A new graphic card, but which one ?

[David]

Hi,

I have currently a gtx 260, I plan to buy a 480 but when I see the power it uses in full 3d that is 450w and the temperature that reach 95 C° I am quite afraid.

Those of you that have a 480, could you tell me if you have any temperature problem with it ?
Also, does it use 450w by itself (the card alone) or is it with the whole configuration ? because I have a silent pro 600w with a q6600 and 3 HDD, 8gb ram.
Do you know if 600w will be OK ?
What do you think about brand like Gainward, Point of view ?

Thanks

David.

[Scog]

600w psu should be ok depending on what else is in your system.
The card by itself should not draw more than 300w by itself in any situation as far as I know.
It gets very hot, but is designed to handle it. I have not had any problems.
All cards are currently identical from all vendors, only difference is warranty/pack ins etc.

[GeoPappas]

Also, does it use 450w by itself (the card alone) or is it with the whole configuration ?

According to NVIDIA, the GTX 480 uses up to 250 W of power.

See here:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_ge ... 80_us.html

[timbarnes]

I have a 470. It does get hot, but the cooling works fine, and it's rated to work up to 105 degrees Celsius.

I added a slot cooler for $8 (Evercool Fox-1) that helps with air flow, and I have been monitoring the temperature of the GPU to see that it doesn't get too hot. You can also control the fan manually if you want: I use the EVGA Precision software to do it.

If your power supply is adequate, the cooling is the other major issue. Make sure your case has good airflow, and add fans if necessary.

If you monitor it for a while to check that it's not overheating, you should be able to find a stable configuration that doesn't require ongoing monitoring: my setup now is fine and I don't worry about it any more.

[David]

Thank you for your replies.

I leave anyway my computer case opened and sometimes I use a little fan outside, in front of the opened size and it helps the temperature to go down up to 7C°.
I also use evga with which in turn I can get 5 to 7 C° less.

I think I will go for the Zotak gtx 470, there is about 150 Euros difference and the gtx 480 is only 20-25% faster.

Thanks again.