Nvidia GeForce GTX 480

Nvidia's long anticipated enthusiast graphics card, the GeForce GTX 480, has finally arrived at [he DirecrX II ball. Read on to see whether vidia's darling is fashionably late or wearing last year's dress.

bigger, bur the GTX 480's 40nm die is far denser. GF 100 features 16 streaming multipro­cessors, each of which contains 32 CUDA cores, for a total of 512 CUDA cores. At least that was [he plan. The GTX 480 has 15 SMs active, giving the card 480 CUDA cores. TSMC's yield problerns have undoubtedly contributed to Fermi's de­lay, but the day following Fermi's debut, Nvidia's Director of Technical Marketing Tom Peterson told us that he is pleased with GFIOO yields. The I O.5-inch-long GTX 480 sports a pair ofDVI portS and a mini HDMI POrt, has a max board power of250 watts, and includes 6- and 8-pin PCI-E power connectors to meet those demands.

The GPU Goods The GTX 480 is builr around Nvidia's most ambitious GPU to date; the 40nm GF 100 is a 529mm2 die comprising more than 3 billion transistors. N vidia's last­generation flagship, the GTX 280, and the GTX 480's direct rival, the ATI Radeon HD 5870, feanire 1.4 billion and 2.15 bil­Lon transistors on 576nun2 and 334mm2 dies, respectively. Sure, the GTX 280's 65nm process-based die was physically

The Numbers

In our thermal tests (probe on the heatsink, Call Of Pripyat), Fermi peaked at 75 degrees Celsius. The Radeon HD 5970 (probe on the hearsink) pushed the dig­ital mercury to 58 C. Nvidia tells us the GTX 480 can handle it, but we'd argue [hat your other components will feel the heat without additional cooling, per­haps from a side-panel fan. I n our so und tests (sound meter at the

GeForce GTX 480 $499 Nvidia www.nvidia.com

 

hearsink fan; Call Of Pripyat), the GTX 480 hovered between 72 and 74.5dB. The Radeon HD 5970 was quieter, at 66 to 69dB, and the Radeon HD 5870 peaked at 60 to 63.5dB. These results illustrate the raw difference between the cards but do not represent what you will experience. You will notice when the GTX 480 spins up, but the sounds of squealing tires or gLUlfire should easily drown it out. Barring [he synthetic 3DMark Vantage scores and DX9 Left 4 Dead, the GTX 480 bested the 5870. Games such as Dirt 2 and Call Of Pripyat utilize tessellation's triangle-multiplying technology, whim is a major component ofDXll, but the GTX 480 failed to pull significantly ahead even here. I t performs well enough to become the fastest single-GPU graphics card but falls significantly short of top­pling the 5970. Final Word

By now, you know what Nvidia brings to the cable in PhysX, 3D Vision Surround (requires two cards in SU), and CUDA, whim are compelling for gaHlers and en­th usiasts alike. If the GTX 480's price doesn't faze you, you have a sufficiencly cooled case, and you can find one in Stock, then the GTX 480 may be for you. But even without a price CUt, the Radeon HD 5870 is still, seven months later, a com­pelling

alternative for the more cash­strapped among us .