03/03/2010 11:06:00 | Nic Simmonds

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Nvidia: “GTX480 faster than HD 5870”

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Nvidia’s Fermi range of GPUs is at this point still a largely unknown quantity. Having said that, the company now claims that the top of the range Fermi card - the GTX 480 - is the fastest single GPU graphics card in the world.

Although the company keeps performance figures closely guarded, it has revealed that the card is faster than AMD’s HD 5870 in the Unigine Heaven benchmarking tool. In some cases, as illustrated at Cebit, the card was twice as fast as the HD 5870 in Unigine performance, although how this translates into actual gaming performance remains to be seen.

Nvidia may well have the fastest graphics card in the world, but if it does not release it soon then it won’t mean much. Arriving six months after AMD’s HD5000 series, we would expect them to have the performance edge.

Now if they can just get the pricing right then Nvidia may yet reassert itself as the dominant performance graphics card manufacturer.

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Comments (12 posted): Comments (12 posted):

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Neo

on 03/03/2010 11:35:33

I don't trust Nvidia when they quote performance on a specific benchmark application. In the past they used drivers to cheat the figures to look better than ATI and it sounds like history repeating itself. I am also eagerly awaiting the Fermi line-up, but I reserve my judgment for figures based on independent applications and games so that the playing field is level.

Riaan

on 03/03/2010 12:08:23

Well according to reports from Cbit, it needs a 600 WATT PSU with a 12v rail that can deliver 42amps. If you buy one, get ureself a new PSU as well.

-1

Pollynator

on 03/03/2010 13:48:06

@Riann: that is complete nonsense. A card with 2x6pin has a power limit of 250Watts with the the help of PCi-e lane and a 1x6pin+1x8pin card has a maximum power draw of 300Watts.

So are you telling me you 2x6pin+2x8pin OR 4x8pin to run this?!?

Unlikely, they were more than likely refer to complete system requirements.... that would make more sense.

Pollynator

on 03/03/2010 13:48:06

Neo

on 03/03/2010 13:50:10

The biggest PSU that Antec sells at the moment is capable of 38 amps per 12V rail. I have not come across a PSU that caters for 42 amps per 12V rail yet. Perhaps they mean 42 amps in TOTAL which would equate to 21 amps per 12V rail. That figure seems more reasonable and realistic.

I wouldn't trust ANY reviews or comments before the real product has been placed on the public shelves and it's been tested by independent people.

Lucien

on 03/03/2010 13:51:24

I did some research and it turns out that the card is very specifically designed to run good on the unigine. I have seen some guys that tested the card on games. Specifically Far Cry 2. It just doesn't perform as it does in unigine. The architecture of the gtx 480 is just not made to run modern games. Unless all games suddenly change to heavy tesselation engines. The 5870 has the right type of core and is not designed to run that heavy tesselations because it is just older. AMD will start to release new batches of cards that will support the tesselation better.

Necuno

on 03/03/2010 13:54:41

suppose @ double the price too.

TPex

on 03/03/2010 19:58:21

All Bark and no bite, high price and Low Quality, Nvidia sucks (I'm not a ATI Fanboi, but you try having 5 out of 7 cards Fail on you)

Riaan

on 04/03/2010 14:06:29

Look, i only post what i read on hardware sites. Dunno if its true. Everything about Fermi thus far is rumors.

http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/17886/82/

I think Nvidia will shoot themself in the foot if they release a product that you need a special PSU for. Most gamers got a 450+ Watt anyway and to ask them to buy another PSU just for a GPU is BS.

my 2 cents

on 10/03/2010 09:31:56

well, nvidia themselves reported that you'd need a 600W PSU. And obviously they don't mean to power the graphics card alone - since when do PSU recommendations for GPUs mean only the gfx card - thats idiotic. It needs 600W to be assured that it would be stable in a relatively decent system - if ur buying that card ur obviously not going to have a 3-year old athlon chip.

And from what I have read the thing about the amps on the 12v rails is true, and this is the thing people are taking most issue with. The wattage on a PSU isnt really all that important for a GPU, the amps on the 12v rails are far more important, and Fermi is apparently requiring a monstrous amount.

Also this article says that Fermi "is the fastest graphics card in the world" - this isn't true, as the 5970 will quite obviously kick it in the crotch.

I'm sure it'll be faster than the 5870, making it the fastest single-GPU card in the world, but coming out 6 months later this would be expected, and I expect the performance difference will be disappointingly small. Couple this with the card's reported power and heat issues, and ATI's consistently more aggressive pricing, and I think the 5870 will be the better choice for all except the hardcore enthusiast, who would be better off getting a 5970 anyway.

And no - I'm not an ATI fanboy. I have an Nvidia card.