The Test

As the N470GTX ships at the reference clockspeeds of the GTX 470, we’re going to skip looking at reference performance. If you’d like to see the performance of a reference-clocked GTX 470, please skip ahead to our look at GTX 470 SLI performance, where the reference GTX 470 is listed among our results. Do note that due to the varying VIDs of GTX 400 series cards, power/temperature/noise data is not the same, as you will see in our overclocking section.

Also, after much demand and to go with the look at GTX 470 SLI performance, we have also added 5850CF performance to our charts.

CPU: Intel Core i7-920 @ 3.33GHz
Motherboard: Intel DX58SO (Intel X58)
Chipset Drivers: Intel 9.1.1.1015 (Intel)
Hard Disk: OCZ Summit (120GB)
Memory: Patriot Viper DDR3-1333 3 x 2GB (7-7-7-20)
Video Cards: AMD Radeon HD 5970
AMD Radeon HD 5870
AMD Radeon HD 5850
AMD Radeon HD 5830
AMD Radeon HD 5770
AMD Radeon HD 5750
AMD Radeon HD 4890
AMD Radeon HD 4870 1GB
AMD Radeon HD 4850
AMD Radeon HD 3870
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 465
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 1GB
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 768MB
MSI GeForce N470GTX
Video Drivers: NVIDIA ForceWare 197.13
NVIDIA ForceWare 257.15 Beta
NVIDIA ForceWare 258.80 Beta
AMD Catalyst 10.3a
AMD Catalyst 10.7
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Index MSI N470GTX: Power, Temperature, Noise, & Overclocking
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  • Tunnah - Sunday, August 1, 2010 - link

    seems my comments are being taken out of context, sorry guys not used to posting on a board i'm an IRC kind of guy

    my overshadowing comment was in reference to SLI only

    was asking why study the 470 SLI at the moment when the 460 seems to be grabbing more headlines, especially with it's scaling capabilities

    the 460 SLI numbers were what i was asking about, as from what i've read in other reviews the scaling is amazing and it brings it up against, and sometimes passes, the 5850 in XF

    even though i know a big SLI round up is coming it just seemed weird to focus on the 470, but as they say they've been waiting for a second one to do SLI testing for a while..
  • mapesdhs - Saturday, July 31, 2010 - link


    I see the 8800GT in the test setup summary, but why no results for it (especially SLI) in
    the performance tables?

    Ian.
  • Perisphetic - Sunday, August 1, 2010 - link

    A picture of twin jet engine exhaust on the sticker & a software that's called afterburner. Can this be used for this new type of hot air drilling or just plain marshmallow roasting???
  • Perisphetic - Sunday, August 1, 2010 - link

    But jokes aside, where in the software is the setting for heat shrinking tube?
  • nmctech - Monday, August 2, 2010 - link

    I noticed a few days back they released the Quadro Fermi cards 4000, 5000 and 6000. I found a couple of gamer reviews but a more thorough review of the cards for 3D use would be nice.

    Have you guys had a chance to check those out yet?
  • mapesdhs - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link


    I expect they'll review them eventually, but more likely reviews for the new cards
    will appear on other sites first, eg. those aimed at users of Maya, ProE, CATIA, etc.

    Presumably they'll run Viewperf, Cinebench, etc. among other things. I have two
    Quadro FX 5500s to test (after which I'll put them up for sale), so I can gather
    some results, post the data on my site for comparison to whoever reviews the
    newer cards. If anyone here is interested, let me know (mapesdhs@yahoo.com)
    and I'll send out a URL when the tests are done.

    Btw, I was surprised to see NVIDIA's summary shows the 5500 is 3X faster than
    the 5800:

    http://www.nvidia.com/content/PDF/product-comparis...

    so it should be interesting to see how two 5500s SLI compare to the new 6000,
    sans any differences in CPU/RAM/mbd that might affected the results (my system
    is a 4GHz i7 860, so the two cards will be running 8X/8X for SLI).

    Ian.
  • hsew - Tuesday, August 3, 2010 - link

    I wish SOMEBODY would do an article on multiple GPU scaling , CFX and TriSLI, on AMD vs Intel.

    Something like:

    Core i7 980X, Core i7 9xx, Core i7 8xx, Core i5 7xx, Core i5 6xx, Core i3 5xx.

    Phenom II X6, X4, X3, X2, Athlon II X4, X3, X2.

    all systems 4GB ram each.

    Now, I know that such an article would likely take an astronomical amount of time to write, BUT, it would answer a seriously nagging question:

    Do you really need four or more cores in a Multi-GPU system? Do you even need an Intel CPU to effectively run a Multi-GPU system?
  • Exelius - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link

    I think the reason this hardware is so boring is that the difference between low-end cards and high-end cards is so high. Low end cards are far more popular though; and game companies aim for the lowest common denominator. Thus there is no market for exciting cards because there are no games that can use them.

    NVidia knows this; and are desperately trying to find a new market for their hardware. ATI knew this, which is why the merger with AMD happened. I'm guessing NVidia won't last long as an independent company; Fermi for HPC isn't catching on quickly and I don't think NVidia is in a stable enough position to convince HPC users to begin the costly and time consuming project of moving to Fermi. I think they need an Intel, IBM or HP behind them for that to happen.

    But yes, PC graphics have become boring. Blame $400 PCs and smartphonea for that.
  • Heatlesssun - Saturday, August 7, 2010 - link

    Haven't played with a high-end system lately have you? Graphics boring on high-end PCs, you gotta be kidding me! 3D Surround, just amazing stuff that that $400 PC and smart phone need not apply.
  • Patrick Wolf - Monday, August 16, 2010 - link

    It'd be great if you explained under what conditions you record temps. Things like using a case or an open bench? Are there any additional fans blowing on the card(s)? Room temp? How long do you run Furmark and what settings are used?

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