GeForce GTX 470 - What's it like

[DirtRider]

Ok I am looking at getting a GeForce GTX 470 for gaming. Can anyone tell me a bit more about this card. Looking at the Benchmark Results here it looks like it is one great card Benchmark Results: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (DX11) : Nvidia GeForce GTX 460: The Fermi We Were Waiting For

 

[Everlong]

I got my 470 as soon as they came in to stock in the UK and I love it. Not had any problems with running games on full. Bad Company 2 plays great on it like in the benchmark you linked. The card does get as hot as the GTX480 does if you leave the fan at stock speed. I set mine to 65% in MSI Afterburner and the temps are now in a realistic range (around low/mid 40s with a single monitor or low 50s with dual monitor, and never seen had it go in to the 80s on load while playing games).

Crysis plays great on it as well. Full graphics and it's very much playable and smooth. I remember when I tried playing it on my 8800 SLI setup, and had to lower the graphics to get it playable, but even still it'd be a bit jerky when things like explosions went off, but now there's no noticable slow down.

But your mileage may vary as you're running a Q6600, whereas I'm on a 9550 and benchmarks nowadays will use i7s.

 

[DirtRider]

Thank I cannot wait for it to arrive on Monday, did not have a very good experience with the ATI HD5770 1 GB lucky they are changing it out for me and I just need to pay in the difference.

 

[Everlong]

That's good if you're getting it cheaper then. I've been recommending the GTX460 mostly which is a lot cheaper, and not greatly slower, but if you just need to pay the difference then it's a great purchase.

 

[JonM33]

That's good if you're getting it cheaper then. I've been recommending the GTX460 mostly which is a lot cheaper, and not greatly slower, but if you just need to pay the difference then it's a great purchase.

Yeah, I am hoping that the GTX 460 drives the price of the Radeon HD 5850 down so that I can get another to run in Crossfire.

 

[webulator70]

The 460 1gig seems like the one for me to wait for, if you look at the table on this page: ( link ) of it vs the 460 512 meg and the 465, it seems like a real price : performance winner.

 

[Swifty]

I have a question is buying a GTX 460 a good idea or should I stick with my GTX 260?

 

[jebuchanan]

The GTX-460 1GB is definitely a good card to seriously consider, even for gaming.

 

[smarteyeball]

I have a question is buying a GTX 460 a good idea or should I stick with my GTX 260?

The 260 is still a good card, but you would certainly notice an improvement with a 460.

 

[AstaLaVista]

I have a question is buying a GTX 460 a good idea or should I stick with my GTX 260?

I have a question is buying a GTX 460 a good idea or should I stick with my GTX 260?

The 260 is still a good card, but you would certainly notice an improvement with a 460.

I got to say, to me paying more than a150 for a video card is just a waste of time. What do I mean? At least for me, an Shooter gamer, most of the game now a days are Console Ports, most not that good as far as optimization goes so I gotta ask.

What can a GTX460/470/480 ($300.00 and Up!) can do better than my GTX260 can't do? All things considered and all things being equal (same Good PSU, CPU. Mobo, RAM).

Seriously though, I am not trying to piss in anybody's cheerios nor I think I am a smart guy... I have asked myself this question and not asked it.

 

[DirtRider]

What can a GTX460/470/480 ($300.00 and Up!) can do better than my GTX260 can't do? All things considered and all things being equal (same Good PSU, CPU. Mobo, RAM).

DX11 However I know what you mean I was thinking the same last night about my 470. Then again maybe I won't see such a huge impact right now but in a few month when the new games come out I may. If I look at my situation and BFBC2 I was playing it ok on my GTS 8800 512 on medium settings now I can go up to max all round and get the affects of DX11

 

[AstaLaVista]

Let me ask this then... Is having DX11 restricted only by the video card and not the game itself?

What do I mean?. I am Ubisoft and I make a crappy Xbox360 game to begin with (say Vegas 1 or 2), which I am asuming it only uses DX9, then I do an extremely bad job porting this already bad game to PC (less optimization yet) so... even with a new shinny video card capable of using DX20 (yes, I have a flare for the Melodramatic ), what good is it if you are restricted to using DX9 as that is all the game is capable of giving you?

See my dilemma?

With fewer and fewer games being made solely for PC or first for PC and then ported to consoles, all that money wasted on Video Cards is just money burnt as we can't really take advantage of any technological advances since we are cap by the inabilities/Un-Optimizations of the game.

 

[Everlong]

Let me ask this then... Is having DX11 restricted only by the video card and not the game itself?

What do I mean?. I am Ubisoft and I make a crappy Xbox360 game to begin with (say Vegas 1 or 2), which I am asuming it only uses DX9, then I do an extremely bad job porting this already bad game to PC (less optimization yet) so... even with a new shinny video card capable of using DX20 (yes, I have a flare for the Melodramatic ), what good is it if you are restricted to using DX9 as that is all the game is capable of giving you?

See my dilemma?

With fewer and fewer games being made solely for PC or first for PC and then ported to consoles, all that money wasted on Video Cards is just money burnt as we can't really take advantage of any technological advances since we are cap by the inabilities/Un-Optimizations of the game.

But then there are the games that do get ported probably, such as Battlefield Bad Company 2, which does have DX11 even though it's on console, and Crysis 2, which is also going to be graphically better with DX11 then it's console variants.

And it's your choice really. If you don't feel the need to upgrade then don't. Simple choice. I upgraded from a dual 8800GTS 512 setup, and got quite a nice performance increase in just about every game, so it was worthwhile for me.

 

[AstaLaVista]

But then there are the games that do get ported probably, such as Battlefield Bad Company 2, which does have DX11 even though it's on console, and Crysis 2, which is also going to be graphically better with DX11 then it's console variants.

And it's your choice really. If you don't feel the need to upgrade then don't. Simple choice. I upgraded from a dual 8800GTS 512 setup, and got quite a nice performance increase in just about every game, so it was worthwhile for me.

This being the case and they are games that you will play, then sure, I see why you would want to spruce for a newer card.

I am still skeptical of the improvements though, that and not having the money to spruce also doesn't help

Everlong, if its not to much to ask, what kind of improvements did you see and where the 8800GTS capable of DX10 or only DX9? Do you Campaign or MP play only?

Why do I ask so many questions? I don't know, perhaps because I don't do MP so the improvements might not affect me much... I pretty much do it to learn

 

[Everlong]

The 8800 was capable of DX10, and I play both singleplayer and multiplayer. I just saw an improvement all around really, like in Crysis when there was gunfights and explosions, there would always be an fps drop even if I was playing with medium settings, but with my 470 there's no noticable slowdown at all and Bad Company 2 was a lot smoother as well and I was able to increase the graphics whereas with my 8800s I was having to have everything set pretty low to get it properly smooth.

If I did upgrade to a GTX260 or a 285 instead of skipping that series, then I'd most likely not have upgraded to a 470 as soon as I did as I'd most likely have seen improvements upgrading to one of them as well.

 

[AstaLaVista]

I also had two 8800GTX in SLI and I got to be honest, I never saw a big difference between using only one or both in SLI... between you and me, I think we just got bamboozled into the marketing hype of the SLI.

Now, as soon as I sold those and I got myself a std GTX260, I did notice a big jump overall but I only paid about 150 to 160 for my card (with discounts and MiR)... I just can't see myself paying more than that because I will play a game for a month or two (being that I only single play).