ZOTAC GTX480 Review
Test Setup, Overclocking and Temps
Published: 15th April 2010 | Source: Zotac | Price: £441.76 |
Test Setup, Overclocking and Temperatures
Test Setup
Motherboard : ASUS Rampage II Extreme
CPU : Intel i7 920 @ 3.6GHz
RAM : 6GB Corsair Platinum @1333mhz
PSU : OCZ 1000w Gold PSU
HDD : 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F1
Monitor : Samsung 2433 24" @ 1920x1200
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate 64
GPU : Zotac GTX480 using 197.41 WHQL.
Reference HD5870 and HD5970 using Catalyst 10.3
Overclocking
Here came the really tight test, and something that actually caused us to depart from our standard testing procedure. As you'll see below we actually had to run our fans at 100% for testing which we will definitely get to in the conclusion.
Nobody knows for sure what nVidia planned to get out of the Fermi GTX480 core, but clearly the card has been detuned quite a bit because with maximised fans we got a huge boost in GPU and shader speeds along with the heat and performance gains we'd expect.
Temperatures
Normally for the purposes of fairness we run all our benchmarks and overclocking tests at 50% fans. Unfortunately nVidias reference cooler is so hopeless that within two minutes the card shut itself down, having passed 110°C. 60% fans had the same effect and it wasn't until we pushed into the deafening realm of 70% that our stock card was capable of running our tests.
We'd be very VERY dubious about running at anything under than 80% though and this is largely a fault of the fan which is barely an asthmatic mouse at 50% or below. Earplugs a must.
It has to be noticed that this is nothing to do with ZOTAC at all and solely the fault of nVidia and their inability to tame the GTX480.
Lets move on to the important tests... Some gaming results.
Most Recent Comments
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Originally Posted by name='clone38'
Aye its a bit of a let down by NV this time as i was really looking forward to the new cards.
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I hope the next generation brings something better to the show, because these are too hot for what they give, and when a 5970 is only £50 more, they represent very poor value.
My 280ocx is dammed loud on air but having heard these I couldn't put up with the noise.
Coz i imagine if u would oc a nuclear-reactor u wouldnt think twice before u would oc the ATI cards
My 5970s overclock to 900MHz core very happily (haven't really pushed them much) so I reckon the 480s would have to fight pretty hard to keep up. Also, can you imagine SLI 480s overclocked...I mean hell would look like a fridge comparatively.
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Originally Posted by name='Diablo'
Also, can you imagine SLI 480s overclocked....
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*removed*
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Originally Posted by name='ppuff'
Judging by the color of the cooler it seems that NVIDIA can use it to light their own victory cigar.
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i will stick to my 5870 and rather buy me a second one than one of the 480th.
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Originally Posted by name='Diablo'
I mean hell would look like a fridge comparatively.
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The Fermis apparently scale OK, but not as well as the 5870s. The fermi's are fast, but I'd be a little bit worried aout sticking them in a case with my other kit. I mean its fine for them to run hot apparently, but my processor and RAID controller are a little bit less happy with 90C+
Correctly installed/setup, the 480 with a voltage tweak and running at 850+ on stock cooling is breaking into 90 degrees
5870 in xfire is outstanding btw.
No matter how good the nvidia cards are, I would still worry about sticking that runs so hot into my case, where all the other components will get hot. Same applies with watercooling unless you have a couple of triple or quads to cool the cards.
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