GTX 470's for $100 each worth it?

[theonerm2]

I currently have sli'd GTX 460's and I think they do pretty good but tonight I saw GTX 470's for sale at $100 a piece with free shipping on ebay. I couldn't resist buying them because I figured I could probably get most of my money back out of my 460's. The specs on those 470's look way better than the 460's. I'm always looking to get the most performance possible for $200 or so and I think I've found the best deal possible for that price range. At first I was thinking that the performance boost might not be worth the hassle of trying to sell my 460's but I wanted them. The extra 256MB of vRAM might come in handy for future games as well as the extra core count. I guess if I can even come close to breaking even then it will be well worth it.

 

[nforce4max]

It will be a small boost until you overclock compared to the 460s that you have but in compute apps there will be a huge boost. At least you got a good deal price wise.

 

[theonerm2]

I plan on overclocking the cores to 800MHz and the Memory to 1750. From what I can see online that looks like a pretty common overclock. I'm only going to overclock when playing super demanding games or benchmarking. There's no need in keeping it overclocked 24/7.

 

[bystander]

Their only drawback, and it's pretty large, is that they sound like jet engines when they are at full load.

 

[theonerm2]

I have plenty of room for them in my case and the noise wouldn't bother me. I just really want the extra power. I don't really need it at the moment but it'll basically be like trading my 460's for 470's for free if I can break even. I already have one 460 for sure selling for $100. If I can get $100 out of the other one then I basically am getting to trade up for free.

 

[nforce4max]

Their only drawback, and it's pretty large, is that they sound like jet engines when they are at full load.

I'll take jet engines any day of the week over something that ran silent but lethally hot. Noise is only an inconvenience provided the cooler worked very well especially in very hot and humid environments. Take one of those fancy pretty things that most fap to these days then give it a few rounds in 35c+ room temp with 60-80% humidity and watch the temps sky rocket over 80-90c+ in a matter of seconds.

 

[dscudella]

Sounds like a worthy investment. The GTX 470's are still surprisingly good performers. In SLI they are comparable to a single GTX 670 (just what I've read from other forums, no benchmarks to back this up).

They do run brutally hot & loud though, as nforce4max already touched on and draw a lot of power.

 

[Limerick]

You'll see a boost in compute programs, and not much in games untill you overclock.

 

[bystander]

I'll take jet engines any day of the week over something that ran silent but lethally hot. Noise is only an inconvenience provided the cooler worked very well especially in very hot and humid environments. Take one of those fancy pretty things that most fap to these days then give it a few rounds in 35c+ room temp with 60-80% humidity and watch the temps sky rocket over 80-90c+ in a matter of seconds.

I had 470's in SLI before the 680's. It's not so much that cooler is keeping the card really cool, but rather, it's struggling to keep the card's heat in check. The 470's run extremely hot, and the coolers have to work overtime to just reach normal heat levels. And while you might not care about a jet engine sitting next to you, I sure as hell would never do it again.

 

[nforce4max]

You'll see a boost in compute programs, and not much in games untill you overclock.

Compared to Kepler crap these Fermi GF100/110 based cards are real work horses in compute apps. Don't let any thing get over 90c especially the mosfets and they should last another 2 or 3 years of regular use before any problems surface.

 

[swamibob]

I am with you bystander. I tried to do the same thing and i hated them. The GTX 400 series use too much power and make too much noise unless you throttle the fps in games that allow it to something like 120fps max. When I added the second 470 in sli under load it pulled an extra 250 watts more than with just one and would overload my 1000w ups if me and a friend were trying to play battlefiled 3 on my 2 computers i have setup on my computer room. It did run fast in that setup, but the noise and power consumption versus the benefits was not worth it to me. I decided to go back to 1 card and build a HTPC for the living room out of the other 470. I think if you want to go SLI on a budget you should pick up 2 GTX 500 series cards like the 560ti, they use a lot less power, run a lot cooler, and are a lot quieter. The bottom line is, the 400 series cards are not good for SLI.

 

[theonerm2]

I am with you bystander. I tried to do the same thing and i hated them. The GTX 400 series use too much power and make too much noise unless you throttle the fps in games that allow it to something like 120fps max. When I added the second 470 in sli under load it pulled an extra 250 watts more than with just one and would overload my 1000w ups if me and a friend were trying to play battlefiled 3 on my 2 computers i have setup on my computer room. It did run fast in that setup, but the noise and power consumption versus the benefits was not worth it to me. I decided to go back to 1 card and build a HTPC for the living room out of the other 470. I think if you want to go SLI on a budget you should pick up 2 GTX 500 series cards like the 560ti, they use a lot less power, run a lot cooler, and are a lot quieter. The bottom line is, the 400 series cards are not good for SLI.

I really just don't think 560 ti's are worth it. They still cost around $200. I'd just go ahead and get GTX 660's if I was going to spend that much on each card. For the performance and the price I don't think I can beat the 470's at this moment. I know people like to go on and on about power savings. With the 560 ti's I might save $0.50 per month in power costs. That's not enough to justify spending an extra $150-$200 on a configuration that won't give me any performance advantage. The noise, heat, and power consumption won't bother me at all. My power supply can draw over 1000 watts from the wall and have some headroom still.

 

[mace200200]

The 560's are pretty much obsolete now. For the same price there's the 7850, or for a bit more there's the 660. Then on the other side there's the 650 Ti for a bit cheaper.

 

[theonerm2]

Sounds like a worthy investment. The GTX 470's are still surprisingly good performers. In SLI they are comparable to a single GTX 670 (just what I've read from other forums, no benchmarks to back this up).

They do run brutally hot & loud though, as nforce4max already touched on and draw a lot of power.

From what I can tell they score close to a stock GTX 680 in 3Dmark11 when overclocked in sli. I think that's pretty darned good for just $200. Really not even $200 because I'm going to sell my GTX 460's.

 

[dscudella]

There's not much of a difference between a 670 & a 680. An OC'ed 670 is on par with a stock 680.

So yes, like I said before, it's a good deal. If you can get them, sell off your old 460's and break even or even upgrade for $100, I'd do it. Just make sure you have the case cooling for it and enjoy those cards for another 2 years or so.

 

[theonerm2]

There's not much of a difference between a 670 & a 680. An OC'ed 670 is on par with a stock 680.

So yes, like I said before, it's a good deal. If you can get them, sell off your old 460's and break even or even upgrade for $100, I'd do it. Just make sure you have the case cooling for it and enjoy those cards for another 2 years or so.

My case has plenty of room inside and it was built specifically for good airflow. I already bought the GTX 470's. I paid for them last night. They should be getting here sometime after Monday. My GTX 460's only got to about 72 degrees celsius when overclocked. I'm not sure if it was the good case design or if I just got good cards but they stayed pretty cool.

 

[swamibob]

If you only have 2 pci-e ports where the cards have to be right next to each other, it is going to run a lot hotter than 72 even at stock clocks. In mine one ran 80C and the one that had the monitor plugged in ran 85C under a load like bf3. It is good performance for the money, that is why I bought a second one on ebay for $125. Put it in SLI and hated it so much from the noise and heat that I built another computer to put in the living room to put the extra 470 in and use on the 65" plasma. I literally saw an extra 250w draw when I added the second 470 when I played BF3 on max settings. I guess to each his own.

Don't get me wrong, I love the 470 cards and I have had one of them for over 2 yrs and it's still playing the latest games very well. That is one reason why I decided why should i put up with the noise, heat and strain on my power supply and ups if I didn't really need the SLI to play the games that I wanted to, like borderlands 2 and BF3. I figure by the time I need to upgrade video cards in another year or so, i'll be able to buy a single card that will be twice as fast as the SLI 470's anyway for $200.

If you don't mind a noisy, hot, and inefficient computer then I would say you will like it. Anyone else, I would steer clear.

 

[theonerm2]

If you only have 2 pci-e ports where the cards have to be right next to each other, it is going to run a lot hotter than 72 even at stock clocks. In mine one ran 80C and the one that had the monitor plugged in ran 85C under a load like bf3. It is good performance for the money, that is why I bought a second one on ebay for $125. Put it in SLI and hated it so much from the noise and heat that I built another computer to put in the living room to put the extra 470 in and use on the 65" plasma. I literally saw an extra 250w draw when I added the second 470 when I played BF3 on max settings. I guess to each his own.

Don't get me wrong, I love the 470 cards and I have had one of them for over 2 yrs and it's still playing the latest games very well. That is one reason why I decided why should i put up with the noise, heat and strain on my power supply and ups if I didn't really need the SLI to play the games that I wanted to, like borderlands 2 and BF3. I figure by the time I need to upgrade video cards in another year or so, i'll be able to buy a single card that will be twice as fast as the SLI 470's anyway for $200.

If you don't mind a noisy, hot, and inefficient computer then I would say you will like it. Anyone else, I would steer clear.

I'll let you know how they do in my system. And if I don't like them I can always sell them back and probably profit. It was an amazingly low price. 85C isn't too bad. My gaming laptop gets in the 90's. I consider anything under 90 degrees to be in the clear.