Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 Review: Fermi Arrives

Two years later, Nvidia is finally ready to unveil a new piece of graphics silicon aimed at consumers and the enthusiast crowd based on its latest Fermi architecture. Designed to be the next evolution in GPU computing, we are excited to see what the GeForce GTX 480 is capable of, and whether or not it'll be able to bring Nvidia back into the spotlight.

Read the full review at:
http://www.techspot.com/review/263-nvidia-geforce-gtx-480/

Please leave your feedback here.

Something that hot should not be in my machine, killing my other parts slowly. Also, what kind of lifespan can you expect from it? Your conclusion is pretty kind. Seems to me that the higher price plus the ridiculous power consumption and heat generated, all for a meager 16% performance increase overall makes for a pretty horrible purchase. This is a *computer component* we are talking about, as tech gets better, should we not see better performance and *less* heat ? Like what Intel and AMD are doing? So heavy gamers have melted cables and random shutdowns due to heat to look forward too?

I am a little disappointed =S as I was expecting a lot out of this card.

I suppose one could always pay off the price of the video card by saving on their heating/gas bill....

Hold it. Nvidia hasn't released drivers for the GTX 400 cards and the drivers used are not officially compatible. That could definitely mess with scores. I for one say this should be redone when Nvidia ACTUALLY makes drivers for it.

Doesn't sound like a very good deal at all to me. High Price + High Power + High Temps + Small gains = AMD/ATI.

This reminds me a lot of the FX 5800 Ultra, anyone else remember the "dustbuster"?

They had 6 extra months to get the drivers right. How much more time do they need ? Redone drivers of not, this baby will still do 85+ degrees under load. Unacceptable.

Well it is a fast card, but there are a lot of buts....
Sounds like the roles been shifted, we all remember the 3000 and 4000 series from ATI, they were hotter, more power hungry and a little louder then the Nvidia, and now the roles have been reversed.

And if the MSRP og 499$ is right, I think the bang for the buck is on ATI tbh.
Honestly i think Nvidia is putting a tester out, and checking forums to see if ppl will actually pay the 499$ and if all goes against it, they might lower it to a more reasonable level (just speculating)

But I do sit back with a slight feeling of disapointment tbh, but lets see what MSRP will be and also if the drivers should offer any gains when it becomes available in stores.

Nice review, I guess nvidia can claim back its single GPU performance crown, but only just... it didn't even beat a 6 month old card in some tests. Still, 60fps in Crysis @ full HD is nice to see.

The power consumption and temps are insane - it uses more power than a 5970 and I would not happy seeing my GPU idling at 65C either.

Pricing wise, here in the UK the GTX 470 is selling for £300, the same price as a 5870, while the GTX 480 is selling for £450, which is a 50% premium and only £50 less than the 5970. I don't know if these are a reflection of prices elsewhere in the world but at those pricing points nvidia is in a bit of trouble. Would be interesting to see how the GTX 470 and mid-range cards perform though.

-------- spelling mistake ----------------
It's fair to say that the GTX 480 is considerably worse AMD's product in terms of efficiency.
nvidia not AMD <-------

I'm sorry nvidia, but I am very disappointed. If you are going to try to release a card between the 5870 and 5970 in terms of performance, you must make sure the power consumption and temperature is scaled as well. This is not a card that someone can just put into their computer without upgrades to other components as well (e.g. PSU). I mean a required 600 watt PSU? That is ridiculous for a single GPU card, even one as powerful as this. Maybe the GTX 470 will fare better...

Well, 6 months ago I would have bought this card to get me through the winter without turning my heater on. This is disappointing. I like components that have a good power consumption to performance ratio so this isn't very exciting.

If this is just a tester, they better make a quick move because there's a lot of anxious people out there like me that have been waiting for nvidia to release these cards. With the prices on ATI already dropping, they're running out of time.

Yeah i know Tizzlejack, im not trying to defend Nvidia, just looking at the bright side of life

And finally they got rid of that insanely stoopid little Spdif cable u had to run from the mobo to the old 200 series for sound in the hdmi, been mocking quite some friends running gtx295 with a 1$ cable tied to it.

It's over guys, with competition like this ATI is never going to lower those prices

This doesn't deserve to be called a FERMI card. The FERMI cards were being touted as revolutionary, super powered graphics processing cards capable of so much more than this. The 480 looks like a slightly revamped 295. All it got was a couple of performance tweaks, a name 200 points better, and a new heatsink that barely does anything according to the test runs. Severe disappointment is being had. I don't care if the drivers aren't fully matured or not. A further software tweak isn't going to do much to improve the framerate. It might add a couple here and there, but nothing significant...unless I'm an ignoramus and there's something I don't know.

If NVIDIA is going to hype up a card series like that, they better deliver. The card is good, yes. But I call BS on their advertising. SHENANIGANS I SAY!

Looks like they are diggin themselves a ditch.

All i can say is that Nvidia is a little late since ATI will be releasing a revamp of there cards very soon so even if nvidia gets better drivers it is futile since ati has better pricing and a lot less power draw. i am kinda mad that nvidia took all this time for a 16% increase over the 5870 in most games with a 20% increase in price.

I will always stick by Nvidia!!! I have 3 BFG GTX275 OC's in my system in SLI. Best gaming investment I ever made! I think and hope, with heat output like this some manufacturer will liquid cool them. That's my next upgrade, liquid cooling, besides I'll get 3 PCI slots back by converting my GPU's to liquid cooling and remove the heat totally from the case. With liquid cooling those temps would be no problem... As for power, well US gamers want all the POWER we can use!!! AR AR AR!!! Also give them a year and see where this card is at then. As far as we all know this could be only the tip of the proverbial ICEBERG!!!

Sounds to me like some of you need to get a better PSU and more efficient internal fans/coolers!! Stop buying the cheap crap!! LMAO!! This card rocks!!! Long live Fermi ! :-D

Well, at least the performance was better than many were expecting... And this was without official drivers that will theoretically get that FERMI architecture up and dancing. Still, I can't help cringing at the power/heat specs, Seems like they keep getting hotter while ATi keeps getting more efficient... Not a trend I like to see.

Now, I know that for a while there was talk of nVidia dropping chipset production, but is that still the case? Would love to see a motherboard with integrated GPU based on this architecture, just to see what it could do as a dedicated PhysX processor

I don't think its the right idea for us to make the adjustments to suit the thermally crap GTX 480... Honestly i think nVidia could've done much better with this. Semi disappointed at the power pull and the heat...

As technology gets better, things are supposed to get smaller and release less heat... nVidia seems to not get that idea... And what happenned to the days of single slot coolers...

I'd hate to pass up PhysX but... at this rate ATi has my sale if i decide to get an upgrade.