NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470 Review

The GeForce GTX 470 is the second high end card from Nvidia. It has the
same strengths and weaknesses as that of the GTX 480, but we were not
much happy with it. May be it is expensive, so it is equally important.
In addition, defects (consumption, heat, noise) make you a bit annoying
and almost forgivable – the GTX 480 is also less tolerated on this
model.

Announced at the same time as the GeForce GTX 480, Nvidia GTX 470 is a
high end card but perhaps less efficient than its companion GTX 480. In
fact, its price comprises of $465 instead of $160 less than $640 and
between HD 5850 and HD 5870 in ATI. However, its slight architecture
makes him compatible with DirectX 11, PhysX, 3D vision, and also the
GPGPU (calculated on the GPU instead of CPU) with CUDA. With a price
positioning a bit special, and considering the strengths and weaknesses
of the GTX 480, we expect much from GTX 470 at the end.

When we take a quick glance at the technical specifications of the GTX
470, it contains a GTX 480 in the outline. It has DirectX 11
architecture based on Nvidia GF100 to ensure on tessellation part; use
of GDDR5 memory, dual channel for exchanges between the processor and
the graphics processor, and polymorph graphics engine!

But if we look more closely, the number of cores (448), the quantity and
frequency of memory (1280 MB clocked at 1674 MHz), and the bus
(320-bit) plays a vital role for Nvidia to bring the price of the card.

GTX 470 continues the history

In GTX 470, we were not as exhilarated as the GTX 480. Before going
further, it is important to remember that these cards do not intend to
poorly ventilate enclosures and consumes less than 500 watts. It is
upscale containers including countless fans and power supplies capable
of providing a fair and consistent performance. Indeed, the GTX 470 is
running in the footsteps of its older sister for the best, that’s worse.
Its use remains high (over 255 watts 36 watt 2D), releases heat beefy
full load (90 to 95° C on the GPU, 62 to 70° C on the map in a well
ventilated case), and nuisance omnipresent sound, though failing to
ankle the GTX 480 in this field.

The cooling system is less complex than the high-end Nvidia fan, some
heat pipes under the plastic but nothing apparent!

Honest performance, a price a little high

From the point of view of "raw performance", the GTX 470 comes between
the HD 5850 and HD 5870 from ATI. It is also closer to the second than
the first and same goes for its price, which falls rather well.

Our reference video games were used to evaluate the capabilities of the
GTX 470. Under Dirt2 DirectX 11, HD 5850 shows 69.2 fps (frames per
second) 1920 x 1200 pixels (High 4AA) while the 470 is proud of his
score of 87.7 and HD 5870, 77.8 fps. However, the single high end GPU
ATI card resumed its rights under S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat and
pushes the GTX 470 over a dozen images per second on average.

This difference results partly explained by the relative lightness of
the engine Dirt2. We also did some tests with PhysX and Batman: the
number of frames per second is significant because more than 65 frames
per second.

A bit of 3D Vision?

We also tried the 3D Vision. The number of frames per second is divided
by two, on a screen of 22 inches, the result is more than satisfactory,
but if you hope to play on the future 24 inch 3D Vision compatible, it
will take to lower your expectations for details and disable some
filters to ensure a perfectly smooth gameplay.

The fact remains that few securities resisted both standard-definition
19-inch, 22 inches (1680 x 1050 pixels), only 24 inches. Even 30 inches,
with some minor adjustments, all our games have remained fluid.

Features

• Microsoft DirectX 11 Support: DirectX 11 GPU with Shader Model
  5.0 support designed for ultra high performance in the new API’s key
  graphics feature, GPU-accelerated tessellation.
• NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround Ready: Expand your games across three
  displays in full stereoscopic 3D for the ultimate “inside the game”
  experience with the power of NVIDIA 3D Vision and SLI technologies.
  NVIDIA Surround also supports triple screen gaming with non-stereo
  displays.
• Interactive Ray Tracing: By tracing the path of light through a 3D
  scene, ray tracing uses the power of the GPU to create spectacular,
  photo-realistic visuals. Get a glimpse into the future of gaming with
  ray tracing.
• 3-way NVIDIA SLI Technology: Industry leading 3-way NVIDIA SLI
  technology offers amazing performance scaling by implementing 3-way AFR
  (Alternate Frame Rendering) for the world’s premier gaming solution
  under Windows 7 with solid, state-of-the-art drivers.
• NVIDIA PhysX Technology: Full support for NVIDIA PhysX technology,
  enabling a totally new class of physical gaming interaction for a more
  dynamic and realistic experience with GeForce.
• NVIDIA CUDA Technology: CUDA technology unlocks the power of the
  GPU’s processor cores to accelerate the most demanding tasks such as
  video transcoding, physics simulation, ray tracing, and more, delivering
  incredible performance improvements over traditional CPUs.
• 32x Anti-aliasing Technology: Lightning fast, high-quality
  anti-aliasing at up to 32x sample rates obliterates jagged edges.
• NVIDIA PureVideo HD Technology: The combination of high-definition
  video decode acceleration and post-processing that delivers
  unprecedented picture clarity, smooth video, accurate color, and precise
  image scaling for movies and video.
• PCI Express 2.0 Support: Designed for the new PCI Express 2.0 bus
  architecture offering the highest data transfer speeds for the most
  bandwidth-hungry games and 3D applications, while maintaining backwards
  compatibility with existing PCI Express motherboards for the broadest
  support.
• Dual-link DVI Support: Able to drive industry’s largest and highest
  resolution flat-panel displays up to 2560×1600 and with support for
  High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP).
• HDMI 1.4 Support: Fully integrated support for HDMI 1.4 including
  xvYCC, Deep color and 7.1 digital surround sound.

Specification

• GPU Engine Specs:
  • CUDA
    Cores: 448
  • Graphics Clock (MHz): 607 MHz
  • Processor Clock (MHz): 1215 MHz
  • Texture Fill Rate (billion/sec): 34.0
• Memory Specs:
  • Memory Clock (MHz): 1674
  • Standard Memory Config: 1280 MB GDDR5
  • Memory Interface Width: 320-bit
  • Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec): 133.9
• Feature Support:
  • NVIDIA SLI-ready: 2-way/3-Way
  • NVIDIA 3D Vision Ready
  • NVIDIA PureVideo Technology: HD
  • NVIDIA PhysX-ready
  • NVIDIA CUDA Technology
  • Microsoft DirectX 11
  • 3.2 OpenGL
  • PCI-E 2.0 x 16 Bus Support
  • Certified for Windows 7
• Display Support:
  • 2560 x 1600 Maximum Digital Resolution
  • 2048 x 1536 Maximum VGA Resolution
  • Standard Display Connectors
  • Multi Monitor
  • HDCP
  • HDMI
  • Audio Input for HDMI
• Standard Graphics Card Dimensions:
  • Height: 4.376 inches (111
    mm)
  • Length: 9.5 inches (241 mm)
  • Width : Dual-slot
• Thermal and Power Specs:
  • Maximum GPU Temperature (in C): 105
    C
  • Maximum Graphics Card Power (W): 215 W
  • Minimum Recommended System Power (W): 550 W
  • 6-pin x2 Supplementary Power Connectors

Conclusion

The GTX 470 comes with $455 price tag. A quick visit to some sites
online merchants tells us that the anticipated selling price is
significantly higher than that recommended by Nvidia. Officially
available since April 12 – just like his big sister – the GeForce GTX
470 is full of resources but is not an "inevitable". A tariff
equivalent, we prefer the Radeon HD 5870 for its consumption and noise
more reasonable.