Thursday, June 10, 2010

GTX 480; collected, installed, and used






That's right! I now have an Nvidia GeForce GTX 480!
Unboxing:
The box isn't that large, which probably fits the card. Despite being more powerful, the GTX 480 is also smaller than an ATI Radeon HD 5870, but also gets very warm.

The inside of the box is snug. Nothing I would be surprised by.


Lots of things in the box. Clockwise: Instruction Manual, quick installation guide, Molex to 6/8-pin adapters, driver and demo discs, and the card itself. There is also a DVI to VGA adapter.

Comparison:

Left to right: MSI GeForce GTS 250 (Twin Frozr), Zotac GTX 480, Powercolor Radeon HD 5870. The GTX 480 is the hottest, at almost 90 C, while the Twin Frozr GTS 250 is the coolest, topping out at 56 C even overclocked as far as it can go.

Installing:
I have a modular power supply, and I already had a 6-pin connector on it, so I just need the card and a 6+2 pin connector.

I plug the connector into the power supply...

...And plug the card into the motherboard. The case I'm using is a Cooler Master Storm Scout, and the GTX 480 barely has 1 mm of clearance to spare. an HD 5870 does not fit at all. With the heat just one of these generates, I couldn't imagine having two of these in the case.
With the power connectors attached and the audio connector plugged back in, the card is now ready to be used. Notice the foam pad on the top of the card. I think it's for an SLI setup so the hot cards don't touch each other?
While I'm at it, I also use some new thermal paste (has lowered the temperatures from 62 to 52 Celsius!)

What was used in this computer setup:

Cooler Master Storm Scout
Intel Core i7 920 (rev. D0)
Corsair H50 on single-fan pull setup
ASUS Rampage II Extreme
3x2 GB Corsair XMS3, 1600 MHz DDR3
Kingwin Mach 1 1220W power source

This new setup plays Fallout 3, Call of Duty 4, and Just Cause 2 on full settings with no problems.

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