Nvidia GTX-480 (Fermi, GF100)

We've all been waiting for Fermi for so long that when it finally came through the door, it was almost like a dream. With a newly redesigned core and 3.2 Billion transistors and 512 CUDA cores (480 exposed), the GTX-480 is one cutting edge powerful GPU you won't want to miss. The addition of DirectX capabilities and a GPU that can churn through Tessellation like no other.

Nvidia upped the ante with Nvidia Surround and Nvidia 3D Surround, and now you can span a game or application across 3 screens. Nvidia's 3D vision has always been one of our favorite gaming methods and now you can game in 3D on three monitors. The 3D Surround (and regular Surround) will require 2 Nvidia GTX-2xx or GTX-4xx GPU's but with the GPU power required to span across three full sized monitors, we would highly recommend GF100 (Fermi) class GPU's.

Did Nvidia stop at adding DirectX 11 and enough hardware to make Tessellation more feasible? No, Nvidia redesigned the cache setup, tossed some heat pipes on the GTX-480, and added C++ support for CUDA. The list of improvements to GF100 goes on and on.

Nvidia took what they learned from the G90/G92 cores and applied it to GT200. Then they took what they learned from both G90 and GT200 and asked game developers what they needed, and they thoughtfully checked with the scientific community to see what those folks needed. Then they cracked out the magic 8 ball and peered into the future and made some heavy bets on the direction that GPU computing should take.

In that peek into the future they saw Tessellation, computer generated film quality gaming, extreme AA/AF setting that go up to 32x then on the 7th day they decided to toss GDDR5 on GTX-480 with a 384 bit memory buss.

No, it's not a photoshop composite we stole off a overseas website. No it's not a artists rendering shot stolen off of Fudzilla it's the real deal. It's here and we are benching it until it screams for mercy or they stop making Red Bull. The GTX-480 is expected on E-Tailer sites soon priced at $499 USD MSRP. Discount sites might have them a little cheaper but it's not the infamous $699 so many sites misreported in a frenzy to attract more readers at the cost of damaging their reputation.

We don't have a GTX-470 in house right now but we have photos of one and yes they are real. Bjorn3D doesn't play the rumor mill game. This is the real deal and it is what reference GTX-470 will look like. We have requested a GTX-470 and as soon as one hits the door, we will burn the candle at both ends to get you a review on it.

Expected to debut at $350 USD MSRP the GTX-470 combines the power of the redesigned GF100 core in a more price friendly package. With ATI's 5850 being spotted in the $300 price range we would expect performance to top the 5850 in raw power, and with the redesigned GF100 core aimed squarely at Tessellated games and applications, it should lend itself well to heavily graphic intensive games. Both GTX-480 and GTX-470 will also run rings around any previous generation of GPUs when it comes to Ray Tracing (Sunshafts, God Rays commonly use Ray Tracing).

It's not often a GPU brings tears to our eyes but this one did. It was that or the onions being cut in the next room we aren't sure.