GTX 480: A Passion for the Future of PC Gaming

By Drew Henry
On Mar 31 2010 in 3D Vision, Gaming
140 Comments 140 Comments

Last Friday we celebrated the US launch of our newest GPUs, the GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470 at PAX East, in Boston. We picked PAX East as the venue because it’s a show for gamers, by gamers. Having built these cards with passionate PC gamers in mind, it was really the only option.

Since launch, we’ve been getting great feedback from you on all that the GTX 480/470 has to offer. With it, you can “crank up” your next gen PC games. From advanced tessellation engines, 480 compute cores, to new ray tracing technologies and of course 3D Vision Surround support. (You may have seen shots of our presentation at PAX that projected across three giant screens – each 80’ in diameter – with 3D stereo demos of BattleField: Bad Company 2, World of Warcraft, and Metro 2033. It was spectacular. Video of our keynote is below)

We wanted to let you know that we’ve also heard your concerns about GTX 480 with respect to power and heat. When you build a high performance GPU like the GTX 480 it will consume a lot of power to enable the performance and features I listed above. It was a tradeoff for us, but we wanted it to be fast. The chip is designed to run at high temperature so there is no effect on quality or longevity. We think the tradeoff is right.

The GF100 architecture is great and we think the right one for the next generation of gaming. The GTX 480 is the performance leader with the GTX 470 being a great combination of performance and price.

As always, we hope that you enjoy our new products and let us know what you think. We built them for you.

Tagged: 3D, Gaming, GeForce, PAX East

140 Comments Post a Comment

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Drew Henry

Cheshyr-
The Tom’s Hardware charts you are looking at are total system power (not GPU power) running an app called Furmark. No one that builds HW likes this app because it’s completely unrealistic for how anyone uses a PC. You’ll see comments about this in their review. All our GPUs meet the power requirements for PCI Express.
Power supplies vary in performance, which is why we have SLI certified supplies that we have tested ourselves. There is a lot of crap out there. We post the supplies we test to SLIzone. GTX 480 certified supplies will be listed soon.
Drew Henry

Thanks Moopy. They’ll appreciate hearing this from you. Our driver team is the best.
Drew Henry

Metro 2033 is a great game, Klaus. It’s full of next gen effects that make it so much better than playing on a console. Enjoy.
Drew Henry

i have to disagree here. There are games that have a little DX11 sprinkled in to what is really a console port and there are games that are embracing it. We rock on the games that embrace it (like Metro 2033). Check out also what the guys at Bitsquid are doing (former GRIN guys who did Terminator:Salvation). Their Stone Giant demo shows also what their next title will look like. Amazing.
Drew Henry

The GF100 architecture powers all our new GPUs. we have more coming at all price points throughout the remainder of this year.
http://profile.typepad.com/n0r3m0rs3 N0_R3M0RS3

How mature were the drivers that were released with the review cards is what I want to know. Were they beta? Were they designed specifically FOR the Fermi architecture, or did they just support the Fermi cards?
I think that the 480 is a step forward for gaming personally. For too long we’ve been stuck in the DX9 quagmire imposed by the consoles, it’s time we REALLY pushed the envelope of what gaming can, and should, be like. In my opinion 10-15% performance increase over the 5870 in already released games is just a bonus, the real value in the cards is for the games of tomorrow and the applications of tomorrow, as more and more applications and games take far better advantage of all the parallel processing power of GPUs. ATIs cards, while not horrible cards in the slightest (5870 is still a beast, no matter which way you look at it), just don’t support the true heart of DX11 as well as the Fermi cards do. The only gamble is whether or not the devs out there can actually separate themselves from the consoles long enough to implement things such as tessellation.
Being a tech-whore, I will be picking up the 480, if for nothing else than it’s the fastest and therefore I must have it. But if nVidia and developers can work together to really push DX11 features into games properly, then the Fermi cards might just be the best thing to have.
Bob

Crank that sheet up. Just remember boys and girls it the other company that has filckering in BFBC2.
I can tell you first hand it isn’t happening here.
Why because we are the green team. We are going to crank that sheet up. Your kdr will be even worse. So you will either wise up and jump ship. Or cry even more than you already have in the past.
Because drivers will not save you. It didn’t work yesterday (bf2) and it’s not working today BFBC2.
You flicker, your mine…
Drew Henry

I played BC2 in stereo (3DVision) at the GeForce LAN at PAX. It was great. Got my a$$ kicked by EA’s BC2 product manager, though.
wehan vd westhuizen

when will the gtx 400 series be in south Africa
Drew Henry

I can’t say exactly since our partners bring it in, but we are shipping to all our board partners in the coming days, so hopefully very soon.
ceebitt

I also have to handle with my budget like drakishar because if I decide to do some graphics upgrade I do this in a specific time for more than one PC..
So is there any list available witch shows me the release dates of several cards including the technical specifications for just preplanning?
So anyway GF 100… Crank that shit up!!! (if its not getting so hot) )
Arthur

I hope that the GTX485 is going to be better.
The whole Internet says that the fermi is bad.
High priced and hot. but i hope that they will fix it with the GTX485 like they did with the 280 -> 285.
I hope the GTX285 will have : 512SP’s, lower heat, and less power consumption.
Arthur

oops i meant the GTX485 sorry my bad.
atik kurniawan

great product nonetheles. nvidia just have to encourage developers to implement their dx11 games with their distinctive features. and the heat,, lower it please, just to pleased those noisy customers.
Arthur

I can’t wait for Fermi2.
Sykologic

Just wanted to say that I really think the wait for fermi that so many people had to go through was not really worth it. I myself was planning on getting a 5770 until I realized that I don’t need that much power for my crappy screens right now. I decided to order a MSI 1gb GTS250 and a new power supply. I hope it lasts a while, especially since my Evga 7800gt can still get “ok” framerates on BC2. But my point is, why did the people have to wait roughly half a year for something overpriced, overheated, and only 5-10% performance over the competition. I know you have stated that the GTX4XX series is meant to run at these high temperatures, but many enthusiasts care deeply about their case temps and power bills. Nevertheless, good job on the worlds fastest GPU. Hopefully the temperatures won’t stop you from making a dual GPU card. Otherwise, we all know you will be moving on to a 28nm process soon enough =)
babygogo

I have previously owned 8800 gts sli, 8800ultra tri sli, tri sli gtx 280 and was always fond of performance advantage over the competition and driver support. i like Nvidia performance oriented product and every time i go for water cooling so heat and noise are not an issue. i know i represent a minority of enthusiasts here, but i know nvidia focuses alot on enthusiast even though we are outnumbered.
My question is: my understanding is the 512 cuda cores were cut down by 1 cluster to 480 (to yield and heat issues i imagine), has it been done by laser cutting them off or via a BIOS patch. in case of the latter could an enthusiast who is able to cool the card properly enable the disabled cluster for extra performance?
thank u for hearing me out
gsg

Fermi is a new FX 5800…
Epic fail
cyrix133

Fermi is the BEST !!!!!!!!
John Mann

What Nvidia? Couldn’t take the heat/noise of my post so you removed all record of it. Very funny.
Someone should not have to invest in a dedicated AC Unit or a noise dampening case or materials, EVER! You need to do a B1 stepping to improve yields and get the heat and power under controll. The 480 IS a salavage part.
john mann

Dude I would freaking hope the 5970 is faster in most cases, IT IS A FREAKING DUAL GPU CARD! Why do you insist on trying to compare it to a single GPU card? That is stupid and nuts.
John Mann

Not hardly. Unlike the FX5800, Fermi beats its intended single gpu conterparts from ATI. The only things it has in common with the FX5800 is noise, heat and late. Fermi DOES beat the 5870 and 5850. The FX5800 could barely beat a 9500Pro
NVLover

After reviews many gamers cancelled their preorders in my store there was 20 preorders now we have only 6. New GTX 480/770 are great but da prize? cut some prizzes 50 bucks at least on 480. Oh and one more thing future of gaming=consoles sorry mates… you better make some elegant graphic chip for PS4 but not Fermi not this power hungry and hot FAILURE. Och and one more thing!!
Intel should Buy Nvidia… and fired the team behind Fermi…
AffricaKing

There is too hot in Africa for new NVidia GTX series! sorry mate!
EasterBunnyPissed

I think there will be NO easter bonus for NV emplyees
Someone

“The chip is designed to run at high temperature so there is no effect on quality or longevity.”
Wow. You just keep telling that to yourself, fanboys. What about the PCB and all the components on it? What about Fermi running just shy of the 105C throttling point under load? A bit of dust and a hot summer day and you’re going to be cursing.
You WILL see a bunch of dead, warrantied 480s within a year. Guaranteed.
Someone

Enjoy your monstrously hot leafblower, fanboy.
You probably bought a 5700 Ultra and actually believed it was better than a Radeon 9800.
Someone

I’m sure those 480 SLI certified power supplies will run on plutonium.
Someone

Yeah, because Nvidia didn’t release a driver that literally fried a bunch of cards by screwing up fan control!
Oh, wait…
Matt Leshman

Recognizing that I am a fan of Nvidia, and always will be, I was eagerly awaiting the release of Cloverfield Fermi.
But at launch, my friends (before Nvidia Fanboys now ATi users) tried to pull down my expectations. They said that while benchmarks often show their superior performance over the ATi Cards, was doomed by his use of power and thermal excess. Fermi I was told that it would burn because of their high temperatures.
I still believe in nVIDIA?
I still believe in Fermi?
I’m a gamer, but I also work with video editing and motion-graphics. And I know that CUDA can give me everything I need, not just to play but also to work.
But what about the life of the board.
Die playing? Die working?
I want to believe that Fermi will not fail.
I want to believe in nVIDIA.
Manny

This decision to open yourselves up to untold criticisms,and bashing is a brave one indeed ! I dont think in all my years as a gamer,have I scene SO much flaming anf trolling on the various gamer forums,as I have just before and especially AFTER a gpu launch.
My wife and I are also,stock holders and gamers.She is using a GTS640 from eVGA and I a BFG GTX260/216 Maxcore 55.
As long time stock holders we have over the last two years been somewhat disappointed in NVDA’s performance financially.We bought in several times,increasing our stake in the company.
My personal,fairly objective take as it all stands right now (after reading all the reviews,from near a dozen and a half+ sites,all the,many many leaks and hundreds of often sordid rumours,the many threads on B3D over the last 6+ months,XS,[H],Anand,Techreport,xBIT,Guruof3D,etc,etc,etc…..
Is that AMDATI has this round in the bag.Unless NVidia software engineers,can pull the proverbial rabbit out of the hat,this soft launch/paper launch begs me and my memory back the R600 days.This is not as some have made it out,to (NOT) be your second FX debacle,but it reeks of the infamous R600.Very late,very hot running,and only acceptable performance in regards to the ‘enemy’,more so,when one thinks about the MASSIVE difference in die sizes,and performance per mm2,with the RV870.Or worse yet the price,that from anecdotal info all around the web,on many a gaming site in the last week,most seem to think the GTX480 is too pricy,via the 5870,and its mnay a derivitives.One other thing I worry about is rumours of NVDA repeating the many damning steps that 3DFX took before ultimitely committing hari kiri,like alienating AIB’s.
Lots of rumours abound about BFG,and XFX not being happy campers.
I am very curious about the TDP as officialy stated…Why ? Well many a review and website are getting widely varied numbers,with the 480.We are seeing Guru with seemingly fine thermals and noise,and Kyle with jet engine type noises,and wide,variances in temp readings,all over.As we both use multple lcd’s (24″,and above) we have both read up on reports of 90c temps in 2D mode ? Is this true ? If so,will this be adressed in hopefully very near future drivers ? Kyle said he did not run into this issue,but others have.
One thing I really want to know about is,NM THE LASERED OFF 32 cuda CORE’s IN THE 480,but
what about the not often spoken of,but tantlizing rumour,of the extra (64!) missing TMU’s…More then a few with an inside track on these things say they are there on Fermi,and also,’turned off’…. because of heat ? I can only guess yes.
I feel that this chip was overly agressive for 40NM,and espically on a node thats been messed up as badly as TSMC’s has been going forward,over the last year+.
I mean 3.2 Billion transistors ?! Too bad TSMC abandoned 32nm.Is it 3 billion or 3.2 billion ? Kyles GPU-z shots,show it as 3.2 billion.
All that said,we are in for two eVGA 480GTX’s come May.Sad that 28nm is SOOO far off.
We use all of our systems to FOLD as well as game,so we are both looking forward to see how many more PPD’s we can crank out with Fermi under the hood.As for heat,we both watercool,so its not a biggie,but something we hope to see adressed,soon.
Here’s to hoping NVDA’s engineers are holding up under the strain,I can only imagine the incredible amount of blood sweat and tears that went into this launch.
PS: I am also hoping to get some candid answers on my above comments and q’s if at all possible,Drew,and hope the weekend treats you and yours well
Doug

Drew,
You say these cards are built to run at high temps. But silicon is silicon so the same crit temp of 105 degrees still apply. Thats not a lot of ambient temp room.
http://www.therightstyle.com horatiobryan@gmail.com

Efe, I hear and sympathize with you, however I would like to bring something to your attention. To wait till later this year is not so bad when you think of what’s at stake. If nVidia did not put these sweet ahead of the curb feature in fermi then none of the developers would design games to take advantage of tessellation/ray tracing/3D sterioscopic/etc. So it’s the question of which came first, the chicken or the egg? However nVidia has taken the resoponsibility of being the leader in advancing the videogame experience. Without nVidia investing this much “Vision” we would be stucked at DX9/10 quality games in frame rate competition. I support nVidia because they support the future. But I love AMD as well. So for a $100 more and about 9months to give developers a good chance to catch up. I’m happy to support.
http://profile.typepad.com/petruslaine Petrus Laine

So how come the card, which you list with 250W TDP, is consuming around 30-40W more power (both in games as well as apps like Furmark) than a card with 294W TDP from the competitor, especially when it’s known that certain applications can take that card with 294W TDP to near or even a bit over it’s TDP?
In fact – a site measuring only the consumption of the card itself lists GTX480 consuming 320W, that’s 70W over your listed TDP, at max, and the application run isn’t even run on it’s heaviest settings at that test
http://profile.typepad.com/dng Dương Nguyễn

after read all the stuff above , comments and reply , also go around some computer store near my location (pccg , cpl , scorptec ) just got some question in my mind :
You guys said that the GTX 470 / 475 in future is a combination of p/p . but when i read some reviews from Guru3d , anandtech ,….. I found out that if I going to buy that one for the new rig , I just throw another $100 away for the same performance rather than buy the 5850 .
Also , for gamers with tight-arse budget ( $300 or less with VGA card ) , what will nvidia have ? GTX 460 and GTS 450 , maybe ? But don’t tell me it’s ” the way it’s meant to be rename ” as the GTS 250 ( 9800GTX+ , no more ) . The chance of GTX 285 / 275 rename and put as GTX 460 / 450 in my opinion seems a bit high
Seems that GTX 400 series are designed for server / workstation with really loose budget . not for gamers like me
I’ve been a customer of nvidia for over 9 years , since i got my first rig with a Riva TNT to play CS and all the game at that time . and all i got back for trusting Nvidia seems a bit ………….. dissapointing
p.s : sorry for my english if there’s any grammar error
edit : pay a visit at PCCG today and they said that the GTX 470 is $499 , while HIS 5870 after market cooling is $509 . phoney
patrick

Built them for us? We are just gamers, and you built us a card, that designed for the HPC and the professional market.
Fast tessellation? … look at Metro 2033, in Full HD max settings, that game is not playable with one GTX 480! This is what gamers want? Building SLI setups with huge power consumption? I don’t think so.
What is NVIDIA strategy, buying games with CUDA and PhysX effects? This is wrong, we just want superior and silent card, with low price, low power consumption and fast performance. ATI did just this, and I’m going to buy a Radeon … first time in my life.
darmar

what about temps in dual monitor configuration???
almost 90°C in idle…. no excuse for that…..
Dan

Hey, are there any chances of a GTX 460 to be released?
Dan

“that barely beats the PREVIOUS generation of their competition”
the 5xxx is the current, not the previous generation of ATI.
Also, the GTX 4xx is made for future DX11 games (tesselation). Once the game developers start to implement those technologies, ATi wont stand a chance as their DX11/tesselation performance is weak compared to GTX 4xx, see Metro 2033.
Also comparing the single GPU 480 to ATi’s flagship, a DUAL GPU card is pathetic.
We will see the outcome once nvidia pulls out their dual GPU 4xx card.
Also your’re simply **** when you say nvidia was behind the past years, have you been living under a rock?
GTX 200 series was FAR superior to ATi’s 4xxx.
http://profile.typepad.com/klausschuster Klaus Schuster

yes we are gamers, i am a gamers and i want to play my favorite games with all its feature.
If you want play metro 2033 with tassellion physix and msaa4x you simple can’t on ati technology gpus(res 1920x1200hd5970 fps drop under 3 avg fps while gtx480 take 25 avg fps). Ati have six months of advantages and one of the first dx11 game dont run with new feature. its incredibile but is true. look for benchmark over the net and see.
with metro 2033 1680×105 msaa 4x tass on af 16 gtx 480 provides 35 fps hd 5870 provides 18 fps with bfbc2 the min fps for the radeon is 10 vs the 30 of the gtx 480 on avp dx11 min fps for the radeon is 35 vs the 52 of the gtx480. radeon are eco but fps drops significantly and provides game go in lag or unplayable. Why i should buy a gpu that don’t work with new feature or game? the answer is simple buy Nvidia gpus and you have more feature and more power with new technology.
dx10,9 games go well on old cards and new are the same. they don’t count.
patrick

Look at techreport test: http://techreport.com/articles.x/18682/12
In Full HD max settings the GTX 480 get 22 FPS. This is playable?
I don’t care PhysX and CUDA, these are just property platforms … irrelevant features for me.
patrick

What 90°C? Can I get a link for that?
Ray Tracey

Design Garage is a fantastic tech demo! Realtime raytracing at high resolution is finally a reality and I want to say Kudos to Nvidia and the Optix people for making such forward looking technology.
no thanks

Frankly the compute performance is disappointing since the full double precision support has been deliberately degraded; GF100 should run compute on doubles at 1/2 the throughput of singles, instead it is far lower.
Differentiating the part based on memory size and support for ECC was expected for the Tesla products. However, losing the full double precision throughput is a disappointment for development and hobbyist purposes. The chips obviously have it and it has been fused off, so it doesn’t save anything for the gamers (not even energy usage since they’d not be using it). If one is worried about gamers, one would have to wonder about the memory hierarchy which they are definitely paying for, and I imagine not getting the benefit of (unless they are into ray tracing).
Oh, and since the last generation of Tesla were based on the Tesla architecture, the naming made some sense. New Tesla parts based on Fermi is getting a bit silly.
John Mann

Try looking at a site who actually played the game using MAX playable settings
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/03/26/nvidia_fermi_gtx_470_480_sli_review/3
1080 is very playable with the 480. Cuda is not a free t use platform. If AMD/ATI wanted to they could enlist Nvidia to help them write up a CUDA database that would work on the Radeons. Howvere, if ATI wanted to use PhysX, they WOULD have to pay a fee. See the difference is CUDA is free, PhysX needs a License.
Cherub

For me Nvidia missed the mark with this generation.
Yes, the GTX 480 is the fastest single GPU on the market but the package doesn’t add up when you look at the heat, noise and power consumption. Even the 470 is quite bad in this regard.
I waited for Nvidia’s answer to the HD5 series, but now that it’s out I’m going to skip this generation entirely – the performance increase ranges from underwhelming to ok against the competitor cards. Especially in DX11 games with high resolutions, tessellation, AA and all details cranked up; neither ATI or Nvidia can provide playable framerates (>30 min fps).
Cherub

Also what I forgot to say:
MGPU sucks on both vendors.
Don’t praise it as it is the answer to all questions just because your bar on the graphs looks so big.
What ATI and Nv don’t tell you about are the micro stutters and the input lag, which make the gaming experience worse than on a single GPU card.
Yes, Crossfire is worse than SLI, but that doesn’t make SLI any better.
psiphor

A few thoughts…
1. It’s all well and good saying that these cards are built for the future but let’s face it, unless and until those pesky next-gen consoles catch up with DX11/12 or whatever is present at the time of PS4/Xbox 720 etc., most developers won’t bother developing PC-specific games with all the extra bells and whistles our superior PCs and these GPUs offer. Also, we’ve already seen the recent breed of DX11 GPUs take a fair framerate hit whn running DX11 features in compatible games. The DX11 hardware’s still 1st Gen after all so by the time fully fledged DX11 games are out, these current 2009/10 cards will struggle to run them smoothly. They don’t exactly breeze through the Unigene Heaven 2 benchmark do they.
2. Raytracing – From the Nvidia demos shown so far, the ‘interactive raytracing’ means fairly static car models to show off a la showroom style. I think we’re a few years off having GPUs with the grunt to push full on raytracing in-game with the framerates we would want.
3. TSMC and GloblFoundries have both announced they’ve shifted focus to 28nm fab and so I’d expect both Nvidia and AMD to have GPUs built around this tech later this year/early next, so that alone will improve yield per wafer, performace, heat dissipation and power consumption. Hopefully, this will lead to cheaper, faster, cooler GPUs soon. It would be a bit foolish to buy any GPU now knowing these leaner versions are in the pipeline.
4. I think Nvidia got caught on the back foot when AMD revealed Eyefinity. Sure, 3D Vision Surround is a step up, but to need 2 Nvidia cards to enable 3 monitors seems overkill and certianly over-expensive. Both Nvidia and AMD need to put pressure on manufaturers to produce bezeless monitors (I believe this is possible with LED) as those bars between screens just get in the way, and only a tiny fraction of us can afford/acommodate 3 projectors.
5. Please would Nvidia start pushing the DX11 love into some RTS games. FPS games get all the attention, but I’d like to see physics, tessellation, advanced AI in different genres. Speak with Relic for example and let’s have Company of Heroes 2 in DX11 glory.
6. In Nvidia’s experience of working with game developers, are developers starting now to actually develop with multi-core CPUs and massively threaded GPUs in mind? Also, I heard from your September GDC that the Fermi achitecture natively supports C++. Is this something game devs can capitalise on or is that more a feature for the scientific and general programming community?
7. Any performance figures on Folding@Home for GTX 480/70?
8. Reviews to date seem to be comparing the GTX 480 with the Radeon HD 5870s, but surely given the price structure of the Green and Red team’s offerings, it would be more apppropriate to compare the GTX 470 with the 5870 being closer in price to each other.
Manny

darmar said…
[q]what about temps in dual monitor configuration???
almost 90°C in idle…. no excuse for that…..[/q]
Reply
04/02/2010 at 04:24 AM
patrick said in reply to darmar…
[q]What 90°C? Can I get a link for that?[/q]
A Nvidia rep has stated on at least two occasions,THIS WEEK,that this(very high temps in dual mon mode) will be addressed in the next Forceware update.Kyle @ [H]ardOCP has said HE did NOT run into this problem with his multi monitor setup/SLI,and his GTX 480′s/470′s.
As well,the ONE tester/website that said they had this ‘issue’ was doing something else and he did not mention it,look at his VRAM use(987mb+) WTH !??
He claims he was only browsing/doing basic 2D stuff,on the PC,but the data he put forth refutes that,and soundly.
Kyle has done an UPDATE as to the sound profile on single and dual 480GTX’s,I suggest reading it,and -listening- -to- -it-.These cards are hardly loud!
The card in REAL WORLD use is NO worse then a 260/275/285/295gtx/4890.
Don’t believe me ! WATCH THE VIDEO REVIEW YOURSELVES….. :
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/04/01/geforce_gtx_480_real_world_temperatures_sound
The cards are NOT anywhere as loud as all the ATI bandwagoneers are making it out to be.
Happy easter weekend all,that goes out to both ATI and NVDA fans!
Manny

psiphor said…
[q]7. Any performance figures on Folding@Home for GTX 480/70?[/q]
Have you read up on the Anandtech review ?
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2977/nvidia-s-geforce-gtx-480-and-gtx-470-6-months-late-was-it-worth-the-wait-/6
The Fermi chips wipe the floor in OpenCL/Compute/CUDA/C++/Folding,against GT2xx/RV8xx series chips,and soundly at that.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2977/nvidia-s-geforce-gtx-480-and-gtx-470-6-months-late-was-it-worth-the-wait-/5
Tesselation performance now,and going forward looks to be incredible.