NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480M reviewed: fastest mobile GPU to date
By Darren Murph 
posted June 17th 2010 1:03PM
posted June 17th 2010 1:03PM
It's one thing to have a product called the world's fastest on paper, but it's another thing entirely to have the benchmarks confirm it. NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 480M has been swooned over for months now, but it just recently hit the hardcore review sites in a big way. Frankly, there's not a whole lot to say about the thing at this point: it's simply the fastest mobile GPU to date, with Hot Hardware finding it to be "significantly faster in nearly all gaming benchmarks," with just one title showing the Mobility Radeon HD 5870 as the champ by only a few frames. If you've been searching for the fastest mobile GPU in town, you're wasting your time looking any harder; 'course, all of that power consumes an insane level of energy, so true road warriors will certainly want to look elsewhere. Critics pointed out that energy consumption and excess heat were real issues, though both of those are easily overlooked when you're able to take a beastly laptop to a LAN party rather than your desktop. Give those links below a visit if you still need proof.
Lost interest in PC gaming!!!!
@hell hound Hope you enjoy using 2005 technology until at least 2012 then, as thats Microsoft's plan with the console as you've seen with our recent "refresh". *facepalm*
@hell hound Most games on xbox are also on PC and $10 cheaper too. Plus games like Starcraft II, upcoming Diablo III, just to name a couple are definitely worth playing.
@hell hound
PC GAMING FTW.
The best possible experience ever in gaming.
Nothing beats the PC, not even Kinect, Move or the Wiimote.
Although graphics makers should stop with the BS name marketing. If you name your laptop graphics card the same as your desktop, just with an added "M", you should expect similar performances!
@hell hound
Don't consider this JUST pc gaming,
consider this pc gaming AND a heater for your house AND another page on the electricity bill :)
Psh. Where my mobile fermi quadro.
@Failbait
Awaiting a suitable mobile liquid-cooling system.
I think you meant mobile heater.
@chaos Quadro just means the business version of the card. Only difference would be the drivers, not the power consumption.
@chaos Heatpipes leading to a coffee maker, probably will start the boiling faster than any kettle or microwave.
@jiggpig
That used to be the case. Not anymore. Quadros are not simply marked with different drivers.
Plus, not because I want a quadro specifically, but because the top end business laptops don't come with geforces.
@benjgvps
Oh and about cooling, the Dell M6500 has had a 100 watt card for months now (fx 3800m), and it's known to be a cool laptop - @1.5" thick.
@Failbait
I've heard of desktops thinner than that.
@DougieBear
Imagine that, a 17" laptop with an optical burner, two hard drives, extra mini pcie slots, 4 ram slots, and ALL the ports the MacBook is missing, and it's a WHOPPING 1.5" thick. Moron. Pluss it has a completely fla profile, making the 1.5 very slim feeling. Plus, I beleive they are counting the mounting pads in the width.
The only thing thinner is that under powered, over priced, thin yet overheating crapbook semi-pro.
@Failbait
You do know I don't own a mac?
@DougieBear
I compared it to the only thinner, comparable laptop. I didn't say you own one. So really, your problem is how thick the slimmest 17" portable workstation are? Why bother pointing that out? It's 1.5".
How "mobile" is this GPU?
Does it only support gaming/large laptops?
Can it be used in 14" CULVS?
Can it be used in netbooks?
@Kangal
Mobile doesn't mean without limits; I doubt it will make it to 15" since the current 3800m (100watts) is "for 17 in systems" according to nvidia, and that's the only place you'll find it.
And a netbook? Netbook CPUs are not fast enough to let this gpu rub to it's potential, contrary to how most people beleive the CPU has nothing to do with the gpu.
wows
i want one.
wonder how much they will hike the price up for one of these babies?
@painfull2006 when they put this in the macbook air I will upgrade
@marxman
So... never?
@marxman
And it'll promptly burn out... it's a hot chip, won't work particularly well in any of the macbook range. Needs much better ventilation.
@marxman Keep dreaming.
@Stotherd Was joke dude, cmon. =p
@marxman
It will be 5 years before any macbook/air/pro have something this powerfully in them
@Stotherd lol I was just saying laptops are for portability and the mba is the most sexc and portable laptop out there and it can still run css on the 9400m so I wuldn't trade it for any gaming brick. If you want hardcore gaming just get a desktop, its like 1/4 of the price
@marxman
VAIO Z says hi
Laptops with this should probably be called Lapfriers
@mnhthebest Ball burners.
I hope people are insured against fire damage
@mojo8472
When can we expect to see these in mainstream notebooks?
I was thinking about getting a gaming laptop but then I was like, "Man, laptop gaming is expensive." So now I'm just building a new desktop. The HD 5870 is coming in today. Woo!
@einhanderkiller What do you define as expensive? I have an ASUS g51j laptop and it has a nvidia 360m which plays all games like CoD MW2 and a bunch of others perfectly. It cost me a bit over $1000.
@plbelanger
I like to play as the highest settings and that HD 5870 Mobility-equipped ASUS 17" laptop costs like $1,600. A desktop just as fast costs less than $1,000. Plus, college, so I'm trying not to spend too much.
@einhanderkiller You can buy MSI GX640 for $1100 with 5850 which is equal to ASUS G73Jh in terms of game performance: there is only 5% difference in FPS for ~ $500.
@Pasha correction: there is only slim difference (5%) in FPS between MSI GX640 ($1100) and ASUS G73Jh ($1600)
If you can afford a real actual gaming laptop then you can afford a couple external 400+ watt hour batteries to power it.
@dicobalt Its called hybrid graphics.
For everyday use you use a frugal integrated GPU, and your battery life is just fine and you don't heat your lap.
When you want to game or renter or do anything really GPU intensive, then you plug into an AC power outlet on a desk.
Personally though, its a bit rich for my blood, and the fastest mobile cards don't hold a candle to the fastest desktop cards.
@Ducman69 buy one of these i-UP 13200mah battery and your set
Shouldn't all laptops come standard with switchable graphics these days?
@Bandigolo
If GTX 480M comes with Optimus, I'm sold.
On batteries : Intel HD Graphics
At home: YEAH GAMING TIME! GTX480M BABY~!
You can play crysis while frying eggs for breakfast and let you girlfriend dry her nails with the air fling out of the exhaust
sweet!!!!
They're doing it wrong. Learn something from intel!
more cores, less power, less heat.
@smakus gpus like this start off with 300+ cores just so you know
@smakus
try playing MW2 or BFBC2 on intel graphics...
@smakus
it has 352 cores.
i'm not sorry if this post hurt your feelings.
0-120˚ C in under 5.2 seconds... FASTEST YET!
@hfm Its Bugatti Veyron of all GPUs :)
NVidia over-competed with Intel! Welcome the new NvBurst. Pentium IV jokes aside, I'm only interested in 0-100˚C times i.e. How fast can this boil a cup of water. Would be nice for a coffee-on-the-go...