GTX 570 VS GTX 480 ($220!!!)

If you don't mind the power / heat of the 4xx series, then you should get that GTX 480 @ $220 - it's a really good deal if that's for a new card. $370 is a bad deal on the 570.

I personally believe the 480 is a good deal. I mean its a Heating nightmare from what i heard but the GTX 570 and 480 have about the same specs. eh its all up to you. If you can afford the 570 get the 570. its not as power demanding. Plus if you ever decide to SLI either one can be run off a 850 watt good brand power supply as long as they have the proper power dongles

That's a tough one, they are basically the same, except the 480 has more memory, which will help in BF3. The 570 is more efficient and significantly quieter. I would have to say, having owned a 480 and a 580, that 480 is a good deal, but be aware of the noise factor. The 480 is louder, the 570 is very quiet.

If it were me, I would go with the 570 and if you look around you should be able to find one for much less than that. Too bad the 480 is a reference model. If it were custom cooling, I would get the 480 hands down.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

You might want to consider a GTX 560 Ti 448 core model and overclock it to GTX 570/480 levels.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

How much will I be able to OC the reference 480? And are there any benchmarks for 2011- 2012 games?

This is very good advice.

Also, the 480 will achieve within a few % +/- of a GTX 570, so you can just find modern benchmark numbers on that card and then you more or less know how the 480 will do. I'm unaware of any game where there is a large difference between the two performance-wise. Dunno how much overclocking headroom the 480 has but I'd guess not too much.

The 570 is no doubt a better card, it's just not worth $370. IMO the 560ti 448 would be worth the $50 over the GTX 480 - you could overclock it to perform better than the 480/570 and you won't get the power/heat/noise issues.

Yes I've considered the 560 Ti 448 but it's just that the 480 is $220 which is insane.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

As I said, if you don't care about heat/noise you should absolutely get the 480 - it's an amazing deal at that price in terms of performance.

Personally, I don't like super hot cards, so I would spend the extra $50 to get roughly the same performance in a cooler/quieter card. It's totally up to you.

It would be silly to spend an extra $150 for a 570 though.

Does anyone know how much it OCs before it goes on fire?

The 480 is a good overclocker, but then the noise becomes more of a factor (to contain the heat). Seriously, with these cards there is little reason to overclock for most games.

With a reference 480? ^

Yep.

I wouldn't want one but I must say that's a lot of performance for 219.99. Tigerdirect has the same deal.

New egg is out of stock - you can get it at Tiger Direct but the deal expires today:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/ite...