Adam Krebs
03-28-2010, 12:44 AM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_gtx_480_us.html' target='_blank'>http://www.nvidia.com/object/produc...gtx_480_us.html</a><br /><br /></div><p>"<em>Let's get the hard data out of the way first: 480 CUDA cores, 700 MHz graphics and 1,401MHz processor clock speeds, plus 1.5GB of onboard GDDR5 memory running at 1,848MHz (for a 3.7GHz effective data rate). Those are the specs upon which Fermi is built, and those are the numbers that will seek to justify a $499 price tag and a spectacular 250W TDP. We attended a presentation by NVIDIA this afternoon, where the above GTX 480 and its lite version, the GTX 470, were detailed. The latter card will come with a humbler 1.2GB of memory plus 607MHz, 1,215MHz and 1,674MHz clocks, while dinging your wallet for $349 and straining your case's cooling with 215W of hotness.</em>"</p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/wpt/auto/1269674416.usr495.jpg" style="border: 0;" width="500" /></p><p>Like the Engadget guys, I was in the audience for this presentation and I can tell you first-hand the card has some serious firepower. It's almost enough to excuse the forehead smack-inducing "Crank that S#!t Up" tagline—almost. Nvidia's Drew Henry showed off the new card's ability to run games in 3D just about as smoothly as their 2D counterparts. And he showed them on 3 humungous screens in the main auditorium. Henry stated that the general direction of the entertainment industry was heading towards 3D as evidenced by the recent popularity of <em>Avatar</em>, and he said he wanted Nvidia to lead the PC graphics industry down this path. He also showed off the GTX 480's ability to do <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_tracing_(graphics)" target="_blank">ray tracing</a> in near-real time. I say near-real time, because the card couldn't always keep up with the gloss it was asked to render. In the included application, Design Garage, the user is given a number of cars to customize and explore in a variety of lighting conditions using ray tracing. But setting the bloom to full and the details to high or, ahem, cranking that s#!t up, produced amazing photo-realistic results after a short re-render. <MORE /></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/wpt/auto/1269675697.usr495.jpg" style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #d2d2bb 1px solid; BORDER-LEFT: #d2d2bb 1px solid; BORDER-TOP: #d2d2bb 1px solid; BORDER-RIGHT: #d2d2bb 1px solid" /></p><p>They showed off titles from big-name game publishers with 3D turned on, all of which looked pretty incredible on the big screens. EA's Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was probably the best looking of the bunch, which included Need for Speed and its companion app Design Garage, THQ's upcoming Metro 2033, and even a surprise public appearance by World of Warcraft. Henry pitched that the chip, which has 3 billion transistors, rivals four Intel quad core i7 chips in transistors alone. In one of the cooler demos, Supersonic Sled, a test pilot on a rocket-strapped train sled barrels down a line of rickety old track, tearing up the scenery as it speeds along. Nvidia's Henry paused over a particularly interesting part, a bridge exploding under the sled's speed and weight, and instructed his technician to "crank that s#!t up" (are you getting the pattern?). Turning the number of particles on the bridge from 10,000 to an astounding 1,000,000 created a dazzling explosion that looked even better in 3D.</p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/wpt/auto/1269675764.usr495.jpg" style="border: #d2d2bb 1px solid;" /></p><p>But, as Engadget points out, the card runs hot and it runs expensive. The GTX 480 will set you back $499 when it comes out in two weeks. Its "little brother," the GTX 470, is also out in two weeks and will retail for $349.</p>