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Fermi Arrives - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480

By Kenny Yeo - 27 Mar 2010

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480

The GeForce GTX 480 is NVIDIA's latest flagship and the first to make use of the new GF100 chip.The first thing you'll probably notice about the GeForce GTX 480 is how big the card is. As you'll see from the photos below, it is roughly the length of a Radeon HD 5870, but it has a meaner looking reference cooler, which makes it look more imposing and perhaps slightly larger. What also grabs your attention are the four thick heat pipes sprouting from the core. Such a design is a break from reference coolers of old, which have traditionally been blockish and dull.

 Anyhow, feast your eyes on the photos of the GeForce GTX 480.

Small the GeForce GTX 480 ain't, and it looks very different from reference NVIDIA cards of old thanks to the new cooler design.

Length-wise, the GeForce GTX 480 and the Radeon HD 5870 is about the same, but the Geforce GTX 480 looks a tad stockier.

This is what the back of the cards look like. It has the same cut outs as we've seen on the dual-GPU GeForce GTX 295.

Our reference card sports the usual double DVI ports and also quite oddly, a mini-HDMI port.The four thick heat pipes are a necessity seeing that the card has a rated TDP of 250W. In comparison, a Radeon HD 5870's rated TDP is only 188W. One can also see the two SLI connectors - the GeForce GTX 480 is 3-way SLI compatible.

The GeForce GTX 480 is powered via a 6 and 8-pin PCIe power connector. NVIDIA also recommends that users pair it with a PSU rated for at least 600W.

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8.0
  • Performance 9.5
  • Features 8.5
  • Value 7
The Good
Untouchable single-GPU performance
3D Gaming
The Bad
Costly to own and run
Power-hungry
Runs incredibly hot
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