GTX 480 Retrospective, 4 Years Later

[isteelsolz]

Long before the 290X graced the enthusiast scene with its loud reference cooler and 95 degree load temps, there was the GTX 480, the original bad boy of the GPU scene. Showing up (fashionably) late to the  party in Q1 2010, 6 months behind the ATI Radeon 5000 series, it certainly had a lot to answer for. Fermi being NVidia’s first foray into DX11, it was not without its share of teething issues. After being delayed for so long due to manufacturing problems, it finally released and took a respectable performance lead over the ATI 5870. But at a cost.

 

One fault that NVidia was not able to iron out in time was the heat, and boy did this card run hot. NVidia tried every trick in the book with their reference cooler in order to tame this beast. The most advanced vapor chamber cooler on the market, an external 4 heat pipe design, they even cut holes into the BACK of the PCB in order to feed the fan more air. But alas it was not enough. The card ran at a scorching 95 degrees under load, all while sounding like it was about to take off and join the mothership. And back then there was not boost clock, base clock voodoo temperature profile, power limit nonsense. The Card ran at whatever you set it to (a blistering 701 MHz at stock), and the fan would spin as fast as it needed to in order keep the GPU at or under 95 degrees. And if you happened to live in a particularly hot part of Australia, and it also happened to be summer, the fan spinning at 100% was not always enough to keep it cool. Resulting in random game crashes and graphical errors. At which point your options were as follows:

1.     Increase GPU ventilation in the case

2.     Invest in air conditioning

3.     Move to Antarctica

4.     Manually down clock the card to keep temps in check.

It was a simpler time. But that’s enough of a history lesson for today, lets get comparing the 480 to its closest modern equivalent the GTX 780.

 

Now the choice to compare the 480 and the 780 may seem a strange one at first, but they are extremely similar in terms of where they stand within their respective families. They are both slightly cut down versions of their architectures flagship GPU. The 480, with 480 Cuda cores, is missing one cluster from a full GF100 core, which has 512 cores. And The 780 has 2304 cores, while a Full GK110 core has 2880. And as far as these two cards are concerned that’s where the similarities end. 4 years is a long time, and the 480 begins to show its age when we take a closer look at the GPU-Z screenshots below.

 

 

 

One of the most noticeable differences is the amount of VRAM, a mere 1.5Gb, and the lower number of well…everything.

We should all be fairly familiar with what a 780 reference cooler looks like, but some of you reading this would have seen a reference 480 cooler, so here it is.

 

 

Notice the 4 heat pipes sticking out the top, the extra holes cut into the back of the PCB, and the metal heat sink directly above the GPU. That block of metal is directly attached to the vapor chamber, so don’t go touching it while the card is under load, unless you welcome 3^rd degree burns. Also this particular 480 is a Dell OEM card, hence the metal support bracket on the end, retail 480’s don’t have this feature.

 

But the most important question of course is how does it perform in modern games? 4 years is a long time in the pc hardware space, but this card was at one point the best money could buy, and a 1.5Gb frame buffer is more than enough for 1080p gaming. So let’s see how it performs against a 780 in gaming scenarios.

 

Test System (full specs in signature)

·        I5 3570

·        8gb @ 1600Mhz

·        Sabertooth Z77

·        NVidia 337.50 Drivers

 

Benchmark Settings

·        Unigine Valley Extreme HD preset

·        Batman Arkham Origins 1080p, Max settings, 8xMSAA, PhysX off

·        Tomb Raider 1080p, ultimate

·        Metro Last light 1080p, Very High, SSAA off, 16xAF, PhysX off

·        Bioshock Infinite 1080p, Ultra with Alternate Lighting

 

 

 

480 average performance compared to 780 is: 39.8%

 

4 years is a very long time indeed. With the latest drivers the 480 manages only 40% of the performance on average of the 780. But when you take into account that a 780 will cost you $500 US new, and a 480 can be had on ebay for around the $100-$120 mark, that difference is not so bad. If you eased of the AA and some of the other settings, a 480 can provide a very respectable gaming experience. Standing somewhere performance wise between a 660 and a 760. Which is not too bad at all.

 

If you enjoyed this little blast from the past please say so in the thread below. I also have many older flagship cards from yesteryear (8800 ultra anyone?) if anyone is interested in hearing how the stack up in modern games. Thanks for reading!

[helping]

for a reference cooler that actually looks quite intimidating

 

I guess it's necessary considering how difficult it is to cool a miniature oven

[One Who Craves Souls]

Nice and clean review, also that cooler looks great.

[cae]

Has it really been that long? Had two of them. Couldn't handle the heat - made the underside of my desk a furnace. Sold 'em off quicker than I acquired them.

[Jerakl]

I found it interesting, considering I have a 780. So if they had the "most advanced vapor chamber cooler", do they still use it? Or at least an iteration of it?

[Unhelpful]

I just swapped out my 470s with a 780 a few months ago

[RelentlessAF]

That's incredible 4 years without an upgrade? And console players say we spend $1000 a year. Pfft!

[bmxtricky5]

I really enjoyed reading this thank you it was a wonderful post

[klngpln]

never would have thought to see a 480 vs 780 but i actually liked this review
Good job!

[Imabigmac]

for a reference cooler that actually looks quite intimidating

 

I guess it's necessary considering how difficult it is to cool a miniature oven

I know it looks amazing, I would totally try to mod it to mount on a 780 or something if I had one and a spare 780. 

[Saladin]

I had one, it literally caused the paint behind my computer to discolor and peel... worked well as a space heater in the winter too.

[qwertywarrior]

i owned a 480GTX it was insanely  loud

sold it bought a GTX 570 with a 3 slot cooler

still using it

[isteelsolz]

I found it interesting, considering I have a 780. So if they had the "most advanced vapor chamber cooler", do they still use it? Or at least an iteration of it?

It was the most advanced vapour chamber cooler for its time. Although it was surpassed by the 5970 soon after. All high end nvidia reference cards use vapour chamber coolers these days. The fact that the 480 sounded like a leaf blower under benchmarks, while i could barely hear the 780 is a testament as to how the design has improved over the years. Considering both cards draw roughly the same amount of power.

[mvitkun]

It was the most advanced vapour chamber cooler for its time. Although it was surpassed by the 5970 soon after. All high end nvidia reference cards use vapour chamber coolers these days. The fact that the 480 sounded like a leaf blower under benchmarks, while i could barely hear the 780 is a testament as to how the design has improved over the years. Considering both cards draw roughly the same amount of power.

That and now they don't bother with an IHS. so they're able to move the heat away from the processor more efficiently.

 

Great review, nice to see the GTX 480 directly compared to the GTX 780 as many review sites have started to ease it out of the benchmarks.

 

Also you forgot one/two other option(s), getting a a card with a non reference heatsink or installing an aftermarket heatsink onto a reference card.

I did this and got ~70C max temps on my 480 (20-24C ambient).

[DildorTheDecent]

I would buy on or two for teh lols.

[That Norwegian Guy]

I just replaced my 470 with a used 760, and would still be using the 470 if the 760 I found wasn't so dirt cheap. When Star Citizen is close, I'll sell it for profit and upgrade to a card that is actually a noticeable difference.

[flibberdipper]

I wish a 480 would work in my rig.

[Faa]

2.     Invest in air conditioning

3.     Move to Antarctica

Lol..

[Musikman]

I like this. The flow and organization of review is really nice and I like the unique subject.

[xjohnny3589]

Interesting. I really enjoyed reading this, really well worded.

[Common_Courtesy]

Wow that 480 performed better than I thought it would. Anyway this was a really nice review, I'd love to see one on that 8800 Ultra you have.

[nosirrah123]

I'm buying a 290 soon, I hope it can get 40% of a high end card's performance in 4 years

[FellTheSky]

im not sure but i think this card is closer to the gtx 570/gtx 650ti boost, than a gtx 660.

 

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews/1080/pg15/inno3d-nvidia-geforce-gtx-570-review-gtx-570-vs-gtx-580-and-gtx-480.html

[isteelsolz]

im not sure but i think this card is closer to the gtx 570/gtx 650ti boost, than a gtx 660.

 

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews/1080/pg15/inno3d-nvidia-geforce-gtx-570-review-gtx-570-vs-gtx-580-and-gtx-480.html

While that was certainly true when that graph was made in 2010. 4 years of driver enhancements and tweaks have really helped the 480's performance. Truth be told it is closer to a 660 than a 760 though.

[D3MON]

just bought a gtx480 for my collection, think the fans a bit small(seriously nvidia?)
 

the gtx480 was 93.75% of its full core which wasnt released untill the gtx580.
the titan is only 93.33% of its parent die and needs allot more stream processors for the same results so fermi is still awesome if you dont mind the heat and power (my 285 isnt THAT hot/loud!), considering its £80 i was tempted to pick up another for sli, 780ti performance for £160 instead of £550...
fermi if im right added huge amounts of compute power and double point precision which amd is kind of doing now if you look at folding/mining rates.

for everyone thats called me an amd faboy (that said, i wont be buying nvidia any time soon).