Feature Articles

GeForce GTX 480 SLI Performance Analysis

By Kenny Yeo - 7 Apr 2010

Conclusion

Extreme Performance for Extremists

The GeForce GTX 480 continues to amaze us with its sheer graphics crunching ability, along with its other not so desirable traits of high operating temperatures and power requirements.

NVIDIA's claim of improved SLI performance seems to be spot on, as we experienced substantial boost to performance, especially on the more demanding settings. Take Crysis Warhead for example, at 1920 x 1200 with 4x anti-aliasing enabled, a single GeForce GTX 480 managed 32.41fps; add another GeForce GTX 480, however, and performance takes a massive hike to 58.91fps, an over 80% increase in performance.

It is the same story with S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat. On the SunShafts Run, with DirectX 11, tessellation and 4x anti-aliasing enabled, a single GeForce GTX 480 could do only 43.8fps; but two GeForce GTX 480 cards in SLI could achieve a whopping 86.2fps, a whopping 96% increase in performance.

The GeForce GTX480 in SLI is also substantially faster than anything in ATI's stable. Even the Radeon HD 5970 could not cope with the sheer might of two GeForce GTX 480 cards, and if a dual-GPU "GeForce GTX 495" does come to fruition, it will surely, barring any major catastrophe, seize the title of fastest single graphics card from the Radeon HD 5970.

Not for the weak-hearted, in terms of performance and costs.

Despite the incredible performance, operating temperatures and power consumption are subjects of great concern. With two cards running at a whopping 95 degrees Celsius at the core, ambient heat emitted by the cards is significant and therefore a super ventilated casing is a must-have. In fact, we recommend that such a setup be run in a fairly well air-conditioned room just to be on the safe side. Taking into account just how hot two cards in SLI already is, we shudder to wonder just how anyone will cope with a 3-way GeForce GTX 480 SLI setup. Remember, with a 3-way SLI setup, the cards will be running side by side on the motherboard with little space between them. We figure such a setup would require nothing less than an icebox to keep them going.

On top of that, another pressing issue is that of sound. A system with a single GeForce GTX 480 is already a fairly noisy setup, and with two here, the noise was almost unbearable, to the point where it can and will distract users. Users who are keen on such an SLI setup should also seriously consider getting a pair of good headphones to isolate yourselves from the incessant whirring of fans. Alternatively, consider isolating the main PC and just keep the input peripherals and monitor near you.

Lastly, power consumption figures borders on the ridiculous. A similar specced system with two Radeon HD 5970 cards in CrossFireX is less power hungry than this - and that's four GPUs! As such, an adequate PSU is also crucial to keep the system running smoothly. However, power requirements are the least of your concerns seeing the widespread availability of powerful PSUs. We recommend nothing less than a high-end 850W PSU or if you can, go for one that is 1000W and above to give you more headroom for future expansion.

Bashing aside and if you're not counting the number of active GPUs, we would like to draw your attention to the older Radeon HD 4870 X2. While fast in its day, it was also a power guzzler and quite a heat radiator - enough to challenge the GeForce GTX 480. In one of our articles last year (page 8 to be exact), we've even run the Radeon HD 4870 X2 in CrossFireX mode, only to record our highest ever power draw for any setup to-date and was almost as warm as the GeForce GTX 480 in SLI too. Having said that, we're just drawing comparisons where extremes are concerned that the alarming power and thermal stats of the new GeForce GTX 480 aren't exactly unheard of.

In closing, it seems that NVIDIA has done a commendable job on improving the SLI performance of their latest generation cards, as there is evidence to suggest that performance scales nicely, especially when it is most needed at demanding settings. However, the combined might of two GeForce GTX 480 cards in SLI configuration is overkill for most users, and considering the daunting costs involved in acquiring and maintaining such a setup, it is something that is certainly reserved for the hardcore extremists.

Looking ahead, we hope to address the question that is on many a hardcore user's mind, and that is which is quicker: 3-way GeForce GTX 480 SLI, or dual Radeon HD 5970s in CrossFireX? Check back in then.

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