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ATI CrossFireX versus NVIDIA SLI: performance scaling showdown
We know who the daddy is when it comes to single-card graphics performance, and we've even witnessed NVIDIA and ATI duking it out with multiple cards before, but this here roundup is what you might call comprehensive. Comparing a mind-boggling 23 different configurations, the Tech Report guys set out to determine the best bang for your DirectX 11 buck. Their conclusion won't shock those of you who've been following the recent love affair between reviewers and NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 460: a pair of these eminently affordable cards regularly outpaced the best single-GPU solutions out there. Slightly more intriguing, however, was the discovery that its elder siblings, the GTX 470 and 480, have improved in performance to the point of being markedly ahead of ATI's Radeon HD 5870, with the blame for this shift being put squarely on the shoulders of NVIDIA's driver update team. Hurry up and give the source a read while it's still fresh, we can't imagine ATI letting this be the status quo for too much longer.
ASUS Mars 2 teases superpowered dual GeForce GTX 480 goodness
We'll be honest with you, we thought the GTX 480 was finally a graphics core too damn large and power-hungry to get the dual-GPU treatment. ASUS, however, is making us think again. Imagery has emerged of a Mars 2 (or II, if you're into outdated numbering schemes) reference board that fits two 480s on its densely populated surface, and is fed by not one, not two, but three 8-pin auxiliary power connectors. Back when Galaxy showed off a dual-GTX 470 prototype at Computex a month ago, we deemed it an unreasonable proposition -- in terms of power draw, heat dissipation, and cost -- but apparently those Taiwanese focus groups are really into their extravagantly overpowered video cards. We suspect if and when this Mars 2 hits retail it'll do so in a highly exclusive fashion, like its predecessor, and anticipate the unveiling of its cooler -- which is likely to be either the biggest or best engineered one we've seen yet.
NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround delayed, ATI gloats with an Eyefinity demo site
If you're one of the truly lilliputian proportion of PC gamers who actually bought two of either the GTX 470 or GTX 480 from NVIDIA in the hope of running a tri-monitor 3D gorgefest, we've got bad news for ya. If you're anyone else, enjoy the schadenfreude of knowing that those first guys will have to keep waiting for 3D Vision Surround support until the end of June. As NVIDIA tells it, the driver bringing the tri-dimensional, multi-monitor gaming nirvana was targeted for an April release, but has now slipped a couple of months. It's disappointing to see one of the major selling points of the GTX 400 series coming so much later than the cards' release, but at least ATI's around to console you if you're feeling jilted. The company has set up an Eyefinity Experience Tool that does a good job illustrating the benefits of gaming on a trifecta of monitors over a single display. Hit the source links for more.
Shuttle unveils Core i7-powered J3 desktop, changes how you look at little PCs
Earlier in the month Shuttle unveiled a pair of serious little desktops, the J1 and G2, and teased about a third model that would knock all of our proverbial socks off in one fell swoop. That desktop is here and, well, our feet are bare. The J3 packs an Intel Core i7-980X Gulftown processor, about the fastest available for consumers today, and pairs it with NVIDIA's monster GeForce GTX 480. Shuttle isn't telling other details of the machine at this point (all will be unveiled at Computex in early June), but in a video after the break you can gaze upon its healthy stack of USB ports and stare longingly at its shapely cooling system as it spins about slowly shedding its clothing -- and its dignity.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 4-way SLI exemplifies law of diminishing returns
What's better than three monstrous GeForce GTX 480 graphics cards in a 3-way SLI configuration? How about four... is what we'd like to say, if Hardware.info hadn't just discovered that said setup is a huge waste of cash. With a full four GTX 480 cards buckled into an X58 Classified 4-Way SLI motherboard plus a Core i7-980X processor and a massive 1.5 kilowatt power supply to squeeze the juice, the €4,064 ($5,440) box still lost to a similarly configured 3-way rig in a wide variety of benchmarks. You could argue the system was CPU-limited, but Hardware.info used the fastest consumer chip available -- so it seems there's no place in today's market (keyword: today) for GTX 480 4-way SLI. Except, of course, for droolworthy snapshots like the above.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 set up in 3-way SLI, tested against Radeon HD 5870 and 5970
Not many mortals will ever have to worry about choosing between a three-way GeForce GTX 480 SLI setup, an equally numerous Radeon HD 5870 array, or a dual-card HD 5970 monstrosity, but we know plenty of people would care about who the winner might be. Preliminary notes here include the fun facts that a 1 Kilowatt PSU provided insufficient power for NVIDIA's hardware, while the mighty Core i7-965 test bench CPU proved to be a bottleneck in some situations. Appropriately upgraded to a six-core Core i7-980X and a 1,200W power supply, the testers proceeded to carry out the sacred act of benchmarking the snot out of these superpowered rigs. We won't spoil the final results of the bar chart warfare here, but rest assured both camps score clear wins in particular games and circumstances. The source link shall reveal all.
CyberPower, Digital Storm and Maingear add NVIDIA Fermi GPUs to flagship gaming PCs
Origin PC kicked things off on Friday by shoving NVIDIA's latest and greatest into its Genesis desktop, and now a few more in the custom PC game have upped the ante by offering a similarly delectable taste of Fermi. NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 470 and 480 have been all the rage over the weekend, and if those raucous benchmarks have you convinced that the time to buy is now, a trio of system builders are here vying for your attention. Digital Storm's Black|OPS rig can now be ordered with a GTX 480 (starts at $2,891), while CyberPower is giving prospective customers the ability to add the latest Fermi GPUs into a smattering of towers. Maingear's formidable SHIFT supercomputer is also seeing the update, but it's really asking for trouble with a triple GTX 480 configuration that demands a minimum investment of $6,199. In related news, ASUS, Zotac and a slew of other GPU makers are cranking out new boards based on the minty fresh core, so you shouldn't have a difficult time finding one if the rest of your rig is a-okay for now.
NVIDIA unleashes GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470 'tessellation monsters'
Let's get the hard data out of the way first: 480 CUDA cores, 700 MHz graphics and 1,401MHz processor clock speeds, plus 1.5GB of onboard GDDR5 memory running at 1,848MHz (for a 3.7GHz effective data rate). Those are the specs upon which Fermi is built, and those are the numbers that will seek to justify a $499 price tag and a spectacular 250W TDP. We attended a presentation by NVIDIA this afternoon, where the above GTX 480 and its lite version, the GTX 470, were detailed. The latter card will come with a humbler 1.2GB of memory plus 607MHz, 1,215MHz and 1,674MHz clocks, while dinging your wallet for $349 and straining your case's cooling with 215W of hotness. NVIDIA's first DirectX 11 parts are betting big on tessellation becoming the way games are rendered in the future, with the entire architecture being geared toward taking duties off the CPU and freeing up its cycles to deliver performance improvements elsewhere. This is perhaps no better evidenced than by the fact that both GTX models scored fewer 3DMarks than the Radeon HD 5870 and HD 5850 that they're competing against, but managed to deliver higher frame rates than their respective competitors in in-game benchmarks from NVIDIA. The final bit of major news here relates to SLI scaling, which is frankly remarkable. NVIDIA claims a consistent 90 percent performance improvement (over a single card) when running GTX 480s in tandem, which is as efficient as any multi-GPU setup we've yet seen. After the break you'll find a pair of tech demos and a roundup of the most cogent reviews.%Gallery-89115%
Origin PC stuffs 4.4GHz Core i7-980X, Fermi-based GTX 470 and 480 into Genesis desktop
Hope you didn't just pull the trigger on a new Origin PC Genesis, else you'll be forced to know that your rig was made obsolete in record time. Okay, maybe not obsolete, but there's precisely no doubt that you'd rather be rocking a new Fermi card than whatever you've got now. Right on cue, NVIDIA has launched its latest pair of powerhouse graphics cards, and as of right now, prospective Origin PC buyers can opt for either the GTX 470 or GTX 480 on the Genesis desktop. Better still, you can buy 'em in single, dual or triple SLI configurations, and in case you're down for paying the premium, a 4.4GHz overclocked Core i7-980X Extreme Edition CPU can sit alongside of it (or them).
NVIDIA to get official with Fermi GPUs, will 'more than double the performance' of existing cards
It's sure taken 'em long enough, but the Wall Street Journal is reporting that NVIDIA will finally allow the long-awaited Fermi design to reveal itself to the world. We're guessing that the GeForce GTX 470 and GTX 480 that we've been hearing (and hearing) about will be the flagship GPUs to get launched, but whatever the case, the WSJ assures us that the new line will "more than double the performance of its current products." As you'd expect, the Fermi cards -- which will ship with 512 480 or 446 cores (depending on model), three billion transistors and a whole heap of expectations -- will support 3D titles along with the latest video processing software, but they'll also be aimed at more unconventional markets like "medical research and oil-field exploration." Sounds gnarly, NVIDIA, but we're just interested in seeing our frame rates hit triple digits in Crysis 2 -- got it?
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 and 470 specs and pricing emerge
We're only a week away from their grand unveiling, but already we've got word of the specs for NVIDIA's high end GTX 480 and GTX 470 cards. Priced at $499, the 480 will offer 480 shader processors, a 384-bit interface to 1.5GB of onboard GDDR5 RAM, and clock speeds of 700MHz, 1,401MHz, and 1,848MHz for the core, shaders and memory, respectively. The 470 makes do with 446 SPs, slower clocks, and a 320-bit memory interface, but it's also priced at a more sensible $349. The TDPs of these cards are pretty spectacular too, with 225W for the junior model and 295W for the full-fat card. Sourced by VR Zone, these numbers are still unofficial, but they do look to mesh well with what we already know of the hardware, including a purported 5-10 percent benchmarking advantage for the GTX 480 over ATI's HD 5870. Whether the price and power premium is worth it will be up to you and the inevitable slew of reviews to decide. [Thanks, Sean]
NVIDIA GTX 480 makes benchmarking debut, matches ATI HD 5870 performance (video)
We're still not happy with NVIDIA's failure to publish anything on its site alerting users about the doom that may befall them if they switched to the 196.75 drivers, but the company's making an effort to get back into our good books with the first official video of its forthcoming GeForce GTX 480 and even a benchmark run against ATI's flagship single-GPU card, the HD 5870. It looks like you'll need to jack in a pair of auxiliary power connectors -- one 8-pin and one 6-pin -- to power the first Fermi card, as well as plenty of clearance in your case to accommodate its full length (stop giggling!). NVIDIA's benchmarking stressed the GTX 480's superior tesselation performance over the HD 5870, but it was level pegging between the two cards during the more conventional moments. It's all well and good being able to handle extreme amounts of tesselation, but it'll only matter to the end user if game designers use it as extensively as this benchmark did. As ever, wait for the real benchmarks (i.e. games) before deciding who wins, but we're slightly disappointed that NVIDIA's latest and greatest didn't just blow ATI's six-month old right out of the water. Benchmarking result awaits after the break, along with video of the new graphics card and a quick look at NVIDIA's 3D Vision Surround setup. Go fill your eyes.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 leaks out with Fermi on board
Well well, what's this? After months of whispers and small leaks, it seems the Fermi-powered NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 is starting to leak out into the wild before it launches on the 26th. Obviously the pictures don't tell us much about performance, but we can tell you that you'll need a serious power supply to juice this thing up -- and a serious fan to cool it down. We'll see how the GTX 480 and little brother 470 stack up against ATI's latest when they finally arrive, but for now hit the read link for a few more shots.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470 Fermi cards launching March 26th
It's okay, we understand your confusion, but the news here isn't that NVIDIA uses CoTweet as its Twitter client. What's exciting is that the GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470 -- the company's first to use the new Fermi architecture -- are just over a month from release. Friday, March 26th, and given that also happens to coincidence with the kickoff date for Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) East 2010 (of which NVIDIA is a major sponsor), we tend to think that's not just some convenient coincidence. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
NVIDIA's first two Fermi cards to be known as GeForce GTX 470 and GTX 480
Don't get too excited, we don't have specs or release windows yet, but we do have hilariously inflated model names to share with you. NVIDIA's all-new graphics architecture, commonly known as Fermi and recently re-coded as the GF100, has its first two commercial product names -- the GeForce GTX 470 and GTX 480 -- which as you'll have noticed skip right past the 300s and nearly double the model numbers of the company's current gen offerings. Let's just hope the performance lives up to such a blusterous naming scheme.
