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Review: A peek at NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 in SLI - just how fast is it?

by Tarinder Sandhu on 26 March 2010, 23:00

Tags: GeForce GTX 480, NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qaws4

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How we test

Graphics cards HIS Radeon HD 5970 2,048MB Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 1,024MB Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 1,024MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 1,536MB in SLI NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 1,536MB BFG GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB BFG GeForce GTX 285 1,024MB EVGA GeForce GTX 275 896MB
Current pricing, including VAT £550 £310 £225 £880 (estimated) £440 (estimated) £350 £275 £199
Shader model 5.0 5.0 5.0 5.0 5.0 4.0 4.0 4.0
Stream processors 3,200 1,600 1440 960 480 480 240 240
GPU clock speed (MHz) 725 850 725 700 700 576 648 633
Shader clock speed (MHz) 725 850 725 1,401 1,401 1,242 1,474 1,404
Memory clock speed (MHz) 4,000 4,800 4,000 3,696 3,696 2,016 2,484 2,276
Memory bus width (bits) 256 x 2 256 256 384 x 2 384 448 x 2 512 448
CPU Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition (3.20GHz, 8MB L3 cache, quad-core, LGA1366 - Turbo Boost on)
Motherboard ASUS P6X58D Premium
Motherboard BIOS 0703
Mainboard software Intel Inf 9.1.1.1025
Memory 6GB Crucial DDR3-1,067 CL7
Memory timings and speed 7-7-7-20 1T @ DDR3-1,066
PSU Corsair HX1000W
Monitor Dell 30in 3007WFP - 2,560x1,600px
Disk drive(s) Kingston SSDNow V+ 128GB SSD
Graphics driver Catalyst 10.3a Catalyst 10.3a Catalyst 10.3a ForceWare 197.17 ForceWare 197.17 ForceWare 197.13 ForceWare 197.13 ForceWare 197.13
Operating system Windows 7 Ultimate, 64-bit

Software


Benchmarks DiRT 2 v1.1, London map - ultra quality
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X v1.2, internal benchmark: DX10/10.1 - high quality
Far Cry 2 v1.03 - very high quality
Crysis Warhead v1.1.1.711 - train map - enthusiast quality
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 v523648 - FRAPS-recorded benchmark

Power-draw
Temperatures

Notes

Benchmarks were conducted at 1,680x1,050, 1,920x1,200, and 2,560x1,600, where applicable, with decent degrees of image quality.

We expect to see the real benefits of SLI as we benchmark at 2,560x1.600. Bear in mind that this is just an indication of where NVIDIA's top-of-the-range SLI performance is right now. We'll have a fuller review with appropriate comparisons from ATI in due course, and that's the time we'll include our HEXUS.bang4buck metric.