The good can go far. But the bad go too far - Egan Orion
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Nvidia admits GTX480 runs hot
DESIGNER OF HOT GPU CHIPS Nvidia has admitted what most every review has already said - its GTX480 chip uses "a lot of power".
In a blog post, Nvidia's Drew Henry said that the chip designer had "heard [users] concerns" with regard to power and heat. He went on to explain that a "high performance" GPU such as the GTX480 will "consume a lot of power" in order to enable "performance and features".
The Green Goblin's Fermi chip, a source of much embarrassment to the firm, finally shipped last week in GTX470 and GTX480 graphics cards. Reviews generally put the top end GTX480 slightly ahead of AMD's Radeon HD 5870 but it was clear to see that Nvidia's latest GPU chips were running excruciatingly hot. Reviewers found their units running close to 100° C when putting the cards through their paces.
The content of Henry's post might sound like an April Fool's joke, but sadly for the firm, too many reviews prove it is fact. While chip design is always a tradeoff, Nvidia clearly pushed the limits trying to shove these huge monolithic GPU chips out the door.
Now the chip designer has admitted the blatantly obvious fact that its next generation chips run hot and, if you follow its line of argument about heat being relative to performance, that's exactly what it was going for.
Henry finishes off by saying that the chip is indeed designed to run at these high temperatures and doing so has no negative effects on life expectancy. That might very well be true but really it still remains to be seen, and meanwhile it will have negative effects on your electricity bills. µ
Tags: Nvidia
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nVidia graphics chips have always run hot, because both nVidia and its OEMs push the envelope to get high performance. What else is new here?
Given the choice, I will take reliability over performance most any day, for me and for my clients... Ben
Ha another room heater ,is just what i dont need. Been noticing temps steadely going up with each new vid card that comes out each year. Be it Nvidia or ATI. Now on search for decent performing vid card but low heat output. Its a shame that we as consumers have to use heat as criteria in search for decent vid card. Now there is an idea for new product, PC Air Conditioner,with side benefit, cools house!
"When the 40 nm process matures, we can be sure that NVidia will have a full 512-shaders Fermi part with lower power. But where will ATI be at that point?"
6xxx series or 5xxx series on next nm process.
I have followed this saga as told by Charlie on semiaccurate.com, and putting aside his anti-NVidia tone, the objective facts seem to be as follows:
Contrary to their usual practice, NVidia took the chance to go at the same time for a new top-of-the-line architecture and a new manufacturing process (40nm). ATI did this successfully with the 4xxx line and 55nm.
Unfortunately for NVidia, their gamble didn't pay off because of the problems TSMC is having with the 40 nm process.
The Fermi chip (as opposed to ATI's 58xx chip), was designed without sufficient allowance (redundancy) to compensate for manufacturing difficulties.
The only way NVidia is able to make a small part of the GF100 dies work is to disable shader clusters and crank up the voltage.
When the 40 nm process matures, we can be sure that NVidia will have a full 512-shaders Fermi part with lower power. But where will ATI be at that point?
Ordinarily I would have a small heater running in my study to stay warm in winter. Last winter (July here in Aus) I was able to keep my study adequately warm with just my computer (which includes a 9800 GTX+), no joke these things literally do function as room heaters. Fortunately I had air-conditioning for summer. I guess with my coming gtx480 I'll be able to keep the whole house warm now this coming winter.
I only wish that Nvid would have put this thing out a few months ago. As I could have purchased this for the cost of 2 months heat and kept it on in the middle of my house and saved a bundle!! but now that its approaching summer it will make a really really nice paper weight. I guess there are a few positives about fermi. and ive always been an nvidia fanboy
Nvidia might as well go all out for the whole anti-green, Mad-Max, burn-the-earth-to-a-crisp crowd. They could install aggressive tuned-exhaust headers and chrome pipes with butane injectors that could blast out real flames when under full load, and really make a throaty, masculine roar (unlike those fruity, quiet AMD cards).
Sandra Bullock's ex-husband probably needs some work right now, and he would make a natural tattooed biker spokesdude for these bad-boys (surrounded by undulating, swooning, heavily-tattooed strippers dazzled by the nihilistic resource-gobbling flame show).
Greenpeace "might" not approve, though.
Not only do they run hot but you also need to consider the noise from the fan. Not going in my PC.
My 6 9800GX2s run 100 to 117C depending on ambient temps up to 100F through summer months. My 3 GTX 295s run up to 106C on the high ambient days. The cards all run F@H 24/7 365. Nothing has died. Move on! This is not news.
PNY offers a lifetime warranty on all their GTX Series graphics cards, including the latest GTX 480 and 470!! Consumers just need to register at PNY.com to be eligible.
Easy enough :)
I recall someone once trying to call a company on their lifetime warranty when it broke down and the company said 'well it's for the lifetime of the product, and that has obviously ended now' :)
Oh, about the life time warranty. Just did a quick search on newegg and for those companies that are pre-announcing the specs for their cards, the following companies offer lifetime warranties for the gtx480: EVGA, ZOTAC, and PNY. Doesn't seem to be any change in warranties from any company just because this is a GTX480 that runs a little hotter.
By my rough estimate, it'll cost $2 a month more to run a 480 over the 5870 for 5 hours a day, every day. Doesn't hurt as much as I thought.
"GTX480 slightly ahead of AMD's Radeon HD 5870"
If the GTX480 is almost comparable to HD 5870 it would be wise to point out also how much heat the AMD's card throws out.
I have not been following lately of these GPU-wars, so I have to start Googling for that fact...
nVidia would never really admit that there is anything wrong with their POS cards.
New from Nvid - External video card coffee and tea warmer.
Sorry Bob, but your wrong. EVGA offers lifetime warranty on the Fermi Cards.
Limited Lifetime:
The EVGA limited lifetime warranty is only eligible for part numbers ending in:
-A1, -A2, -A3, -A4, -AR, -AX, -CR, -CX, -DX, -FR, -FX, -SG, -SX. (with product registration 30 days from purchase)
EVGA's part numbers are:
015-P3-1489-AR
015-P3-1482-AR
012-P3-1479-AR
015-P3-1480-AR
012-P3-1472-AR
012-P3-1470-AR
So, nVIDIA can roll out its upcoming server chip sets for AMD Opteron 6000 series.
@jason: Nope! XFX, the one company that normally offers lifetime warranties isn't selling these cards.
They supposedly said they have "yet to see whether the fermented launch will reach an inglorious anti-climax" and that "they want to "Ferm up to who really has the big Guns".
My prediction: The cards will start dropping like flies within 6 months of widespread availability. Assuming they'll actually be widespread availability
...lifetime guarantees on these cards?
It will have a POSITIVE AFFECT on your leccy bill.
GPU are generally power hungry devices but this is just plain rediculous. These cards run hot as hell but that's what you get when you name a card after one of the scientist for the Manhattan Project, cause you will definitely need a nuclear power plant to run this crap in SLI.