Evga GTX 480 Vanilla x 2 SLI - Initial Thoughts

[rjbarker]

Well folks.arrived home yesterday from my month at work and jumped right into my "new toys" awaiting my attention.
I haven't OC'ed these Cards at all yet ....testing these Cards right now at the "Vanilla Stock speeds".

Here are some basic results.....in the first two tests I have indicated a comparison to a relatively High OC'ed 3X Tri Sli GTX 280 (730 / 1458 / 1275) arrangement.

Testing is all done on my Primary Rig in Signature @ 1920 x 1200 Res (except Vantage)

Noise:
- Set Fans to 65% for idle - no biggie here, barely audible over my several Case Fans.
Temps: GPU #1 42c GPU #2 41c

- All Benchmark Runs Fan set to 75% - audible and about at the level of my previous Tri Sli 280's @ 85%

Note: Fans set to 90% are quite loud, much louder than Tri Sli 280's @ 90% - "wwwoooossshhhh"

All Testing done with the following:
I7 @ 3.83 Ghz (201 Mhz Bclk x 19 Mult)
6GB Doms @ 1612 Mhz (2:8)
HX 1kW
2 x GTX 480 Vanillas @ Stock 700 / 1401 / 1848 - No OC
nVidia Driver: 257.15 Beta

Vantage - PhysX enabled - Default Settings
Tri Sli 280's OC'd (730 / 1458 / 1275) - Max Score: P34K

Sli GTX 480's - Stock Vanilla Speeds - Max Score P36K - Max Temp 68c

FC2 - 3 Loops
1920 x 1200
All Ultra / Very High
8x Anti Aliasing

Tri Sli 280's - Highest Avg FPS 115 (Sorry didn't record Min / Max)
Sli GTX 480's
Min: 103 FPS
Max: 225 FPS
Avg: 143 FPS

Max Temp: GPU #1 - 71c GPU #2 - 64c

Heaven DX11
Shaders: High
Tess: Extreme
Anisotropy: 16
AA: 8
1920 x 1200

Min: 27 FPS
Max: 121 FPS
Avg: 51 FPS
Score: 1275

Temps: GPU#1 - 81c GPU#2 74c

Anyhow, been home only since 7:00 PM last night - so, not much time for complete testing yet, next still will be seeing just how far these Cards can OC and some further Testing.

Would be nice to compliment them with a nice 4 Ghz I7 OC, but this old C1 Stepping I have never been able to get stable at above 3.83 Ghz, no matter how much vTT n vCore I threw at it....oh well.
Perhaps that will be my next upgrade to this Rig, a Hexa Core Gulftown when they're Mainstream editions become available

will be adding an additional 140mm Fans to the TJ09 Side Window this week sometime to help pull Temps down a bit.

will keep everyone posted on OC'ability and results as I "play" around...

Overall, I'm happy with the initial results!!

Cheers

[Squeetard]

Initial thought, overkill.

[rjbarker]

^^^ Thanks Squeets.....appreciate your "constructive Post"...surely you can do better than "OverKill" ;)

ABSOLUTELY its Overkill......whats your point?

[fishingfanatic]

It may be overkill, but I like it!!! This is half the fun of going overboard, because you can. That hexacore would be awesome. It made mine so much better, nothing like overkill. My benching of the 5970s in xfire is pretty basic because I'm still very green behind the gills, hehe. For Unigine, my min/max fps is as follows: 2.7/
288.4 at stock. Awesome!!!

[rjbarker]

Yep...of course its fun......its called "enthusiast"...at an amateur level, certainly not at the level of 3oh ;)

Wonder when / if those Gulftowns will be available $300 - $400 range, certainly not going to drop 1.2K on an "Extreme".....

...trying to figure out what to do with these 2 GTX 280's.....seems to easy to simply sell em..huh.build another Rig - P55 perhaps...

[fishingfanatic]

Actually, I kept an eye on ebay of all places. When there was a 6 core near the end of its bidding I swept in at the last minute and got 1 for approx. $720 Cdn. Just make sure you set up a PayPal account if you're gonna try this. It took me 2 wks, but was worth it in the end. Good luck and enjoy the new cards!!!

[belgolas]

Nice mini review. Looking forward to seeing your overclocks as I haven't touched mine till I get temps down.

[rjbarker]

First run at OC'ing ....went for an initial fairly aggressive OC...

800 / 1600 / 1975
Max Temps through Vantage run: GPU#1 81c GPU #2 70c - Ambient Temp in room 23c

No artifacts at all while Stressing...huh....now I know my I7 @ 3.8 is holding me back as I was hoping to get closer to 40K

[Stensby]

Nice setup, love how a 3.8GHz i7 is the system bottleneck:D

[belgolas]

Originally Posted by Stensby

Nice setup, love how a 3.8GHz i7 is the system bottleneck:D

We need i27 for it not to be the bottleneck. CPU's need a lot more power. Same with GPU's though....

I want MORE POWA!!!!! but can't afford...