We reviewed Nvidia's GeForce GTX 480 one month ago. We're back today with three GTX 480s and two Radeon HD 5870s for SLI/CrossFire scaling analysis, case and motherboard recommendations to help you minimize noise, and an update on availability/pricing.
As I write this, it’s a beautiful Southern California Sunday afternoon. We’re deep into April and it’s already 80 degrees outside. I’m holding off on firing up the air conditioning for as long as possible, because that’s when power bills shoot up from $100 to $400.
The absolute last thing I need right now is a pair of GeForce GTX 480s (or any other high-end graphics cards, for that matter) pumping heat into the lab. Nevertheless, here I am, setting up a tower system with a Core i7-930 processor overclocked to 3.33 GHz, 6GB of Crucial memory, a 160GB Intel SSD, and…yeah, two GeForce GTX 480s (actually, I’m dropping three 480s into the machine, but for reasons I’ll explain in more depth, you probably don't want to try this at home quite yet).
Why are revisiting these cards a month after they first debuted?
When I first got my hands on the GeForce GTX 480 and 470, the boards were about six days from being officially unveiled by Nvidia. Getting the requisite results for my launch coverage meant setting up a sweat shop of benchmarking madness, owned and operated by yours truly. I used open-air racks and kept the numbers pouring in. I measured power and heat, determining that, damn, these things suck down quite a bit of juice and will readily fry your finger if you brush up against exposed metal. Moreover, I used Gigabyte’s X58A-UD5 motherboard, which doesn’t space its x16 PCIe links properly, forcing anyone using SLI to choose back-to-back x16 slots or a x16/x8 combo with room to breathe.
That’s not the way Nvidia recommends testing, though. The company suggests using one of a few different cases for the best acoustic experience, and a number of motherboards for the best balance between circulation and performance in SLI. So, with the help of Cooler Master and MSI, I built a machine that looks a lot like what I’d personally recommend to someone sinking serious cash into a gaming system.
At the same time, I thought it'd be prudent to revisit availability and 3D Vision Surround, the former of which is still dismally spotty, and the latter of which is still conspicuously missing in action.
Finally, I figured it’d be a great time to expound on my performance results. At launch, I was limited to just a couple charts worth of SLI testing on a motherboard that was only giving me one x16 link and one x8 connection. Without question, I wanted x16/x16 numbers, a larger sample of games, and even some 3-way numbers, if possible. MSI was kind enough to step up with a third GeForce GTX 480, yielding one-, two-, and three-card configurations, to which we’re able to compare scores from one and two Radeon HD 5870s. At the end of this menagerie, you’ll know whether SLIed GeForce GTX 480s or CrossFired Radeon HD 5870s get your more performance for your dollar.
I don’t mean to be too titillating of a tease here, but this one doesn’t end the way you think it does.
- Introduction
- Where Are You, Fermi?
- Closing The Case On Noise
- Picking The Right Motherboard
- Test Hardware And Software
- Benchmark Results: Crysis
- Benchmark Results: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call Of Pripyat
- Benchmark Results: Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- Benchmark Results: DiRT 2
- Benchmark Results: Just Cause 2
- Benchmark Results: Metro 2033
- SLI Performance And Scaling
- CrossFire Performance And Scaling
- Which Card Is The Better Buy?
- Power Consumption
- Conclusion


A pair of 5870s is actually going to be faster. Should I swing a second 5970, though, I do think a pair of 5970s vs. the three GTX 480s would be a good comparison!
Once again, it's like, mentioned in the story :-P
A pair of 5870s is actually going to be faster. Should I swing a second 5970, though, I do think a pair of 5970s vs. the three GTX 480s would be a good comparison!
Bleh, it's late and it has been a long weekend. Edited
Anyways, it was a informative article, looking forward to a full 512 sp card from nvidia and the second revision to the fermi core.
The only place where the "5890" exists is in ATI's folder under 'What to do if Fermi is good".
And yes where is the tri-sli power consumption numbers, there's no mention of it's omittance in the analysis.
Actually, addressed in a couple of different places ;-) As mentioned in the test setup section, the 3-way SLI numbers crested 900W under load. But because this was above the Enermax unit's max. continuous power rating, this almost certainly isn't a very efficient measurement. Not that it matters--the noise of three cards was so loud that it's simply not a realistic combination using the Eclipse Plus board.
I'm going to stick with my old 9600 SLI config that I spent $100 dollars on a few years back.
dummy...the 5970 is a dual gpu card, that's why it was not compared. as far as since gpu cards go nvidia is the fastest one out ther.
He wasn't able to upload the results before the power outage caused by the setup.
Once again, it's like, mentioned in the story :-P
I do wonder about how the results are presented. Its obviously given in a method that favors nVidia. The only results chosen to be highlighted are the only results that show AMD in a poor position. I think to present these findings to consumers is rather misleading and more information should be furnished so consumers can make a proper decision on a product.
Right now the most common resolution is 1680x1050. 1920x1200 is becoming more popular as well. At these resolutions even considering a single GTX480 as having a performance advantage is questionable compared to an HD5870. The HD5870 also scales better in those scenario. Yet the basis of your conclusion of consistent SLI scaling comes from the least favorable scenario for the HD5870 on resolutions that are uncommon. I don't think its a mystery why a lower memory card would perform worse doing a post processing effect at a large resolution. However, there is more to a graphics card then memory and its evident the difference in architecture choices at common resolutions.
For those who are brave enough to peak at the power consumption of 3 480s running at the same time:...
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-480-3way-sli-review/26
P.S. this isn´t for the ones with a weak heart...