Gigabyte GeForce GTX 480 SOC Preview

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 480 SOC Preview

Manufacturer: Gigabyte

Not to be outdone by MSI's NGTX480 Lightning, Gigabyte has Super Overclocked a GeForce GTX 480 1.5GB, following in the footsteps of the features from its [eurl]http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3620#ov]GeForce GTX 470 SOC[/eurl]. Gigabyte has overclocked the GTX 480 SOC to a 820/1640MHz core/shader clock, with a 3,800MHz (effective) GDDR5 memory clock. This is up from 700/1400MHz and 3,696MHz (effective) GDDR5 memory clock speeds of the reference model.

The GTX 480 SOC uses the same 'Windforce 3x Anti-turbulence cooling' heatsink and fan arrangement; we think this means it has three fans, but there's definitely a whiff of oxymoron between 'windforce' and 'anti-turbulence'.

On the plus side, at least the cooler is only dual-height, meaning it'll fit neatly into SLI setups, unlike Zotac's behemoth GTX 480 AMP! Edition, and other triple-slot cards.


In true Gigabyte fashion, it has rammed as much power hardware on the board as possible: there's 12+2-phase power (just like the GTX 470 SOC) along with five NEC Prodalisers that are basically high powered capacitors which also generate a very low ESR (power ripple) for the GPU core. There's only slight changes to the layout between the GTX 470 SOC and GTX 480 SOC. As with reference GTX 480 1.5GB cards, the GTX 480 SOC has a 6-pin and an 8-pin power connector.