Konklusion
Så skal vi til at konkludere, personligt mener jeg, at Nvidia har problemer fordi næsten lige meget hvordan man vender og drejer billedet, så er det AMD/ATI der har vundet. Hvis vi kigger på prisen, så må vi jo konstatere, at den nærmeste konkurrent er HD 5970 som koster ca 100 kr mere, og som man kan se i testen, så bliver GTX-480 rundbarberet af HD 5970 i de fleste tests. Altenativt kan vi sammenligne GTX-480 med HD 5870, som koster 1300kr mindre, og ja her er Nvidia kortet hurtigere men 1300,-kr hurtigere, nej vel?
I den test hvor GTX-480 burde have vist sit værd, overgår den kun HD 5970 med sølle 1.6 Fps, hvilket i min verden ikke retfærdiggør prisen, også selvom det er 10,4 Fps mere end HD 5870. Så er der også problemet med køleren, den støjer simplethen for meget, så hvis nogen derude overvejer at investere i dette kort, så vent for guds skyld på at der kommer en version med noget andet end referencekøleren.
Derudover vil jeg også lige rette opmærksomheden mod kortets meget høje strømforbrug, der dog ligger under dets direkte konkurent HD 5970 men stadig langt over HD 5870. Det helt store spørgsmål er jo i virkeligheden, om kortet i fremtiden er bedre end HD 5970, fordi på et tidspunkt bliver tesselation standard, og så er det jo muligt at GTX-480 er et bedre kort, men som det ser ud nu, er det AMD/ATI der sidder på performance tronen.
Innovation/Teknologi - 5
Teknologien Nvidia har brugt i GTX-480, er nærmest ekstrem. De har presset al den nyeste teknologi ned i den enorme 530mm2 GPU. Nvidia har næsten ændret måden, GPU'en arbejder på at implimentere tesselation på den absolut bedste måde. Kortet indeholder 3 billioner transistorer, 480 shader units og har som det første Nvidia kort 768 KB L2 cache. Sammen med 1536MB GDDR 5 RAM og den nyeste 40nm produktionsteknologi er Nvidia endt op med den mest avancerede GPU nogensinde.
Bundle/Tilbehør - 3
Zotac har vedlagt alt det nødvendige tilbehør, så man kan komme igang med at spille så snart kortet er sat i. Men hvis vi sammenligner dette bundle, med det man normalt får med til et HD 5870, så mangler der lige et spil, og derfor får Zotac altså kun 3 point.
Design/Layout - 3
Bagsiden af den nye arkitektur og enorme GPU core, er varme og tonsvis af det. Referencekøleren der er monteret på GTX-480 er enorm, og har 5 heatpipes, men desværre er den ikke stor nok, da kortets køler arbejder på højtryk, og støjer en hel del. Men hvis man tager in mente, hvor meget varme køleren flytter, synes jeg alligevel, at det er uretfærdigt at give færre point. Men som sagt tidligere, vent på versioner af kortet med en optimeret køleløsning.
Software/BIOS - 4
Nvidia driverne er utroligt stabile, kontrolpanelet er dejlig nemt at benytte, og er efter min mening, mere logisk opbygget og derfor nemmere at bruge end ATI's Catalyst Control Center.
Ydelse - 4
Personligt mener jeg, at det er svært at give en karakter til dette kort, fordi i virkeligheden er kortet udviklet til fremtidige spil, der benytter DirectX 11 og tesselation. Kun en af vores tests benytter disse 2 til fulde, og det er da også her, at GTX-480 viser tænder, samtidig skal man dog huske på, at Nvidia endnu ikke har haft tid til at optimere deres drivere. Dog skal der ikke herske tvivl om, at dette er verdens hurtigeste single-core grafikkort.
Pris - 2
Kortet koster 4000,-kr, og ja det er eddersparkme mange penge for et grafikkort med 1 GPU, ihvertfald hvis man sammenligner det med AMD/ATIs priser. Men kortet er et af verdens hurtigeste og derfor får det 2-point.
UK summary
To summarize the test of the Nvidia Geforce GTX-480, ATI/AMD wins on the broad aspect. In every test performed, ATI/AMD's solution delivers more bang for the buck, sorry to say for Nvidia. The nearest competitor for the GTX-480 is the dual-GPU HD 5970, which cost around 11-12 £ more, but beats the GTX-480 in almost all of the tests. When comparing the GTX-480 to the HD 5870, which is around 150 £ less, the GTX-480 is faster, but not at a 150 £ higher price tag.
The results from the test that should have given the GTX-480 a giant leap from its nearest competitor, HD 5970, it only delivers 1.6 flimsy FPS, which in my perspective, doesn't justify the price, event though it beats the HD 5870 with 10.4 FPS.
Then there is the sound-problem with the reference cooler, it's simply too loud to sustain, so if there is anybody who's just thinking on buying the GTX-480, then for God's sake, wait, for at better and more quiet cooling solution.
The most obvious weak-point of the GTX-480 is the heat dissipation (TDP), which is a bi-product of the enormous wattage it drains from the PSU. The power-consumption of the card, lies under the dual-GPU HD 5970, but still far over the HD 5870. The most interesting question to all of this is the future proof design of the GTX-480. At a point in the future, Tesselation will become mainstream and at that point the GTX-480 might blow all of its competition away. At that point the GTX-480 is a better card, but it is ATI/AMD which now is seated at the top of the performance throne.
Innovation/Technology - 5
The technology which Nvidia has incorporated in the GTX-480 is almost extreme. They have managed to squeeze all of the newest technology in the enormous 530mm2 GPU. Nvidia have almost changed the way, by which the GPU works on implementing Tesselation in the absolute best manner. The card contains 3 billion transistors, 480 shader units and is the first Nvidia card ever to contain a upgraded 768 KB L2 cache. Along with 1536 mb of GDDR 5 ram and the newest 40nm productiontechnology, Nvidia has the recipe to the most advanced GPU ever to roll out from the green factory.
Bundle/Accessories - 3
Zotach chose to enclose the package with all the necessary accessories, so the end-user can get the game up and running as soon as the card is installed in the computer. But when we compare the bundle, which normally ships with a HD 5870, there is no game included, which is a drawback for Zotach. Zotach only scores 3 point here.
Design/Layout - 3
The consequences of a brand new architecture and the enormous GPU-core is heat and a backload of it. The reference cooling solution mounted on the GTX-480 is giant and is constructed around 5 heatpipes, but unfortunately the cooler isn't effectively sufficient. The fan makes a lot of noise when dissipating the heat produced from the card, the cooling solution works at the absolute best effort, which is not nearly enough to cool it down to a acceptable level. Even though the GTX-480 can be improved on this point, my opinion of the cooling solution, which moves a lot of heat, will not suffer in the distribution of the points. But as said earlier, wait for a more optimized version of the cooling solution for this card.
Software/Bios - 4
The drivers from Nvidia are incredible stable, the control-panel is very user friendly and is, after my opinion built more logically and therefore is easiere to use than the ATI's Catalyst Control Center.
Performance - 4
I had a lot of struggle when deciding the points for this card, because of its competence in DirectX 11 and Tesselation, which only shows respectively in 2 of the tested games. When testing the card in those specific games, the GTX-480 shows its true grunt, but remember that Nvidia haven't got time to optimize their drivers. Event though there should be no doubt of the powers in the GTX-480, it is the world's fastest single-GPU GFX.
Price - 2
The pricetag for the fastest singel-GPU on the market is around 460 £, and that is truly a lot of money to spend on a single-GPU graphics-card when comparing it to the price levels at ATI/AMD. But the GFX-480 is one the fastest in the world and it therefore recieves 2 points.
Test: Zotac GeForce GTX-480
Innovation / Teknologi | 5 |
Bundle - Tilbehør | 3 |
Design - Layout | 3 |
Software - BIOS | 4 |
Ydelse | 4 |
Pris | 2 |
| |
Samlet | 70% |
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