PNY XLR8 GeForce GTX 480 (Fermi) VCGGTX480XPB Video Card

Comment:
This card came packaged in a well padded nice black box with a great mini hdmi converter. Just plug your HDMI cable into the converter and you are ready to go on that mini output. Be sure to use the latest Nvidia drivers from their website and not the enclosed disc. The styling of this card is also very nice with no gaudy stickers. It took me around 3 months to finally decide to go with the GTX480 after reading many reviews that stated it was a power guzzler and a very hot running card. Yes, this card is HOT! But I mean hot in the way that this card handles anything thrown it's way. The temperature of the card with a mild oc even when running Heaven bench is still within decent limits (79c) and at idle it sits around 50c with around 25c ambient temps. It may consume a bit more power then a 5870 but it is worth the extra 20 bucks a year you might spend on your electric bill. 1920 x 1080 is the resolution I tend to use with np at all. I am currently running 2x1080P HD Samsung Syncmasters on this card (with an additional screen and GT220 installed atm for my 3 screen setup I use for productivity) on the mini hdmi and DVI outputs and will definitely be adding another 480 in a few months for some SLI 3D gaming action. I have dual boxed Aion with no lag or hitches and one account up on each Syncmaster. This card can handle it np. I have also run Aion with Dragon Age and Divine Divinity 2 all at the same time and all ran well. I am currently using a Silverstone Olympia OP1000-E 1000w ps to power everything along with I7 930 oc'd and 12GB Gskills. I have this housed in a HAF 932 with stock fans plus a couple Scythes in push/pull on the Hyper 212 with an extra 120mm CM rifle as an intake fan and I really do not hear the GFX fan when it is cranked up. I do think this card thrives in a case with good cooling and decent cfm fans so I recommend adequate case cooling for this beast. All in all my pc is very quiet much to my surprise. I hear my oscillating room fan on medium speed more then I hear this computer even when benching.MSI Afterburner software works fine with this card and you can download it free from the web. GPU-Z is also a nice free utility to monitor your GTX480. I got this card at the sale price of $499 and would never have chosen PNY if it had not have been for their lifetime warranty that they decided to place on this product. I was going to go with EVGA except the sale price and extra goodies with this card swayed me towards PNY and I am very happy with this purchase so far and would recommend it.

Comment:
My feelings toward this card have risen and fallen like the sun until a few days ago, where now they sit positively at high noon. I used to be an Nvidia devotee back when they bought out 3dfx, with my final card being a geforce 4 titanium card before straying towards ATI's solutions. Part of it was that I wanted to support a Canadian company, and part was that the cheery feeling I got from owning an Nvidia supported product no longer existed. I tried some other Nvidia cards over the years only to send them back for a Radeon of one type or another. Let's face it, ATI makes a damn good card! However, the latest and greatest from Nvidia is finally here and although I was skeptical at first, and maybe even a tad disappointed, I can finally close my eyes and sleep at night with a big smile on my face because I get to use my computer again tomorrow. First of all, I don't know if it's PNY cards in particular or if the reference design that reviewers used is a little different from the card I recieved, but the stable overclocks I got from this card aren't anything near what overclockersclub.com or any of the other review sites achieved. However, that being said the overclock I did get increased performance by as much as 15percent, tipping the benchmarks in favor of the GTX480 over the Radeon 5970 at stock settings. Games really do run beautifully, with maxed out settings at 1920x1080 staying over 60fps. Nvidia's Forceware drivers still need some updating to run better on directX 10 programs (the Unigine Tropics demo didn't run very well much of the time), but games will still run great and yes, Crysis looks sweet maxed out.Of course with all of the Fermi goodness comes some trade-off badness. It runs hot. The fan's RPMs doesn't really kick in until the GPU hits 80 degrees or so, and then when it does, it...Is...LOUD! Even when playing Microsoft Chess Titans, temps on the card reached 70 degrees, so you can imagine how often the 5000RPM fan needs to make some noise. With SLI enabled, it is much worse.Speaking of SLI, this isn't the card to do it with. The amount of money you will spend in a year powering an SLI setup would purchase you a whole new videocard. The temperatures and fan noise would cause you even more headaches, resulting in shorter game sessions without having to watercool your system. You need to buy this GTX480 for what it is, the fastest single GPU that can outdo a 5970 with a simple overclock. I'm not darkened by it's weaknesses, because the strengths are just too brilliant. Last thing I'd like to mention before I go is that I've never bought a PNY product before, but the box states that you recieve a lifetime warranty. That's pretty good in my books. I'll let you know what customer service is like if I ever need it. Ciao.