NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 set up in 3-way SLI, tested against Radeon HD 5870 and 5970
By Vlad Savov 
posted April 20th 2010 4:16AM
posted April 20th 2010 4:16AM
posted April 20th 2010 4:16AM
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I had pants on when I started reading this article..
@eddieexe
So much of energy wasted.. In other news, Ubisoft went green by not printing paper manuals
I didn't.
@eddieexe
*Looks at avatar* How can you be wearing pants if you don't have any legs?
@ApocNarok
*looks at avatar* It's 2 am. Don't you have some battery charging to do?
@ApocNarok, on his ears, of course.
@GnuGeek
You'll need a persistant connection to their servers to read the online one though!
@eddieexe
But can it run Crysis?
MONSTER is an understatement. Very impressive performance on some games. But temperature and power draw taken into consideration, is it worth it?
If this is any indication of the future of NV graphics cards, a personal nuclear reactor will soon become a requirement for power.
@ApocNarok
you've never worn pants on your head?
@FAP FAP FAP Radeon FTW! (For the Wallet)
@GnuGeek
I've found companies are happy to 'go green' when it gives them an excuse to cheap out on their product without fear of customer backlash.
When they do something that costs them more money, like 100% recycled plastic cases, I'll be impressed.
@eddieexe
Cool. it was socks with me.
@eddieexe It need a carburetor.
@eddieexe Because playing at 1,476 FPS >> 1,281 FPS.
@eddieexe : I could have told them that a 3-way is awesome. :)
@GnuGeek
not too much longer before nuclear reactive powering becomes as common as liquid cooling....
@eddieexe Seeing how the benchmark of the hd5970 is just amazing. Reactions-- http://j.mp/5970-by-ati-fastest
@eddieexe lol you're silly
@Riccardo
NVIDIA sucks. ATI FTW!
@Riccardo It fucking rapes Crysis...pardon the outburst but now Crysis line sounds very annoying.
The poor silicon... withstanding such high temperatures...
@konceptzoflife
No kidding, the centre GTX480 was 96°C on a test bench! Ha Ha, in a case you would have huge heat issues.
@konceptzoflife
this will [s]sell like[/s] cook pancakes!!
@konceptzoflife
the power draw on these must be intense...
@konceptzoflife
They are called "Thermi" for a reason.
@DeFlanko
They do, the 3 of them under load consume almost 1kW [I think 934W]; as told by the second to last page of the article.
@konceptzoflife
I think they might be able to melt some computer casings. Or maybe that's the nuclear reactor required to power them AND the complex cooling system.
Something tells me they're doin' it wrong.
@konceptzoflife Forget the temperatures...how about your ears? They're louder than your average vacuum cleaner:
http://www.itap.purdue.edu/images/candy/hearingChart.jpg
Meh.. all that really matters. is dollar per frame per second... and of course, to be fair, the cards temperatures should be even during the test.
Those are some sexy pieces of hardware sitting on that table...
@Kevin6432
Yeah they aren't on a table, they are plugged into a motherboard.. I fail. Time for bed...........
Yay, in time for earth day. You can probably safely use these beasts when your neighbors are turning their lights off.
Engadget just made their server go down
@dpacmittal
Yup, still says there are currently problems with the database server. Cool site, though. They have a huge product database with detailed tech specs of hardware
Those card must be blowing a lot of hot air
@Cheers12 At least you'd save money on heating
@Cheers12 yup those are pretty hot...93 degree on default, no oc
how do the 2 cards behind the first one get any cool air to their intake fans?
(first reaction after seeing the pic, i'm sure it's explained somewhere deep inside the source article, which i'm i can't be bothered to check out)
@mrqs the cards are slightly tempered where the fan intake is ... this means that air is taken in from the rear of the card...the more interesting thing is how a 2 way sli compares to a 3 ... as 2 of the cards are running in 8x mode only....as thats the limitations with having the PCI-E controller on chip...
1KW PSU ... you say that as if its "WOW we've never seen that before" ... Endgadget your great on tech...but stay away from the PC Enthusiast market ... its like listening to my grandad say "Oh in my day" .... anyone with an SLI rig has had more than 800W for the last few years...and if this was based on the G92 architecture then it would of required a minimum of 1500W ... so overall power consumption for ludicrous rigs has come down....
@Jaster
Perhaps you should actually try reading it properly.
"... fun facts that a 1 Kilowatt PSU provided insufficient power for NVIDIA's hardware..."
@slee62 sorry i did mean 1.2kw ...
@Jaster
...it would of required...
"Would OF" doesn't make sense... why do people write that?? That's not just matter of misspelling or bad grammar but simply the WRONG WORD
@dzeikei sorry thats my northern english accent...at the end of the day i'm a hardware analyst and my written/typed english isn't too great ... but then again I never said it was....
@Jaster at the end of the day you're sleeping in your parents' basement.
@amneziac yeah with yer mum ...
@Jaster the thing is, 3 radeon use about 600... 3 nvidia double that. thats the issue, and the nvidia make noise like an airplane taking off. Overall this new card does not impress at all. it would have been a good ribal if it was out
@Jaster the thing is, 3 radeon use about 600... 3 nvidia double that. thats the issue, and the nvidia make noise like an airplane taking off. Overall this new card does not impress at all. it would have been a good ribal if it was out at the same time as the radeon card, but its so late now and underperforming for the time. sorry nvidia, you lost this one
@choufleur47 hmmm 2 radeons in 2 way xfire source 591 watts under load according to every review I've read ... so add another 50% at least and your near ... you have to remember this talks about total system watts not just the graphics cards although the graphics cards probably source a good 75% of this....this would roughly be the same as the firmi series (GT400) ... the problems I've read are not power consumption...because oc'ers and enthusiasts are not really bothered about performance to watt ratio...but the heat these things kick out when oc'd is enormous and they only lead the 5000 series when oc'd...I wouldn't buy one until we see those temps down ... and the price ... radeon's are still ruling the roost although the teselation shown in the GT400 series is far superior its a long way off us actually seeing it within games...don't believe me...check toms and oc3d...