Any Fermi Users In Here?

[Pudgie]

I would like to hear of your experiences w/ GTX 470, 480.

I am looking at an EVGA GTX 470 SC version on Newegg....................has 5 egg rating so far across 56 buyers reviews for $374.99 on a weekend special deal.

Hows it working out?

 

[Chalenge]

As of Wednesday Im on tri-SLI GTX 480s. You dont need Fermi for AH. Its amazing for FSX and yes the temps went up. Actually I get 78C 68C 77C readings in AH... weird... and for FSX 80C 71C 79C but this is 10C cooler than other users have reported and well below the maximum of 105C. This IS very hot compared to ATI cards. If your case is not well insulated I guess it COULD be louder. The fans are not turbo-terribly-high-rpms like everyone suggested so they are NOT louder as far as I can tell but I do have three of them running at 80%. There doesnt appear to be any advantage to running the fans the other 20% higher. Im not on W7 so I cant speak to Direct X 11.

The paint isnt scorching off the walls from heat and the windows dont rattle out of the panes from noise.

Make sure your PSU is up to it.

3D Mark Vantage 1x 480 P22849
                        2x 480 P38437
                        3x 480 P43186

I think this means my CPU is holding the GPUs back as there are systems that get to P40380 on two cards and up to P50300 on three (maybe higher but thats all I have seen). My test system is an E8400 @3.6 Ghz evga i780 w/ 8GB @1600 Mhz and Vista x64. I will try it on an i7 920 next.

[Skuzzy]

Give it time and watch the failures roll in.  It is inevitable.  These boards will die premature deaths.  The design is not compatible with the production process.  In the history of silicon production that has caused a 100% premature failure of the parts.

You think NVidia would have learned from the past failures they have eaten.  Lucky for them they cannot produce a large quantity of these parts due to poor yeilds.  That, by the way, is the first clue there is a design problem.  The second clue is the power required.  Simply put, they do not have enough vias (internal silicon paths) to handle the power flow which increases the power/thermal load on the part substantially.

The best move anyone can make is to skip this generation of parts from NVidia.  NVidia's history shows they will finally get the design in sync with the process.

[Kazaa]

You're not going to find a better "opinion" on these boards than Skuzzy's.

[Skuzzy]

By the way, NVidia is not the first company to screw up the design for the process.  ATI was.  However, ATI did it much smarter.  They accepted there could be design issues with a new process so they rolled it out with a low end part and yes, they screwed it up.  They did the same thing NVidia has done with Fermi.

They are also eating those parts now due to premature failures and existing inventory, but it was a low cost part so it will not impact them much.  They went back and redesigned the part to match the process after understanding the failure modes, and then they rolled out their high end parts.  This is why ATI is rolling out high end boards which run cooler and quieter.

NVidia will get there, but they should have taken a page from ATI's playbook.  It will end up costing NVidia a considerable amount of money to get passed this. The smart thing to do is wait until NVidia replaces Fermi as that part should be a much better design.  Make no mistake about it, NVidia is hustling to replace Fermi.  They are losing money on every Fermi part they ship.

[Chalenge]

Well I sure hope the warranty replacement (if or WHEN I use it) either stays with the same gen or takes it up one. I would hate to have to go back after getting used to such good frames at ATL and LAX.

[Pudgie]

Thx for the replies!

Yeah Skuzzy I understand that issue very well. I used to own a GeForce 5700 Ultra a few years back & while the card ran OK it couldn't hold up to the ATI X800 Pro that I also owned back then. I had been running ATI cards since the 9800 series then & had got the 5700 Ultra on a good deal just to see if the GeForces had improved. I switched back to Nvidia when the 7900 series came out.

Looking on Newegg I had noticed that all the vendors had dropped the 285's except BFG & Zotac & EVGA's GTX 470 series rival the BFG & Zotac 285's cost-wise almost to the penny thus why I was looking at the EVGA 470's which are under $400.00 right now & cheaper that ATI's equivalent. Tempting proposition at the least & they're in stock right now too. Thus the topic.

My current box is very similar to Chalenge's setup that is running the 3 480's (E8600 OC'd to 4.0 GHz on a EVGA 780i FTW w/ 4 Gb 1066 DDR2 mem using Vista HP x64 OS). I'm fixing 1 issue when the Asus Xonar DS 7.1 PCI sound card gets here so I can retire the onboard sound (can't use my Asus Xonar DX 7.1 PCI-E SC due to the 780i FTW's issue of lack of resources when SC is put in the other PCI-E 16x slots & can't access the 780i FTW's PCI-E 1x slot which is covered up by the 2-slot vid cards--bad, bad Nvidia).

Until I upgrade to P55/X58 series parts (which is also unnecessary to run AH as well & the current setup isn't being pushed by any means) I'm kinda stuck UNLESS there's someone out there that has an ATI 4000/5000 series VC that is running well on a Nvidia-chipset equipped mobo (which is really hit or miss on a 780i SLI mobo). An SLI configuration is not an option--not because I lack the equipment capabilities--I have NO desire to do that.

My current power supply (PC P&C Silencer 750 w/ 60a single 12v rail) should handle pretty much any single VC setup.

Thx again for the replies!

Go AH!!!!!

 

I want AH in it's fullest glory visually! I want it ALL!!

[Pudgie]

Also forgot to mention...................... ........................

While playing AH at my current game settings (all eye candy enabled; shadows set at 2048 & ground objects set to render full at 2 mi) & more than 10-12 players in same area my GTX 260 OC'd to 285 speeds will hit 99%-100% GPU utilization quite frequently--& I have Aero shut down. My vc's mem usage never goes over 30% usage running at 1280x1024x32 at 75 FPS (vsynched thru VC drivers)--all checked w/ Precision. This tells me that to use all of AH's beauty to the fullest & maintain the FPS I need (read in want here) a little more powerful & efficient VC to maintain sufficient GPU headroom. I believe that here is where the increased shader power of newer VC's will come into play.

Unlike some I LIKE AH's eye candy as AH is a very beautiful & immersive experience w/ it on. I love the shadows on my a/c & the shadow effects off the other a/c as well.

Yeah I know that I can dial this back but that is not what I want.

 

[Chalenge]

At 1280x1024 I dont think even a GTX 295 is much better than an 8800 (for instance). You might be better off at least testing a monitor that supports 1680x1050 and/or 1920x1080 (or 1920x1200) on your current GPU. I know the 295 doesnt even catch its stride until it gets to 1920x#### and higher.

[Kazaa]

Pudgie, you should really, really think about getting yourself a new display. That alone would make the game 10 times better to play on it's own.

[Pudgie]

Fellas if you only knew how many times I have wished that this old ViewSonic 21PS 21" CRT would stop working so I could then turn in a purchase order to the General House Manager for replacement.................. .

But it just won't stop running!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[1701E]

Hammers fall a lot.....on top of expensive electronics......

[SIK1]

Pudgie you just need to put the right spin on it. Explain it as saving the planet by getting a new "efficient" monitor. 

[Pudgie]

A 24" 120Hz LCD monitor would be oh so coooooooooooooollllllllllllll lllllllllllllllllllllllllllll !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[TequilaChaser]

An SLI configuration is not an option--not because I lack the equipment capabilities--I have NO desire to do that.

My current power supply (PC P&C Silencer 750 w/ 60a single 12v rail) should handle pretty much any single VC setup.



I want AH in it's fullest glory visually! I want it ALL!!

I have the same PSU, Pudgie, it should be able to power up 4 separate video cards....... at least my version of that PSU came with (2) 6+2 pin vidcard plugs ( 8 pin plugs ) and (2) 6 pin vidcard plugs

mine is the RED crossfire version though for the ATI Crossfire Spider systems ( 4 ATI Crossfire Videocards on a single MB ) ( all dependent on how much each videocard requires power wise )


if ya want AH in it's fullest glory, Visually, then why not go with one of those ATI HD5870's or 5890's??? my guess is that be more than you would need for a good while...

YMMV.......