ASUS GeForce GTX 470 Fermi

[W1zzard]

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 470 was announced a few weeks back - now we got the first production sample of the card from ASUS. Compared to the GTX 480 we saw much more reasonable power consumption numbers as well as fan noise and heat.

Show full review

 

[Yukikaze]

Excellent review, as always. Thanks !

The GTX470 really isn't a bad card it seems.

 

[Delta6326]

not bad in every game i checked it was up to or beat the 5870 at 1920x1200. but im still waiting for both next gen cards, im disappointed in both fields

 

[newtekie1]

This is the review I've been waiting for!

Seems the GTX470 sits right between the HD5870 and HD5850 in performance price and of course performance/price.

Just as I have been saying, the GTX470 is the Fermi card that we should all be looking at, because the GTX480 was just pushed to the limits to beat the HD5870. The GTX470 is far more reasonable. And I still think driver updates should fix the higher resolution performance.

I still think I'd go with the HD5850 if I was upgrading to this generation though.

 

[human_error]

Excellent review as always - good to see the card being price competetive but i wish they could get the heat and noise levels down to make it more comparable with the 5850 and 5870 for heat/power/noise levels.

 

[angelkiller]

Yeah this card is much more power efficient and lowers consumption to reasonable levels.

However, I noticed that power doesn't seem to scale linearly. The GTX 480 has 7% more shaders, more ram, and slightly higher clocks, and a lower core voltage, which may equalize the other stuff. But when you look at power consumption, the GTX 480 uses way more than 7% more power. In fact it's not even close to 7%. So clearly, either adding 7% more hardware increases power by more than 7%, or there's another variable here.

Also, how is the power consumption of the OC'ed 470? If it's under the consumption of the GTX 480, than an overclocked GTX 470 would be much more efficient than a GTX 480. (which is what I'm guessing) And if that's true, why did Nvidia release a 480 shader part?

 

[newtekie1]

The memory controller likely plays a large part in the heat and power consumption. As does the different voltage circuits that don't allow voltage control on the GTX470.

 

[Yukikaze]

YThe GTX 480 has 7% more shaders, more ram, and slightly higher clocks, and a lower core voltage, which may equalize the other stuff. But when you look at power consumption, the GTX 480 uses way more than 7% more power. In fact it's not even close to 7%. So clearly, either adding 7% more hardware increases power by more than 7%, or there's another variable here.

The GTX480 has 7% more shaders (at 15% higher frequency), 20% more ROPS, 20% wider memory bus and 20% more memory (at 10% higher frequency).

It has more than 7% hardware on the chip/board.

 

[Sasqui]

This is why the review front was so quiet after the SLI scaling tests.

After parusing the review, I think the rating was worthy. This seems to be the card that really shines in the price/perf dept, and VG OC'ing potential.

Also, how is the power consumption of the OC'ed 470? If it's under the consumption of the GTX 480, than an overclocked GTX 470 would be much more efficient than a GTX 480. (which is what I'm guessing) And if that's true, why did Nvidia release a 480 shader part?

Was wondering the same.

 

[angelkiller]

The memory controller likely plays a large part in the heat and power consumption. As does the different voltage circuits that don't allow voltage control on the GTX470.

The GTX480 has 7% more shaders (at 15% higher frequency), 20% more ROPS, 20% wider memory bus and 20% more memory (at 10% higher frequency).

It has more than 7% hardware on the chip/board.

I see.

Either way, I think I bring up a good question. Is an overclocked GTX 470 more power efficient than a GTX 480?

 

[Altered]

Nice review Wiz.

This is the review I've been waiting for!

Seems the GTX470 sits right between the HD5870 and HD5850 in performance price and of course performance/price.

Just as I have been saying, the GTX470 is the Fermi card that we should all be looking at, because the GTX480 was just pushed to the limits to beat the HD5870. The GTX470 is far more reasonable. And I still think driver updates should fix the higher resolution performance.

I still think I'd go with the HD5850 if I was upgrading to this generation though.

I agree looks much more reasonable than the 480 but the 5850 still seems to be the ticket unless you just have to have a Nvidia card.

 

[phanbuey]

I think 470 allows voltage tweaking... just read a guru3d review where they used voltage tweaking.

 

[btarunr]

Hello, my future DX11 card.

 

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

dugg

 

[Fourstaff]

Hmm, the GTX470 sits directly between the 5870 and 5850, and is priced right in between both. I still think 5850 is a better buy, being almost $100 less than 5870 and almost just as powerful. I would have doubts about 91 degrees being a safe temp all the time, but if W1zzard thinks its allright, then I guess it will be fine for most people not too paranoid about temps.

 

[HardSide]

Am I missing something, or there is no temperature comparison? Also you guys review other 470/480 cards from other distributors, like EVGA.

 

[OneCool]

I know this is OT a little but does anyone know why nvidia uses such a weird memory amount on their cards?

Good review BTW W1zz

Not a bad card at all.

 

[Crazykenny]

Nvidia... I'm impressed. My first impression of this card is allot better then the one I had about the 480.

 

[crush3r]

Nice card, overclocking really opens the throttle!

 

[cauby]

oh he didn't use the 10.4 for the ATI cards...i think i'm gonna start a drama!
hehehehehe

nice review w1z!

 

[DOM]

oh he didn't use the 10.4 for the ATI cards...i think i'm gonna start a drama!
hehehehehe

nice review w1z!

there Cat 10.4 hotfix not new drviers

 

[stinzza]

well its a nice review wizzard ..but must say that i would take the 5870 over all price/performance..these are norwegian prices=
red --sapphire 5870 1gb= 492dollar-- green --asus gtx480= 664dollar
--sapphire 5850 1gb= 366dollar-- --asus gtx470= 467dollar

 

[Benetanegia]

The overclocking of Fermi still amazes me. 26% performance increase from overclock is just amazing.

One question, Wizzard: do you increase the fan speed when OCing or if auto you can clearly tell it runs faster or whatever? I ask it, because according to all the reviews that I have seen, apparently Fermi doesn't consume more nor heat up when you overclock it. Kind of weird, maybe it's way below the perf/watt curve of the architecture?

 

[erocker]

This means that if you are willing to do some manual tweaking and overclocking, you could most probably reach performance levels of the HD 5870 or GTX 480, at a substantially lower price.

A 5850 can do that as well. Perhaps it's a reach hitting 480 levels, but it's still about a hundred bucks cheaper than a 470.

 

[yogurt_21]

interesting the 470 definetly looks more enticing that the 480 at this point. the overclock is impressive and the fact that it matches the 480 when overclocked is even nicer. still curious to see how the fermi revision plays out and if those 32sp's come back on the 485 or whatever they call it.