Fermis all over the place

[agentkay]

Originally Posted by Muppet

I have very good air flow in my case. My 480 fan never exceeds 60%, even after an hour of gaming. It idles at 48 degrees at 44% fan speed. I'm very impressed with mine. It is certainly quieter than my previous 280.

+1 Mine idles at 44C with 44% fanspeed and the highest temperature I have seen was 88C after 10 minutes of Furmark and I believe the fan was just at 65%. Noise is not an issue at all and my case stands on my desk (ear height) 4-5 ft away from me. Very impressed with the card, I'm sure the 22C room temperature help at the moment but I'll simply tweak the autofan curve when it gets warmer, its funny how long the fan actually stays at 44% and lets the card heatup before it increases the rpm. The default autofan curve is surely tweaked to keep rpm as low as possible for as long as possible.

[v3rninater]

what's this crap about there being 480s @ newegg when they're all on "auto notify"

Originally Posted by CaptNKILL

SLI 470s would be faster, but obviously it'd be hotter, much more power hungry and much more expensive, with less video memory available... plus you'd be using SLI, which itself is a downside compared to using a single GPU.

I'd just go with a single 480, ensure that its properly cooled and then overclock the crap out of it. Then just use your other PCI-E slot for a decent Physx card if necessary.

Got, thanks.

I'll grab a 480 then. Sooner or late.... probably later.

[Maverickman]

There 's an MSI GTX 480 on Newegg right now for $509. They do tend to sell out fast. However, more and more Fermis are showing up on Newegg and other sites. At least you won't have to get gouged by the scumbags at eBay!

Originally Posted by Maverickman

There 's an MSI GTX 480 on Newegg right now for $509. They do tend to sell out fast. However, more and more Fermis are showing up on Newegg and other sites. At least you won't have to get gouged by the scumbags at eBay!

Ya this past week they've been showing up in stock like crazy. Good to see.

[brunner]

Originally Posted by agentkay

+1 Mine idles at 44C with 44% fanspeed and the highest temperature I have seen was 88C after 10 minutes of Furmark and I believe the fan was just at 65%. Noise is not an issue at all and my case stands on my desk (ear height) 4-5 ft away from me. Very impressed with the card, I'm sure the 22C room temperature help at the moment but I'll simply tweak the autofan curve when it gets warmer, its funny how long the fan actually stays at 44% and lets the card heatup before it increases the rpm. The default autofan curve is surely tweaked to keep rpm as low as possible for as long as possible.

Is that with just 1 card though? I notice temps get much worse once you place either a PhysX card or another 480 GTX underneath a 480. The bottom card is fine though. I think it's just the design of the cooler which makes it hard for air to go through if the bottom is blocked. It's why I'm strongly considering CoolIt's solution or maybe just take out the PhysX card for now.

[agentkay]

Originally Posted by brunner

Is that with just 1 card though? I notice temps get much worse once you place either a PhysX card or another 480 GTX underneath a 480. The bottom card is fine though. I think it's just the design of the cooler which makes it hard for air to go through if the bottom is blocked. It's why I'm strongly considering CoolIt's solution or maybe just take out the PhysX card for now.

Yes exactly one card, then I have about 2 or 3 slots room until the X-Fi. When it's time to play a PhysX game I will stick my old 8800GTX in there. I also have a 120mm fan pointed at the heatpipes/grill, one advantage of the 830 Stacker/mesh sidedoor, it can pull fresh cool air directly on the card.

I remember seeing a review (HardOCP) where they tested SLI with card-on-card configurations and temperature difference was around 5C (IIRC) between the cards, is yours much larger? Nvidia recommends to have one spare slot between the cards, I can see it is benefital because of the airflow but also the PCB of the other card is not necessarly very cold but if you could get some cold airflow in there (maybe with a custom funnel type of mod) to feed the fan with cold air, your temps should get much better.