MSI’s GeForce N470GTX & GTX 470 SLI
by Ryan Smith on July 30, 2010 1:28 PM ESTFinal Thoughts
When the GeForce GTX 470 first launched we recognized that NVIDIA did an appropriate job on pricing it purely on a performance basis. Based on performance alone it was priced correctly versus AMD’s cards, so that it performed in-line with the price. With its much greater power consumption (and the consequences of that) this didn’t make it a must-have card, but it did at least keep the GTX 470 on the table as a practical card to buy.
Today we’re seeing the devolution of a structured pricing strategy in to an all-out war, and MSI is leading the way. Coupled with NVIDIA’s recent driver improvements, GTX 470 cards like the N470GTX are now very close to being performance competitive with AMD’s top-end Radeon 5870 while costing significantly less. As far as reference-derived cards go, the N470GTX brings to the table all the things we like and dislike about the GTX 470, along with a fantastic set of overclocking tools and a free game for a price that’s competitive with the slower Radeon HD 5850.
Ultimately this makes for a very straightforward verdict on MSI’s N470GTX: at $300 (or $280 after a MIR) it’s a heck of a deal, and like the rest of the GTX 470 family at that price it has no peers when it comes to performance. However the caveat about power and heat still remains – it’s a very fast card for the price, but it’s also significantly hotter and louder than the Radeon HD 5850 it’s priced against. When performance is the only concern the choice is clear, but if you need to worry about power and noise then you need to decide whether you value performance or power more.
Meanwhile the GTX 470 SLI situation takes everything we’ve said about performance and power and amplifies it. When it comes to the GTX 470, NVIDIA clearly has a multi-GPU scaling advantage over AMD’s Radeon 5800 series. Two GTX 470s can beat a 5870CF setup the bulk of the time, but the noise is immense and the power difference is no less.
Wrapping things up, we will have more about SLI and Crossfire scaling next month when we take a comprehensive look at SLI/CF scaling. The GTX 400 series in 2-way SLI is only half the story – there’s still the matter of 3-way SLI and Crossfire to look at, so stay tuned.
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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 guymy 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?