In the test 15 years ago: the GeForce GTX 470 was the best Fermi 34 comments
NVIDIA‘s GeForce GTX 400 generation with GF100 GPUs featured not only the top model, the GeForce GTX 480, but also a smaller, better model, the GeForce GTX 470 (test).
The smaller GF100
Like the GeForce GTX 480, the GeForce GTX 470 also relies on Nvidia’s GF100 Fermi GPU with 3 billion transistors and a 40 nm manufacturing process. Compared to the larger model, 14 instead of 15 streaming multiprocessors (SMS) were active, which reduced the number of shader units from 480 to 448. Combined with the lower clock rates of 1215 instead of 1401 MHz, this resulted in a computing power reduction of 1089 GFLOPs.
ZOTAC GEFORCE GTX 470 Image 1 of 9
At the same time, the number of TMUs was reduced from 60 to 56 and the number of ROPs from 48 to 40, which also reduced the memory interface from 384-bit to 320-bit. Due to the lower ROPS, the graphics memory, at 1,280 MB/s, was also smaller than on the GeForce GTX 480. The memory bandwidth was lower due to the lower storage clock and the interfaces were reduced due to 134 GB/s.
RADEON HD 5850 RADEON HD 5870 GEFORCE GTX 285 GEFORCE GTX 470 GEFORCE GTX 480 CHIP RV870 / CYPRESS GF100 Transistors Approx. 2.15 billion Approx. 1.4 billion 3 billion 40nm 55nm CHIP CRASS
(MADD) 288 (5d) 320 (5d) 240 (1d) 448 (1d) 480 (1d) Flops (MADD / ADD) 2,090 Gflops 2,720 Gflops 1,063 Gflops 1,089 Gflops 1,345 Gflops Rop MPIX / S 24,280 MPIX / S 33,600 MPIX / S TMUS 72 80 56 60 Taus 72 80 56 60 Texfelfüllrate 52,200 Mtex / S 68,000 Mtex / S 51,840 MTEX / S 33,992 MTEX / S 42,000 MTEX / S Shader-model sm 5 sm 5 Effective Windows Window
Power Saving Feature ✓ Memory Amount 1,024 MByte GDDR3 1,280 MByte GDDR5 1,536 MByte GDDR5 Memory 2,000 MHz 1,242 MHz 1,848 MHz Memory Interface 256 bit 320 Bit 384 Bit Bandwidth 128,000 Mbyte/s 153,600 Mbyte/s 158,976 Mbyte/s 134,080 Mbyte/s 158,976 Mbyte/s 1340,080 Mbyte/s 177,408 Mbyte/s
At 25 cm long, the GEForce GTX 470 was shorter than the higher-end model. In contrast, the GeForce GTX 470 lacked the metal cover on the cooler, which was used for additional heat dissipation in the larger GeForce. With a TDP of 215 watts, the graphics card was specified for a thermal power loss of 35 watts. Rear air inlets for the 65mm radial fan were also found on the GeForce GTX 470. As with the GeForce GTX 480, two dual-link DVI and a mini-HDMI port were available in terms of connections, with Nvidia completely dispensing with DisplayPort. Compared to the AMD competition, the GeForce GTX 470 could address a maximum of two monitors simultaneously, so at least an SLI team of two graphics cards had to be used for a 3D surround setup. Better, but not good
In terms of performance, the GeForce GTX 470 didn’t perform miracles and finished on average around 18 to 20 percent behind the GeForce GTX 480. It was significantly faster than a GeForce GTX 285 and, more importantly, left the Radeon HD 5850 behind. This confirmed the same picture as with the GeForce GTX 480: performance was first-class, but that wasn’t the problem with either graphics card.
In terms of lower performance, the GeForce GTX 470’s B-balls were less extreme and therefore better. At 62 dB(A) instead of 68.5 dB(A) under load, for example, the sound pressure level was no longer deafening, but rather extremely annoying and at least slightly lower than with the dual GPU Radeon HD 5970 and GeForce GTX 295 graphics cards. The situation was similar with the GPU temperature under load, which was slightly better but still quite poor. The overall system power consumption was also somewhat more moderate and ranked at least fourth after the two dual GPU graphics cards and, of course, the GeForce GTX 480.
Conclusion
Summa Summarum was a better graphics card than the GeForce GTX 480, but still not recommended due to power consumption, volume, and temperature beyond any reasonable reason. At that time, the only recommended graphics card for users was a Radeon HD-5000 series graphics card, provided it didn’t necessarily have to be an Nvidia card. At 350 euros, the GeForce GTX 470 was also nearly 70 euros more expensive than the Radeon HD 5850 and only 25 euros cheaper than the faster, quieter, and more economical Radeon HD 5870.
In the “Reviewed 15 Years Ago” category, the editorial team has been looking back at the review archive every Saturday since July 2017. We list the last 20 articles published in this series below:
Successful fractal designs first work define r2nvidias geforce gtx 480 was Föhn 2.0lmx super layer with liquid metal instead of multi-gpu turchis with Nvidia and AMD thanks to Hydratel Core i7-980X with six cores Intels Sparkönig Pentium G6950 HD 5450 was useless for gaming but otherwise TopShethes Top-Blow-Koloss Grand Kama Crossdie Geforce GT 240 with 1024 Mbyte DDR3 War Sinlosamds Radeon HD 5670 Bot Directx 11 for 79 EurohTCS Touch2 was a savings smartphone for the advantage of SSDS of 270 euroder compared to HDDs Bluetoothblackberrys Bold 9700 was a smartphone Wannabe Super Mario Bros. was also a favorable Geforce GT 240 from a Hitnvidia to Teunoctuas NH-D14 Radeon HD 5970 was fast and Jerky Corsairs Obsidian 800D was great for water cooling
Even more content like this and many other reports and anecdotes can be found in the retro corner of the TechAstuce forum.
Topics: GeForce nvidia retro graphics cards
An engineer by training, Alexandre shares his knowledge on GPU performance for gaming and creation.
