Most people who rag on 480s (if not all of them) have never even owned them and are basing their opinions on SA FUD etc.
They are great cards.
Many enthusiasts don't care about TDP (that whole $5.00 or whatever) etc and I never had an issue with heat with my 480s. The 480's only real crime was being late, and that lateness was hurt even more by Nvidia's questionable PR, but as far as the actual hardware goes, they were the fastest single GPU's when they were released and they held that crown until their successor (the 580) arrived. I just don't see any fail there.
Of course, haters will hate, while the rest of us enjoy the best hardware, regardless of who manufactures it
