Gigabyte GTX 480 SOC , good buy?

[romanrp]

Hello, i am thinking of buying this card to play the latest games on a 1080p monitor.
The card I am thinking of buying is the GTX 480 Super OC.

Uprated Silent Cooling Solution
- Core Clock: 820MHz
- Memory: 1536MB GDDR5
- Memory Clock: 3800MHz (Effective)
- Memory Interface: 384-Bit
- Processing Cores: 480
- Shader Clock: 1640MHz
- Bus Type: PCI-Express 2.0
- Display Connectors: 2x Dual-Link DVI-I & 1x Mini-HDMI 1.3a (Includes HDMI & VGA Adapters)
- SLI Ready
- HDCP Capable
- DirectX 11 Support
- OpenGL 3.1 Support
- PhysX Enabled
- CUDA Enabled
- Warranty: 3 Years

Its a non reference 480, heres a pic.

Is this card any good?
I can get it for £240 ($380), its a brand new one.
My psu is the corsair TX 650W V1.
My psu is the i5-2500k at 4.5GHz.Will my psu be enough?

Is there any other card you would recommend ?

 

[cromedome]

A GTX570 would be a better buy. Performs roughly the same as the 480, runs cooler and draws less power. It is also quite a bit less than a GTX480.

 

[robbiep28]

First of all you'd probable be better gettin an at least 750w psu since the gtx 480s are known to use a lot of power, also they get pretty hot so make sure you have proper ventilation in your case. It's a good buy but you can get a stock 480 in uk here
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1536mb-asus-gtx-480-40nm-3696mhz-gddr5-gpu-700mhz-shader-1401mhz-480-cores-mhdmi-plus-farcry2 it's only 200 pounds and it also comes with far cry 2. You probably won't be able to run this card with your current psu though.

 

[romanrp]

Gtx 570s are a lot more expensive , the 480s cost about as much as a 560..
And ventilation in my case wont be a problem, got 8 high performance fans.
And thats a shame about the PSU, is there any program to check how much power my pc is drawing?

 

[robbiep28]

You could also get the gtx 560 soc, it's performance mirrors the 570 and it cost ~£225 because it will run fine on a 650w psu. However if you upgrade your psu the 480 might be a better choice.

 

[romanrp]

How much power does a 480 draw on its own?

EDIT : http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2010/03/27/nvidia-geforce-gtx-480-1-5gb-review/10
is that just for the card itself?

 

[renz496]

lol. AFAIK Gigabyte GTX480 SOC is one of the best GTX480 out there. to bad the card comes out very late to the market. the day when the card sees the light it's fastest title already owned by GTX580

 

[romanrp]

From what I gathered, the 480 SOC performs at a similar level to the GTX 580.
For the price of one 580 I could SLI 2 GTX 480 SOC.

 

[renz496]

lol. but i rather have 2 GTX580 in SLI and overclock it

 

[robbiep28]

How much power does a 480 draw on its own?

EDIT : http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2010/03/27/nvidia-geforce-gtx-480-1-5gb-review/10
is that just for the card itself?

Yes

 

[romanrp]

I would rather have 4 6990s in xfire and OCd but I cant afford them so thats a moot point.
For the price of 2 gtx 580s you could have 4 480s.
But since I dont plan to SLI or crossfire, this is irrelevant.

EDIT:hmm, i got my psu 2 weeks ago...
I think I will just go 6950 or nivdia equivalent.

 

[robbiep28]

You should go with the gtx 560, It is similar in performance to the hd 6950 and it's and overclocking beast. When overclocked to its full extent it can outperform the 6970.

 

[romanrp]

Now that I am thinking about it, I want something that will last so no less than a 6970or 6950 unlocked) or 570/480.
Would a 570 work on my psu?

EDIT: Now I am considering giving this gen a miss and wait for kepler.Would that be wise?

 

[robbiep28]

I doubt your psu will run the gtx 570. If you want to wait for kepler it's your choice but keep in mind they won't be coming out untill about nov/dec 2011.

 

[romanrp]

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp
Says the recommended wattage is 495W with the 570 and everything else running at 100%.
How trustworthy is this psu calculator.?

 

[jjb8675309]

lol your psu will be absolutley fine on a corsair tx 650, I have a 570 hghly oc'ed with a p2 955 at 4 ghz with an XFX XXX 650W psu and everything is absolutley fine and silent..

I would def get the gtx 570, I picked up the pny model the other day for 304 AR which I thought was a pretty darn good deal, and now that its oc'ed it matches a gtx 580s performance level for 200 less...

bottom line, get the 570 over the 480, it is much quieter (the vapor chamber design is worth it) and performs the same as the 480/6970 @ 1080p

 

[romanrp]

The 480 is about £50-60 cheaper than a 570, which I have heard blow up due to a VRM issue.
IMO the price difference is not worth it, i blinged my case up with fans so its very loud but thats not an issue.
When I used the psu calc with the 480 and everything on 100% it gave me a recommended wattage of 566W with everything on 100% load. (this time i included the fans)

Also, by noise do you mean the reference 480 or the SOC version, as the SOC one has 3 90mm gelid fans so heat and noise isnt as bad.

 

[jjb8675309]

lol if anything the reference 480s blow up but honestly if the 480 is that much cheaper and its that badass gigabyte model then id go for the 480, your psu will be fine either way... but in the end the gigabyte 480 is probably a better buy in your case

 

[romanrp]

Hmm, finally some good news
I am set on buying this card, just worried about my psu as its 2 weeks old, and getting rid of it and buying a new one would not make sense to me.
And yes, the card is rather badass I think, crysis warhead with x16Q aa and everything enthusiast on a 1080p it gets around 40fps, dipping down into the 35s.
Not sure how that fares against the 570 and 580.

 

[jjb8675309]

your psu will be absolutely fine, corsair makes a solid unit

 

[jjb8675309]

the 480 and the 570 are pretty much the same in terms of performance and the 580 is about 15% or better in terms of raw performance

 

[romanrp]

Would my PSU be fine if I took the 480 to 900-930 mhz on the core?
I heard the 480s can do that.
How would the performance be then?

 

[jjb8675309]

well I would guess it would be okay generally for ocing you need to take another 100-150 watts into account, I think you will be fine with a regular oc...

 

[17seconds]

That Gigabyte GTX 480 SOC is about the only reason to get a GTX 480 at this point. If the price is right, it will be one of the quietest cards you can buy, while also performing near the level of the GTX 580. If you can get a deal where it's around the same cost as a GTX 570, then that's a great deal.

 

[jjb8675309]

^+1 the Gigabyte is practically the only reason to buy a 480 lol so I would agree that if the price is right it will be a great card