GTX 480 question

[stipalgl]

Hi,

So I have the opportunity to purchase a GTX 480 from someone for $180. I'd be upgrading from a GTX 260, which has been having trouble playing Witcher 2.

I'm familiar with the 480's heat and noise issues but are they really that bad or is a lot of the criticism hyperbole? What do you guys think? Is $180 a good deal for what I'm getting or can I do better?

Thanks in advance.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

$180 is too high. 150 for a reference 480 would be okay. Saw a couple 570's selling for 170-180.

 

[toyota]

if the rest of your specs are as old or older than that gtx260 then you might need more than a new video card.

 

[toyota]

$180 is too high. 150 for a reference 480 would be okay. Saw a couple 570's selling for 170-180.

170 bucks seems crazy low for a gtx570 and no way would I take that for my card.

 

[stipalgl]

The rest of my specs aren't too bad:

HAF 932 Case
i5 750 @ 4.1 GHz
Corsair HX850 PSU
P55A-UD3P motherboard
16 GB G.Skill Ripjaws 1600 MHz
120 GB FORCE GT SSD
2 x 3 TB WD Green HD's

Oil is saying too much. You're saying otherwise I assume? I'm just wondering if the heat will really be an issue. My 260 currently idles at 45 since the weather is getting hot. Load temps hover around 65 - 70C.

 

[Gordon Freemen]

GTX 480 still has a tangible amount of performance for maxing out any games that can be maxed out with a single card and $180 is a really good deal for the amount of performance it will net in return.

 

[Gordon Freemen]

The rest of my specs aren't too bad:

HAF 932 Case
i5 750 @ 4.1 GHz
Corsair HX850 PSU
P55A-UD3P motherboard
16 GB G.Skill Ripjaws 1600 MHz
120 GB FORCE GT SSD
2 x 3 TB WD Green HD's

Oil is saying too much. You're saying otherwise I assume? I'm just wondering if the heat will really be an issue. My 260 currently idles at 45 since the weather is getting hot. Load temps hover around 65 - 70C.

I don't see how the heat would be an issue unless you live in the desert and I would be allot more worried about the noise output although I think it is not nearly as bad as people made it out to be so long as it has plenty of room to breath and cool properly.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

170 bucks seems crazy low for a gtx570 and no way would I take that for my card.

Guy was selling a twin frozr 570 for $180 on the forum. Had two of them. Makes me wonder why I ever buy new when you can get stuff so cheap used.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

You can buy a brand new in box GTX 480 for $220 with a warranty, free shipping, and no tax depending on where you live.

http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-G...8159434&sr=8-1

I would buy that just for the warranty and this is a fair price.

 

[p_monks33]

The reference cards are really hot. Its not just people complaining. They hit high 80's when stressed to about 80% or so. The cooler is also obnoxious if the fan goes above 60% which it has to do frequently. I think with an aftermarket cooler like the accelero it's a great card.

 

[toyota]

instead of spending 180 bucks on that 480 you could buy my gtx570 for 220 since I have a gtx670 on the way. :biggrin:

the 570 is dead even with the 480 and even beats it in games like BF3. it uses quite a bit less power, is quiet and it runs cool.

 

[Gordon Freemen]

The reference cards are really hot. Its not just people complaining. They hit high 80's when stressed to about 80% or so. The cooler is also obnoxious if the fan goes above 60% which it has to do frequently. I think with an aftermarket cooler like the accelero it's a great card.

High temps are not a big deal when the cards are manufactured and engineered to run at high temps and Nvidia has mostly always made hot running cards up until Kepler at leased and my GTX 275 hit 91c when gaming under max load. Also GTX 480s are rated to run safely up into above 100c and 110c is when they shut themselves down for safety.

 

[toyota]

High temps are not a big deal when the cards are manufactured and engineered to run at high temps and Nvidia has mostly always made hot running cards up until Kepler at leased and my GTX 275 hit 91c when gaming under max load. Also GTX 480s are rated to run safely up into above 100c and 110c is when they shut themselves down for safety.

91C for a gtx275? good grief. I had a reference 65nm gtx260 and that card never once went over 80C in game even when oced by 20%.

 

[BD231]

It's pretty loud, just not compared to much of any other blower type fan you'll ever come across. My ATI 4890 was far more annoying than this card no question. If u leave the 480 at stock you can leave the fan setting at 60 to 65% which is unquestionably low noise. For 850mhz you'll *NEED* at least 70% fan speed which for me is tolerable. I have an isolated incident in a game called sniper v2, it pushes GPU's way harder than even BF3 and force's me to use 80% fan speed unless I want 90c temps. That's just nuts considering I undervolt my card, but I've yet to find a title that can reproduce it. In any case there's nothing to worry about, v-sync damn near cuts your temps in half no matter what title you play so it's not hard to compensate for if its ever really an issue. I'm just a stickler about temps, I'd rather see my card around 70 to 80c not 80 to 90 like its rated to run at.

To answer your question the card is entirely tolerable to me though, you get a ridiculous amount of power for the price and you don't have to deal with poor ATI driver quality. If you can find a 580 for $250 or so I'd bite on that instead, heck if anyone offered me a 580 *right now* for $250 I'd buy it no questions (hint hint), they run much cooler and quieter.

28nm isn't worth the sweat and spit nVidia/Ati wasted releasing it thus-far, 480 will last you quite a while if this trend continues.

 

[Gordon Freemen]

instead of spending 180 bucks on that 480 you could buy my gtx570 for 220 since I have a gtx670 on the way. :biggrin:

the 570 is dead even with the 480 and even beats it in games like BF3. it uses quite a bit less power, is quiet and it runs cool.

GTX 570 is essentially the perfected version of the GTX 480 they are the same card with a few minor tweaks here and there on the 570 for heat and power optimizations. In short the GTX 570 is what Nvidia wanted the GTX 480 to be but insted Nvidia made an executive decision to "rush" the GTX 480 to market in order to combat the excellent and then dominating Ati 58xx series cards. OP you will be very well off with the GTX 480 and like I say $180 is a small price to pay for the high level of performance that the GTX 480 pump out and that's the bottom line. Another thing OP that you may want to consider is something another poster has brought to light is that for just a bit more money you can get a brand new EVGA GTX 480 complete with the piece of mind that come with knowing your investment is protected and warrantied from any defects and or other malfunctions so in my books for another $50-$70 bucks that's a small price to pay for guaranteed & factory backed perfect functionality of your GPU investment for as long as you own it.

 

[Gordon Freemen]

91C for a gtx275? good grief. I had a reference 65nm gtx260 and that card never once went over 80C in game even when oced by 20%.

The GTX 275s were the hottest running cards out of all the 2xx series line up for what ever reason. Even the GTX 280 ran a bit cooler than the 275 and the 285 ran even a bit cooler than the 280 so ya it's weird. OP the temps are not an issue unless like I say you live in the desert.

 

[Gordon Freemen]

It's pretty loud, just not compared to much of any other blower type fan you'll ever come across. My ATI 4890 was far more annoying than this card no question. If u leave the 480 at stock you can leave the fan setting at 60 to 65% which is unquestionably low noise. For 850mhz you'll *NEED* at least 70% fan speed which for me is tolerable. I have an isolated incident in a game called sniper v2, it pushes GPU's way harder than even BF3 and force's me to use 80% fan speed unless I want 90c temps. That's just nuts considering I undervolt my card, but I've yet to find a title that can reproduce it. In any case there's nothing to worry about, v-sync damn near cuts your temps in half no matter what title you play so it's not hard to compensate for if its ever really an issue. I'm just a stickler about temps, I'd rather see my card around 70 to 80c not 80 to 90 like its rated to run at.

To answer your question the card is entirely tolerable to me though, you get a ridiculous amount of power for the price and you don't have to deal with poor ATI driver quality. If you can find a 580 for $250 or so I'd bite on that instead, heck if anyone offered me a 580 *right now* for $250 I'd buy it no questions (hint hint), they run much cooler and quieter.

28nm isn't worth the sweat and spit nVidia/Ati wasted releasing it thus-far, 480 will last you quite a while if this trend continues.

The GTX 480 is rated to run @ around 100c all day and night and it makes no difference to the card if it is running at 70c or 100c and for me I rather have a silent system rather than a jet engine noise polluting my home LOL. Also it's RADEON not Ati and there drivers have been excellent since like 09 when I first started using the Ati cards that being said I am currently running a GTX 275 and am upgrading to GTX 560 SLI when they get shipped.

 

[p_monks33]

The temps on mine were in the 90's like everyone said , its fine for the card to run at that. I just got tired of my room being hot as an oven running them.

 

[E6700]

good deal,buy it.

 

[Gordon Freemen]

The temps on mine were in the 90's like everyone said , its fine for the card to run at that. I just got tired of my room being hot as an oven running them.

Funny cause my GTX 275 routinely runs @ 91c under max load gaming and I dont have a problem with heat LOL what do you live in a shoe box.

 

[toyota]

Funny cause my GTX 275 routinely runs @ 91c under max load gaming and I dont have a problem with heat LOL what do you live in a shoe box.

temp on the core is not the same as the heat the card is putting out. the gtx480 uses way more power thus generates more heat. plus he said "them" which makes me think he was running sli.

 

[Gordon Freemen]

temp on the core is not the same as the heat the card is putting out. the gtx480 uses way more power thus generates more heat. plus he said "them" which makes me think he was running sli.

90c on the core is 90c on the core but then again there is the whole rest of the card memory chips and all that would create a tad bit more heat. I tell you what in 09 I ran Radeon HD 4890s in Croffire in a case that was not meant for it and the cards would heat up to over 100c a pice and that created just enought heat to drive up the heat in my apartment but one well ventilated GTX 480 is small potatoes.

 

[toyota]

again the temps on the card do not tell you how much heat is being generated. if a I had a gtx480 running at 90C and a gtx480 with a huge cooler on it running at 70C, they would still be releasing the same amount of heat into my room.

 

[Gordon Freemen]

again the temps on the card do not tell you how much heat is being generated. if a I had a gtx480 running at 90C and a gtx480 with a huge cooler on it running at 70C, they would still be releasing the same amount of heat into my room.

Did you read my post I said I ran 2x unventilated Radeon HD 4890s which are not particularly extremely cool running cards to begin with. Certainly 2x 4890s are much hotter than one 480.

 

[toyota]

Did you read my post I said I ran 2x unventilated Radeon HD 4890s which are not particularly extremely cool running cards to begin with. Certainly 2x 4890s are much hotter than one 480.

yes but the way you worded it still indicated that you thought just the temps on the cards were indicating how much heat was getting released in to the room.