Will I make the right option going for a gtx 480

[nhanphan1990]

I'm sorry to stir up, again, a fight between NVIDIA and ATI. I currently have 530$ to spend for a new video card (I was sad to sell my GTX 275), and I have two options, obviously, gtx 480 and hd 5870.

I have read tons of review and forum discussions about the good and the bad of both cards, and which should one goes for. As far as I know, the NVIDIA one has the better performance, better technologies such as tessellation and physX, together with ridiculous power hunger and heat; the ATI, in the other hand, has better price/performance, much higher power-efficiency, and less noisy. Based on what people have said, I think the hd 5870 should be the right choice.

What I really need to know is that, all the new technologies that the NVIDIA card offers, when do they become widely used, and does physX really worth the money?

My purpose of posting this topic is not to create a war, I just want to make my hard-earned dollars count, as I have wasted so much due to my foolishness. There must be someone who know better than me to answer the questions. Please help ASAP, thank you very much, and sorry for my English, I've only learned English for 2 years

[sdy284]

Well take a look at what games you play, what games you'd like to play that aren't out yet and what features they have. Some games don't even support Physx, so that rules that out. And as for tesselation, yea the 480 kills the 5870 in that regard, but you to look at the games you play as well, how much do they use tesselation? If the games that you'd like to play & aren't out & won't be out for more than a year don't heavily incorporate Physx/Tesselation, then go with the 5870.

 

If you're ok with the power consumption & heat/noise output of the 480, and plan on playing physx & tesselation heavy games, then go with the 480

[ArnieF4440]

+1 to sdy284's post

 

5970 is also a good option if you have the money and are thinking of an ATI card, it beats the GTX480 in most tests, but can't tessellate as well. The fan is a like a jet engine at 2100RPM and full GPU load on the 5970, but it's not as bad.

Edited May 13, 2010 by ArnieF4440

[Systemlord]

I have had the EVGA GTX 480 for two days and it's starting to show very impressive overclocks in the core @ 900MHz +, Shaders @ 1600-1800MHz! Those that truly want the GTX 480 to shine are those with a Danger Den water cooling solution, water cooling seems to be the only way to get the clocks that Nvidia wanted with their finished product. With the fan speed at 70% my idle temps are 40 flat with the stock cooler, the GTX 480 received a bios update recently to drop temps by about 10C. With the fan at 70% it sounds the same as my 8800GTX fan at 100%, but the GTX 480 is a little quieter! Typical over clocks are past 800MHz on the Core with the name brand such as EVGA, EVGA is the only manufacturer that honors their warranty even if the stock cooler was remove, but you do have to re-installed the fan cooler upon RMA. My 8800GTX idled at 55C, the GTX 480 clocks down like the Intels quad cores on the Memory, Shader and GPU. You do need a full tower case to get good temps on air!

 

Regards,

Systemlord.

[nhanphan1990]

Thank you guys. I have been a fan of NVIDIA for so long, but looking at the power consumption and the heat output of gtx 480, I will go fo HD 5870. I really don't know what games use tessellation.

[Speedway]

Thank you guys. I have been a fan of NVIDIA for so long, but looking at the power consumption and the heat output of gtx 480, I will go fo HD 5870. I really don't know what games use tessellation.

 

 

You would have been happy either way I'm sure! Pretty much a 6 in 1, half dozen in the other kind of scenario!

 

But, as an owner of 1 5870, and now 2, I can tell you that you won't regret your decision at all! Games look phenomenal, card is lightning fast, and with me the lower Temps and Volts just really made all the difference! I am anal about Temps, and w/o being WCed yet, every little bit helps!

 

The sweet spot I have found on my CF 5870 x 2 setup is 935 Core / 1315 Mem

[IVIYTH0S]

to tessellation, 4870x2 FTW!!

[Systemlord]

Well Nvidia gave the GTX 470/480 tessellation because that's what the Dev's wanted, tessellation is the next logical step in graphics! Dev's will use what's available to them so long as it's not a royal pain to program for! My guess is there are games in development that will use tessellation, whether it's a good time to buy now is anyones guess. I bet by the end of the year Nvidia will introduce a newer high-end product, GTX 485 anyone... I could only imagine a GTX 495's dual GPU heat and power requirements! I commend ATI for their single PCB design, why the hell hasn't Nvidia followed suit?

Edited May 15, 2010 by Systemlord

[IVIYTH0S]

Well Nvidia gave the GTX 470/480 tessellation because that's what the Dev's wanted, tessellation is the next logical step in graphics! Dev's will use what's available to them so long as it's not a royal pain to program for! My guess is there are games in development that will use tessellation, whether it's a good time to buy now is anyones guess. I bet by the end of the year Nvidia will introduce a newer high-end product, GTX 485 anyone... I could only imagine a GTX 495's dual GPU heat and power requirements! I commend ATI for their single PCB design, why the hell hasn't Nvidia followed suit?

The newer 295's became single PCB design, though it's probably hit or miss which one's you'd get, unless they pulled the dual pcb ones off the shelves

[ccokeman]

It really depends who you talk to . The 480 is the fastest single GPU card out right now. The only reason to worry about power consumption is if you leave your computer on with the GPU active doing something such as F@H. Otherwise the 3 to 5 hours many people have there computers on a day make it a moot point. At a 30 watt difference it take a long time to see a serious difference in your power bill. When it comes to heat the 480 is currently hotter than the 5870. At stock clocks with the card controlling the fan speed the difference is only 10C under load. When you spin the fan up to 100% and OC the cards the 5870 runs cooler by 28C based on my testing. If you play PhysX heavy games and those that use Tessellation than go with the 480. Its faster in every game I have tested it in.

 

 

Take those factors into consideration as well as pricing and you can make a pretty good choice on your own.

[IVIYTH0S]

It really depends who you talk to . The 480 is the fastest single GPU card out right now. The only reason to worry about power consumption is if you leave your computer on with the GPU active doing something such as F@H. Otherwise the 3 to 5 hours many people have there computers on a day make it a moot point. At a 30 watt difference it take a long time to see a serious difference in your power bill. When it comes to heat the 480 is currently hotter than the 5870. At stock clocks with the card controlling the fan speed the difference is only 10C under load. When you spin the fan up to 100% and OC the cards the 5870 runs cooler by 28C based on my testing. If you play PhysX heavy games and those that use Tessellation than go with the 480. Its faster in every game I have tested it in.

 

 

Take those factors into consideration as well as pricing and you can make a pretty good choice on your own.

I making you a "Kiss the Reviewer" shirt