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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470 - The Second Fermi Card

By Kenny Yeo - 10 Apr 2010

Conclusion

Fast, But That Ain't Enough

In closing, we are not that impressed with the new GeForce GTX 470. With a launch price of US$349, it finds itself sandwiched between the Radeon HD 5870 and HD 5850, which cost around US$400 and US$280 respectively. And if you consider the performance it offers, it's a tad hard to justify the price-tag. Depending on which benchmark, it is roughly 10 - 20% quicker than a Radeon HD 5850, but at US$280, the HD 5850 costs a whopping US$70 less. Not only that, it is also much cooler and efficient to run. For those looking for a high-end, yet value-for-money card, our recommendation is to stick with the Radeon HD 5850, which also happens to be one of our “Most Value for Money” award winners.

Against the Radeon HD 5870, things are a little tricky. The Radeon HD 5870 is not a whole lot faster than the GeForce GTX 470, so at a cost of US$400, there is no good grounds for the US$60 premium. Nevertheless, it is significantly more power efficient and cheaper to run and these two reasons coupled with its superior performance might be reasons enough for some to turn to the Radeon HD 5870 instead of the cheaper GeForce GTX 470. Furthermore, the Radeon HD 5000 series are capable of handling three display outputs from a single card, but NVIDIA could only manage two till date.

NVIDIA might have been a little too enthusiastic in proclaiming the GeForce GTX 470 as the new price/performance leader. Perhaps a little too early because the card does excel in DirectX 11 based benchmarks.

Not all hope is lost though, because the GeForce GTX 470 is by no means a slow card, and if true stereoscopic 3D gaming is your thing, then there's still only NVIDIA to turn to for the time being at least - since we hear ATI is in the midst of enabling 3D gaming with the cards too. On top of that, for the wealthy and hardcore, there's also NVIDIA 3D Surround to look forward to.

On a closing note, we must say that we don't think the GeForce GTX 470 is priced competitively enough to give the two ATI Radeon 5800 series cards a run for their money. The Radeon HD 5850 remains to be the best value for money high-end card, while the Radeon HD 5870 retains its appeal for class-leading performance and efficiency. Perhaps those gunning for something in-between might find the GeForce GTX 470 a reasonable candidate, but it has its caveats as mentioned. Also with more DirectX 11 game titles later, the card might prove its worth.

So is the GeForce GTX 470 the new price/performance leader that NVIDIA claims it is? Let's just say it falls a little short. It certainly has decent performance, but that alone isn't enough.

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7.5
  • Performance 8
  • Features 8.5
  • Value 7
The Good
High-end performance
Compact size
The Bad
Not competitively priced
Suffers the same heat, noise and thermal problems as the GeForce GTX 480
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