1080p atm, so a single 480 might be enough to max out some stuff, but I might be intrested to try nvidia surround in the future, but thats a big "might". I like to watercool them to..
Buy a GTX 670, smashes pretty much everything at 1080p. The only game I've found that it can't beat is The Witcher 2 on maximum settings.
So, does anyone know if GPUz gives accurate vRAM readings? I'm playing BF3 at 1600p with everything at High/Ultra and FXAA and my vRAM usage is topping out at 650mb or thereabouts.
That doesn't sound right! Use MSI Afterburner, go to the settings and enable the OSD (On Screen Display) for whatever options you'd like to view whilst gaming. So things like memory usage, temperature and a myriad of other options can be enabled. Play the game and watch the numbers!
Blogins, still got that EVGA block? Been hunting for one on this side of the pond for ages. They're rare as hen's teeth over here. Still looking for a 480 as well, though when I get money in the bank and get paid for the rest of my work I should be golden. Will one do me for Guild wars 2 at 1920x1200 (or whatever, pills are fun tonight) or should I try to source two?
No, that's what I thought. For some reason enabling the OSD in MSI AB doesn't seem to work. The only thing I can get it to show is the temp of GPU1. For Guild Wars 2 at 1200pm one will be more than enough!
You need to scroll through the list of monitoring options, left click on what you want displayed in the OSD and then tick the 'Show in On-Screen Display' box. Voila!
So, now I have MSI afterburner working correctly (thanks Blogins), I just wanted to put the brakes on some of the vRAM scaremongering that's been going on recently. I run a Dell U3011 (2560x1600) and have SLI 480s with of course 1536Mb of vRAM. My settings are below but the general gist is everything on Ultra and just use FXAA instead of MSAA. In the below pic shadows are on High but you can stick them on Ultra too, with no perceptible impact to performance. bf3 2012-05-28 22-30-23-69 by Penderyn, on Flickr At these settings, I hit 1436Mb used. However: most importantly my fps never dips below 60 in normal play. Yes, more vRAM is always good, and for those playing at 1440/1600p and buying a new card, I would of course advise you buy something with 2GB, same goes for those who want to run every game with MSAA, BUT.... what we all need to take from this is that it is not essential. Given that BF3 is probably (along with Crysis) the most demanding game out there, those either looking to buy second hand to save a heap of cash should not be put off by 'only' 1536Mb of vRAM.
Didn't use mine in the end. You want just the block and screws? Only the electricity bill! Tried undervolting Parge? Saved a few watts on mine by flashing the BIOS with a tried and tested formula!
Unless you've got a good deal on a card or two. I just got a buyer for my wife's 20", so she'll get my 24 and I'm getting a 27" IPS. What would you want for it? I'm able to get them for between $160-180 here, but if you've got a deal I'd rather buy from you because I know where it's going. We can take this to PM to keep from cluttering the thread, if you like. I'm bloody tired of Intel integrated, though.
I've just been given jawdrop a pair of GTX 480's by a mate as he upgraded to a 690. However, one of the cards runs significantly hotter than the other (+20 Degrees). I'm going to strip it down and apply new TIM, see if that helps. Any recommendations on what TIM to use? I was thinking Artic Silver5.
Although I prefer Prolimatech PK-1 for CPUs and get better temps on that for some reason I get better results with MX-2 on graphics cards.
I think all the GTX 480 had heats spreaders so AS5 would be fine. Have a read through of this thread as I posted about my BIOS MOD that dropped the voltage for perfectly stable operations and much less heat as a result.
I just cleaned up a GTX 480 block. I dont think it had been changed for roughtly 2 years by the previous owner. Here are the before and after shots Before: After
The block I bought was also very poorly fitted to the GTX 480. I can see in the above example the GPU enforcer pad was placed on the block side! With mine some of the VRM didn't even have pads properly installed. To think these people had the guts to dismantle an expensive GPU but not have the time to properly follow the instructions! Have you actually taken the block apart as well?
Not only was it block side, but there was also one on the GPU side?! The one on the block was sandwiched with extra thermal paste lol. I think its because the socket retainer screws were missing when it was assmebled (for some reason) and they improvised! In answer to your question, yes i did clean the whole block out. It wasnt too bad inside to be honest but it was still nice to get it cleaned up.
I take it you'll be treating this to some proper screws so it does do the job of reinforcing the PCB! Otherwise the original improvisation was actually pointless!
I've dropped the voltage to 950mv with MSI Afterburner and the Delta between Idle and Max is about 5 degrees lower. It seems stable for the time being. Which BIOS did you use? My cards are the Asus ENGTX480's and I can't find much about them, unless I'm looking in all the wrong places.
