VPN: GV-N470OC-13IGIGABYTE GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) GV-N470OC-13I Video Card
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 Rating: Review Date: 12/21/10 |
GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) GV-N470OC-13I Video Card
Cons:
- Hot- Heavy- LOUD at full fan speed (think FX5800)- No included software for tweaking fan/clock (use MSI Afterburner). Why not include OcGuru, GB?- Not the best performance/price card (go for a 460)
Pros: - Good performance- Good price for a GTX470- Looks good I guess, but it's behind half a foot of steel HAF932 so who cares?- Idles low, but that's mostly due to the card underclocking at idle/low load |
It's a GTX470. Reference design with reference design problems (high temps, loud fan at 100%). It's a great performer, and at the sale price it's also a pretty good deal. I would say if you want the best price-to-performance ratio to get the GTX460, but this is not an especially bad deal when you consider it outperforms the GTX460 by a significant amount. If you want the best (coolest and quietest) GTX470, buy the SuperOC version by Gigabyte, which has a better cooler. Otherwise, this is as good a GTX470 as any. I prefer eVGA because of their warranty reputation, but I think price should come first, and Gigabyte is by no means a difficult company to deal with. No registration necessary, either.Overall I'm happy with this card, and I did know about the temperature problems inherent to all reference GTX470/480s before making the purchase, but it's not an issue for me as I rarely push a card to its limit. The fan is quiet at 60%, and eventually I'll get around to designing a better automatic profile (when RivaTuner supports the 400s; as of Dec 2010, no luck).