NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480: specs, reviews, review

When an enthusiast of resource-intensive dynamic applications has a desire to enjoy the passing of another novelty in the game world, he will certainly think about the capabilities of his own video adapter installed in the system unit. After all, as practice shows, budget devices and the initial game class are finding it increasingly difficult to cope with the tasks set. The only solution is to buy a High-End graphics card of the GTX 480 class and forget about problems related to braking in resource-intensive toys for 5-10 years. Features, reviews, review and comparison with competitor's products will help buyers make the right choice.

Specifications

The chip, codenamed Fermi and labeled GF100, is built using 40-nanometer technology that allowed the manufacturer not only to place more transistors (3.2 billion) on the chip, but also to reduce the power consumption of the GeForce GTX 480 gaming device. The heat dissipation characteristics do not exceed 250 watts, That for the High-End class is an excellent indicator. The video adapter is equipped with four clusters of graphic data processing, has 15 streaming multiprocessors and 480 CUDA cores. The graphics processor, in the factory version, operates at 700 MHz. Video memory is created on GDDR5 chips, has a capacity of 1.5 GB and operates on a 384-bit bus. The effective memory frequency is 3696 MHz.

Supported technologies

The weak link in the video game adapter is the support for DirectX 11 API libraries. This characteristic also spoils many potential customers with a general impression of the products with the GTX 480 chip. The advantages include the support for the video card shader version 5.0 and the introduction of modern technologies responsible for working with 3D virtualization (3D Vision, Blu Ray 3D and their analogues).

Quite an interesting innovation was made by Nvidia, introducing 3D Surround technology into the device. The manufacturer assures that now the owners can connect to the video card three devices for displaying video and use the 3D Vision glasses to view the image. True, judging by the feedback of the owners, this technology is still far from perfect, so all these new developments, which are related to 3D, cause only discontent from the buyers. After all, no one wants to overpay for technologies that will not be used.

Disclosure of the potential of a graphic accelerator

For the graphics accelerator GTX 480 performance characteristics of the entire system are critical. First of all, we are talking about a processor that must have a frequency above 3 GHz and have 4 separate cores on one platform. Producer Nvidia in its promotional video clips uses an Intel Core I7 (695 Extreme) chip, respectively, to unlock the potential of the video adapter, the user should have a similar processor in performance.

To RAM, no clicks, but in their reviews, users assure that most modern toys require at least 8 GB. As for the hard drive, everything is clear without comments - only SSD SSD can provide decent performance of the entire system. There may be problems with the power supply. Experts recommend paying attention not to the power of the device (it should be at least 750 W), but for the presence of a powerful 12-volt line, otherwise, due to a power failure, the owner may lose the video card.

Representative of mobile market

It should be noted that notebooks use a modified graphics accelerator based on the GTX 480 chip. It is significantly different from a discrete device created for personal computers. First, the manufacturer reduced the number of CUDA cores from 480 to 352 pieces, which significantly affected the overall performance of the mobile platform (a decrease of about 20% when tested with synthetic tests). Also, the manufacturer has reduced the bandwidth of the memory bus, limiting it to the standard for most mid-range video cards with 256 bits.

As for the technologies involved, including support for modern libraries, everything has remained unchanged. Naturally, most of the buyers are interested in the performance of the laptop, and not its capabilities in working with 3D. Therefore, these changes did not go unnoticed for many users and, judging by their feedback, the installed chip is unlikely to attract the attention of many customers.

Winged swings

After entering the market for video cards of the 5th generation, many enthusiasts rushed to compare them with top-end devices of the previous class, so the most popular in the media is the comparison: GTX 480 vs GTX 570. In their responses, many owners of the 4th-generation graphics accelerator assure others , That Nvidia did not deal with them dishonestly, because when you study the technical characteristics of both devices it turns out that they are almost identical, but the cost of video cards is different (480 GTX is more expensive).

Surprisingly, when compared in synthetic tests, the GTX 570 video adapter bypasses the performance of the 4th generation flagship. Conducting on GTX 480 the review of productivity in resource-intensive dynamic games, it is possible to draw a conclusion: the situation changes in a root. Fans of applications such as GTA 5, Metro 2033, Dirt 2 with the top representative of the 4th generation will be able to enjoy the game at the maximum settings with a high frame rate. But the owners of the GTX 570 will be able to run the application only with high quality.

Step through the generation

As for comparing the GTX 480 vs GTX 650, the result can be predicted without any testing. Let the last representative of the 6th generation, however, he belongs to the middle game class, and he simply does not have any chance to wrest victory from the flagship Nvidia 480 GTX. In synthetic tests, the GTX 650 will demonstrate performance that will be at least 30-35% lower than that of the opponent.

True, in resource-intensive dynamic games, the situation can be slightly corrected by dispersing a representative of the 6th generation both from memory and from the core. Judging by the opinions of enthusiasts, the productivity gap can be cut in half. That's just no one bothers the owners of the GTX 480 to increase the power of the video card overclocking, and the flagship has a potential, and it is much larger than the representatives of the low-cost segment. If the buyer faces such a choice (take 480 GTX or 650 GTX), then the first Nvidia representative is preferable, even if he is older than his opponent for several years.

Obvious superiority

Strangely enough, a comparison of the 4th generation flagship with a representative of the average game class of the 700 series of video cards may look. However, there are desperate users who want to see a comparison of the two GTX 480 vs GTX 760 devices. It is logical to assume that as a result of switching to a new process technology (from 40 to 28 nanometers), the 7th series representative will easily pass the competitor in all tests, , And gaming.

And if you take into account that the manufacturer has placed on a single GTX 760 1152 processor CUDA, then all doubts will disappear immediately. Do not forget that, starting from the 700 series, Nvidia graphics processors have passed the psychological barrier of 1000 MHz and equip all video cards with at least 2 GB of memory. Definitely in this comparison, the representative of the GTX 480 simply does not have a chance to win.

Finally

Summing up the representative of High-End 4-th generation, you can draw several conclusions. First, the owners of this video adapter does not make sense to switch to video cards of the 500th and 600th series. However, if the buyer is faced with a choice - to take a graphics accelerator of the 7th generation or to give preference to the GTX 480, - owner feedback and many enthusiastic tests are recommended to purchase a 7-series video card.