WOMBAT POWAHHH!

I fail to see how they can cram almost 300 wombats into that chip of theirs. Maybe PhysX did it?

.... ....

 

[dir_d]

I really dont think there will be a dual GPU until they can do another two revisions of fermi or until 32mn is tapped out.

 

[freaksavior]

You silly fanboys! the W in there doesn't stand for watts. No siree, it stands for Wombats! See Nvidia decided their card is just too awesome for its power to be measured in watts, so they invented a new unit called the Wombat.

And btw one [1] Wombat is over 9000!!!11

Where's the "w"?

 

[btarunr]

Added a bigger pic.

 

[newtekie1]

Actually, it's very terrible. And btw, the 5870 has a TDP of 188W, not 212. That would be 108W bigger TDP. But what's more worrying is, that Nvidias single-GPU card produces as much heat as ATIs dual-GPU card. The dual Fermi better have one magical cooler or otherwise it will melt...

No, ATi advertises the HD5870 as having a TDP of 188w, in reality it pulls ~212w under load, if you don't believe me go look at some reviews.

I'm assuming max power draw possible here with the GTX480 of 300w to get an 88w difference, however the article and leaked information actually put it in the 395w range. And 212w is just the reference design, we have already seen partners release HD5870s that are pulling over 230w.

For those of you that don't like to be bothered to read real reviews:

 

[AddSub]

As they say: if you don't like the heat, get out of the kitchen. After all, we are all PC hardware enthusiasts for the most part, aren't we? Things like power draw and such shouldn't really bother anyone, not on this site of all places. If it does, then alternative hobbies like knitting and such might be more fitting for such folks.

 

[Howard]

Fastest Gpu To Blow Up In This Year !!!

 

[Yellow&Nerdy?]

No, ATi advertises the HD5870 as having a TDP of 188w, in reality it pulls ~212w under load, if you don't believe me go look at some reviews.

I'm assuming max power draw possible here with the GTX480 of 300w to get an 88w difference, however the article and leaked information actually put it in the 395w range.

I was comparing the numbers ATI and Nvidia are giving. Due to that the GTX 480 hasn't been released and reviewed yet, we can't compare the actual power draw, so the only numbers that we actually can compare, is the numbers that ATI and Nvidia are giving and that is: 5870 = 188W and GTX 480 = 290-300W.

 

[erocker]

No, ATi advertises the HD5870 as having a TDP of 188w, in reality it pulls ~212w under load, if you don't believe me go look at some reviews.

I'm assuming max power draw possible here with the GTX480 of 300w to get an 88w difference, however the article and leaked information actually put it in the 395w range.

Indeed. I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't pull even more power as drivers improve and it can get more power out of the card.

 

[cadaveca]

yeah, but maybe that driver that boosts performance in Fermi is the same driver that caused overheating in other cards....Too many possibilities to speculate at this point.

 

[ivicagmc]

who put's few of these beasts in computer will need better cooling in the room...DD

 

[newtekie1]

I was comparing the numbers ATI and Nvidia are giving. Due to that the GTX 480 hasn't been released and reviewed yet, we can't compare the actual power draw, so the only numbers that we actually can compare, is the numbers that ATI and Nvidia are giving and that is: 5870 = 188W and GTX 480 = 290-300W.

Not so, we don't have to go by what numbers ATi gives us, as their cards have actually been release and reviewed. So screw what ATi marketting said, I'm using the real numbers because they are available.

We don't know nVidia's true numbers yet which is why I use the 300w number because that is the max possible with the power setup the GTX480 has. 8-pin+6-Pin+PCI-e Connector=150w+75w+75w=300w.

Indeed. I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't pull even more power as drivers improve and it can get more power out of the card.

yeah, but maybe that driver that boosts performance in Fermi is the same driver that caused overheating in other cards....Too many possibilities to speculate at this point.

I don't think new drivers, with optimizations really increase power usage, just makes the GPU do tasks more efficiently.

And I don't worry about drivers overheating cards, it was a very rare instant that nVidia f'ed with the fan profiles.

 

[btarunr]

Then I'm less inclined to go by the numbers NVIDIA gives me. It could well be 330W in actual testing.

 

[newtekie1]

Then I'm less inclined to go by the numbers NVIDIA gives me. It could well be 330W in actual testing.

It could be, but that would serioulsy over stress the PCI-e power specs. Maybe 305w, but I would say that would be the very maximimum, any higher and they would have put two 8-pin connectors on the card.

 

[HalfAHertz]

No, ATi advertises the HD5870 as having a TDP of 188w, in reality it pulls ~212w under load, if you don't believe me go look at some reviews.

I'm assuming max power draw possible here with the GTX480 of 300w to get an 88w difference, however the article and leaked information actually put it in the 395w range. And 212w is just the reference design, we have already seen partners release HD5870s that are pulling over 230w.

For those of you that don't like to be bothered to read real reviews:
http://tpucdn.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_5750_Go_Green/images/power_maximum.gif

If W1z is measuring the power usage at the PSU rails, I think those numbers include the PSU's inefficiency. A good psu is rated at 85-86% eff. So if we take the base power usage of 188W and add 15%, we get ~216watts used power.

On a more serious matter they're really not telling us anything here it could be anything between 1 and 300. People are only speculating when they think the card will be between 290 and 300.

My best bet is that the card will end up somewhere in the 250W range.

 

[newtekie1]

If W1z is measuring the power usage at the PSU rails, I think those numbers include the PSU's inefficiency. A good psu is rated at 85-86% eff. So if we take the base power usage of 188W and add 15%, we get ~216watts used power.

On a more serious matter they're really not telling us anything here it could be anything between 1 and 300. People are only speculating when they think the card will be between 290 and 300.

My best bet is that the card will end up somewhere in the 250W range.

W1z's reviews do no include the PSU's inefficiency. The only time the power supplies inefficiency is considered is when looking at power draw from the wall. W1z's numbers are actual card power draw.

 

[Loosenut]

I wouldn't even consider these cards unless I had something like Fits' MegaRig

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=112192

 

[jasper1605]

coming soon: "fermi recalled due to being sued over using HDT/vapor-X technology"

coming even sooner: "fermi recalled due to causing massive power spikes in local nuclear powerplant leading to meltdown"