470 & 480

[Supra]

How do you like them? Did you have a 2XX series card prior. How and big a difference is it running DX 11 vs 10 in BC2?

Also I think there is a misunderstanding, these cards are dual GPU, just like the 295 and use two if them gives you quad sli. They would not build brand new cards that were less powerful that the current most powerful model of the 295.


Talked to BFG and it says right here dual GPU gives u quad sli.

http://bfgtech.com/bfgrgtx4801534e.aspx

 

[HeatSurge]

Had GTX 260 c216. Now GTX 480.

BC2 looks pretty much the same - I suppose you can run 4xAA and ambient occlusion and higher settings in general, but the benefits of DX10 vs DX11 or even DX9 vs DX11 (or 10 or whatever) are negligible. I think the shadows are softer and perhaps soft particles too, but who the hell looks at shadows and particles anyway lol... I mean, the difference isn't even that big.

If you buy a GTX 480, I'd do it for performance rather than DX11. DX11 is again hype and more hype like DX10. Minor improvements here and there, and almost nothing which couldn't be accomplished by DX9 anyway. The new features are nice, but it's going to be years before developers really start designing features exclusively for DX11. I mean, even today most developers are coding for DX9 first and foremost, and DX10/11 is more of an afterthought.

Just be aware that the fan on the GTX 480 is noisy as fuck (as in, the noisiest graph. card I've probably had - ever, under load anyway). When it's in "low power mode" clocked down it's not audible, but at "performance" clocks, even if it's idle the fan speeds up to audible levels.

Luckily, my EK waterblock is arriving this Friday (yay!). Too bad I don't have other components except a 3x120 radiator I bought a couple of weeks ago. It's going to be expensive :-/ .

 

[boondokk]

Yeah the big baby is LOUD. Watercool that fucker and she'll purr for you for years.

 

[Supra]

Had GTX 260 c216. Now GTX 480.

BC2 looks pretty much the same - I suppose you can run 4xAA and ambient occlusion and higher settings in general, but the benefits of DX10 vs DX11 or even DX9 vs DX11 (or 10 or whatever) are negligible. I think the shadows are softer and perhaps soft particles too, but who the hell looks at shadows and particles anyway lol... I mean, the difference isn't even that big.

If you buy a GTX 480, I'd do it for performance rather than DX11. DX11 is again hype and more hype like DX10. Minor improvements here and there, and almost nothing which couldn't be accomplished by DX9 anyway. The new features are nice, but it's going to be years before developers really start designing features exclusively for DX11. I mean, even today most developers are coding for DX9 first and foremost, and DX10/11 is more of an afterthought.

Just be aware that the fan on the GTX 480 is noisy as fuck (as in, the noisiest graph. card I've probably had - ever, under load anyway). When it's in "low power mode" clocked down it's not audible, but at "performance" clocks, even if it's idle the fan speeds up to audible levels.

Luckily, my EK waterblock is arriving this Friday (yay!). Too bad I don't have other components except a 3x120 radiator I bought a couple of weeks ago. It's going to be expensive :-/ .

So basically I should stick with my Maxcore OC2 260's?

 

[HeatSurge]

So basically I should stick with my Maxcore OC2 260's?

If you have 2... probably.

I had 1, and it was just time to upgrade. Didn't quite "cut" it in games such as Crysis, Just Cause 2, STALKER: CS/CP, Bad Company 2 even - at the settings I wanted. Moreover I got the 480 for $460 which I consider a pretty good deal for the highest-end card of the spectrum 1 week after release...

 

[Supra]

If you have 2... probably.

I had 1, and it was just time to upgrade. Didn't quite "cut" it in games such as Crysis, Just Cause 2, STALKER: CS/CP, Bad Company 2 even - at the settings I wanted. Moreover I got the 480 for $460 which I consider a pretty good deal for the highest-end card of the spectrum 1 week after release...

Yea I got two of the best GTX 260's out there and my temps are great sub 60's during intense Crysis game play. Ill stick with what I got, thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

 

[Supra]

So how are you liking your cards heat? U going to order another one and do quad sli?

 

[sixer9682]

Man, fuck the 480. I don't need another heater in my house, much less a loud heater. I'll wait and see what comes next from Nvidia. Hopefully they'll get it right next time.

 

[HeatSurge]

So how are you liking your cards heat? U going to order another one and do quad sli?

One is enough for now, even though it's _STILL_ not "perfect" maxed out in Crysis and Stalker, at least it's acceptable now. I've been playing through Stalker and it's awesome.

BTW it's a SINGLE GPU card, it's not a "sli-on-a-card" card like the 5970/9850GX2. So if you bought another, you'd have just SLI, not quad SLI.

And yes, if in the future I want more performance, I'll get another one. The best thing about the GTX 480 is that it scales extremely well in SLI. I think the improvement is 1.9-1.95 in most cases, because they specifically made improvements to the architecture to reduce SLI overhead.

They have a tri-sli review of the GTX480/470 at guru3d. SLI is tasty, but tri-sli is a ridiculous overkill. Games are running into a CPU bottleneck with an OCd I7 at 3.85ghz... check it out:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-480-3way-sli-review/

I'm ordering the rest of my watercooling parts today finally...