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Today we are checking out the new Palit GeForce GTX 470, which is no ordinary GTX 470, as it features a number of new upgrades making this graphics card much more exciting. Most noteworthy is the upgraded cooler, which reduces load temperature considerably. Despite these improvements, Palit is said to be waiving any price premiums for this product...
It was March 26th when Nvidia finally released the GeForce GTX 470 along with its bigger brother the GTX 480. Both graphics cards were built on the GF100 architecture using the 40nm design process, with about 3000 million transistors packed into a massive 529mm2 die. While the GeForce GTX 480 carried an MSRP of $499 US, the GTX 470 was priced at a slightly more affordable $349 US.
 Although the GeForce GTX 470 would ultimately end up competing with the Radeon HD 5850, it was priced around $50 US more. Therefore it was imperative that the GeForce GTX 470 deliver roughly 16% more performance to justify the additional cost. While some will argue that the GeForce GTX 470 does deliver in terms of value, few can honestly say that the 215 watt graphics card runs cool. Power and heat has been the ultimate weakness of the GF100 architecture and it is something Nvidia’s board partners needed to address. While power is an issue that simply cannot be fixed without modifications to the GPU itself, Nvidia’s partners could however do something about the thermal problem and Palit was one of the first to step up to the challenge. Palit created a dual-fan version of the GeForce GTX 470, featuring a re-worked PCB along with an upgraded cooler. However the confusing part about this new model is that Palit simply calls it their GeForce GTX 470. That is fine since this is essentially what it is, but they also offer a version of the GeForce GTX 470 that follows the Nvidia reference design which keeps the same name. It would appear that Palit will be phasing out the reference design with their own custom design, though we are not entirely sure when the changeover will take place since we cannot find the new custom dual-fan version online anywhere as yet. While a typical GeForce GTX 470 graphics card based on the reference design is priced at $350 US, it is said that the custom designed Palit GeForce GTX 470 will be priced more competitively at $330 US. That is right, despite bringing a few new connectivity features such as DisplayPort to the table as well as the upgraded cooling solution, this improved Palit version is actually rumored to be cheaper. Of course without being able to locate the custom designed Palit GeForce GTX 470 online at any of the major retailers, we cannot confirm pricing at this stage. However what we can do right now is give you a much closer look at this new graphics card as well as show you how it performs and overclocks. Additionally, we will also be looking into how well the new fan and heatsink combo performs, to see if it can deliver on Palit’s promises. |
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ProX |
Posted on: 06/09/2010 12:06 AM
Nice looking card but I am not sure I would buy it over a Radeon HD 5850. |
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FanBoy |
Posted on: 06/09/2010 03:09 AM
Yeah I agree the Radeon HD 5850 does seem like a better buy right now but I wonder if this will change at all over the next 6 months. |
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Turtle |
Posted on: 06/10/2010 09:58 AM
I really like this new Palit card, thanks for the review. Sadly I cannot find this card online but I did come across a GTX 465 version which looks exactly the same. I should point out that the GTX 465 is not cheaper than the reference cards, though it is also no more expensive either  |
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Richie |
Posted on: 06/15/2010 08:35 AM
Given you just wrote an article showing that a pair of Radeon HD 5770 graphics cards smokes a GeForce GTX 470 while also saving a bit of cash I am not all that impressed by any GTX 470 product. |
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Chootia |
Posted on: 07/21/2010 10:12 PM
Having just read the GTX 460 overclocked review I see no need to purchase one of these anymore  |