The AMD damage control team is working overtime right now and for good reason, Nvidia are finally launching their new Fermi architecture today, said to be far more powerful and complex than the AMD Evergreen architecture that the Radeon HD 5000 series is based on.

Although there has been a lot of controversy surrounding the Fermi architecture, with many claiming that it is already a flop due to various rumored reasons, Nvidia is clearly confident with the product that they have come up with. The first set of slides in our media kit says it all really, “GeForce GTX 480 – Fastest GPU in the World”, and if Nvidia’s own internal testing is anything to go by then yes it certainly is.

However late last year AMD claimed that they would not forfeit the performance crown in 2010, which it would seem was a bold statement. This makes us wonder what AMD has ready to counter the new GeForce GTX 480/GTX 470 threats, as it is going to take more than a few driver tweaks.

Whatever AMD might be cooking up, they are going to go down the driver optimization path first. Just a few days ago AMD provided us with the Catalyst 10.3a driver featuring a number of performance improvements of up to 5% for the Radeon HD 5000 and 4800 series graphics cards. AMD was also quick to note that they have not exhausted all possible performance improvements and that we can expect more in the near future.

In the meantime the new Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 and GeForce GTX 470 graphics cards have landed, with quite a lot of impact we might add. Although the new GeForce GTX 400 series graphics cards are playing a serious game of catch up, we feel with the pricing strategy that Nvidia has employed they will be welcomed with open arms by many gamers.

Back in mid-2008 when Nvidia launched the first GT200 based graphics cards, the GeForce GTX 280/GTX 260, they were released with price tags of $649 US and $399 US. Just months later pricing was reduced heavily to counter the more affordable Radeon HD 4800 series. Shafting early adopters, Nvidia quickly reduced pricing to $449 US for the GeForce GTX 280 and between $299 - $339 US for the GeForce GTX 260.

This time round Nvidia faces a very different and far more difficult situation. This time it was AMD/ATI who threw the first punch, and they did so well in advance. With the Radeon HD 5870 currently available in numbers for around $420 US, asking significantly more than this for the GeForce GTX 480 would not be a wise choice.

Therefore Nvidia is starting the GeForce GTX 480 at a more reasonable $499 US, while the GeForce GTX 470 carries an MSRP of $349 US, making it only a fraction more expensive than the Radeon HD 5850. The pricing appears more reasonable than what we have come to expect from Nvidia, but how do these new graphics cards perform? After all, this will determine their real value. While we do plan to throw the GeForce GTX 480 through a battery of tests, before we do let's quickly take a more in-depth look at the specifications.

At around 30% cheaper than the GeForce GTX 480, the GeForce GTX 470 only has 7% less CUDA cores and Texture Units, while there are 17% less ROPs. This means in total the GeForce GTX 470 features 4 Graphic Processing Clusters, 14 Streaming Multiprocessors, 448 CUDA Cores, 56 Texture Units and 40 Raster Operations Units.

The GeForce GTX 480 features a graphics clock speed for fixed function units of 700MHz, while the CUDA cores operate at a more aggressive 1401MHz. The GeForce GTX 470 suffers a graphics and CUDA core clock reduction of 13%, which sees the graphics clock speed for fixed function units operate at 607MHz and the CUDA cores at1215MHz.

The GeForce GTX 480 is then teamed with 1536MB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 924MHz (3696MHz DDR). Combine that with a memory interface of 384-bit, and the end result is a peak theoretical bandwidth of 177.4GB/s, that is 15% more bandwidth than the Radeon HD 5870 and 12% more than the GeForce GTX 285.

The GeForce GTX 470 memory buffer has been reduced from 1536MB to 1280MB, which is a 17% reduction, while the memory interface has been reduced to 320-bit, which is also a 17% reduction. The memory frequency has also been reduced by 9% to 837MHz (3348MHz DDR). All up this makes for a 25% reduction in available memory bandwidth, reducing the theoretical peak bandwidth of the GeForce GTX 470 to 133.9GB/s.

This horsepower means that the GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470 boast Thermal Design Power (TDP) of a staggering 250 and 215 watts respectively. For the GeForce GTX 480 the TDP is 33% greater than that of the Radeon HD 5870 and 23% greater than the GeForce GTX 285. Perhaps the most amazing thing about these figures is that the TDP of the GeForce GTX 480 is just 15% lower than that of the mighty Radeon HD 5970.

Other than the PCI Express connector the GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470 draw in all this power through a pair of external PCI Express power connectors. Whereas the GeForce GTX 470 uses the more traditional 6-pin connectors like the Radeon HD 5870, the GeForce GTX 480 requires a 6-pin and an 8-pin connector. Nvidia recommends providing at least a 600 watt power supply when using the GeForce GTX 480, while they recommend a 550 watt unit for the GeForce GTX 470.

The physical design of the GeForce GTX 480 is very similar to that of the GeForce GTX 285. In terms of size they are identical, while they also weigh roughly the same amount. That said, the GeForce GTX 480 does look like a turbo charged version of the GeForce GTX 285, with its four large heatpipes sticking out the top.

Flipping the cards over, we see that again the GeForce GTX 480 looks very much like the GeForce GTX 285. The most noticeable difference are the two holes on the back side of the GeForce GTX 480 that are designed to improve air-flow. This design would work well for those planning on using a pair of these graphics cards in SLI.

Hardware - Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition (Overclocked @ 3.70GHz) - x3 2GB G.Skill DDR3 PC3-12800 (CAS 9-9-9-24) - Seagate 500GB 7200-RPM (Serial ATA300) - Radeon HD 4870 (1GB) - Radeon HD 5770 (1GB) - GeForce GTX 260 (896MB) - Radeon HD 4890 (1GB) - Radeon HD 5770 (1GB) Crossfire - Radeon HD 5830 (1GB) - GeForce GTX 275 (896MB) - Radeon HD 4870 X2 (2GB) - GeForce GTX 285 (1GB) - Radeon HD 5850 (1GB) - GeForce GTX 295 (1792MB) - Radeon HD 5870 (1GB) - Radeon HD 5970 (2GB) - Radeon HD 5870 (1GB) Crossfire - Asus P6T Deluxe (Intel X58) Software - Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) - Nvidia Forceware 197.17 - ATI Catalyst 10.3

The 3Dmark Vantage results are surprisingly low when testing the GeForce GTX 480. Well let me clarify that, the results are 10% lower than those of the Radeon HD 5870. However they are 30% greater than that of the GeForce GTX 285. Still, given our expectations the 3Dmark performance is disappointing. That said, this is a synthetic benchmark and we are far more interested in how the GeForce GTX 480 handles actual games.

Batman Arkham Asylum has been tested with AA/AF disabled. With these quality settings the GeForce GTX 480 is only a fraction faster than the Radeon HD 5870, beating it by a 4% margin at 2560x1600. This meant that the GeForce GTX 480 was 4% slower than the old Radeon HD 4870 X2 and 17% slower than the GeForce GTX 295.

Like the 3Dmark Vantage results, we are surprised by how poorly the GeForce GTX 480 performs when testing with Battlefield Bad Company 2. With just 32fps at 2560x1600, the GeForce GTX 480 is only able to match the performance of two Radeon HD 5770 graphics cards running in Crossfire mode. The Radeon HD 5850 was just a single frame slower, while the GeForce GTX 480 beat the old GeForce GTX 285 by a mere 16% margin. More importantly than all that, the GeForce GTX 480 was 16% slower than the Radeon HD 5870 at 2560x1600 and 22% slower than the old GeForce GTX 295.

The GeForce GTX 480 was 10% faster than the Radeon HD 5870 when testing with Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, rendering an average of 93fps at 2560x1600. Still, this meant that the GeForce GTX 480 was 7% slower than the Radeon HD 4870 X2 and 8% slower than the GeForce GTX 295, while amazingly with the latest Catalyst 10.3a drivers the Radeon HD 5770 Crossfire cards were able to average 102fps.

The GeForce GTX 480 was incredibly fast when testing with Company of Heroes Opposing Fronts, as it left the Radeon HD 5870 behind by a 14% performance margin. The GeForce GTX 480 was also 5% faster than the GeForce GTX 295 and 16% faster than the Radeon HD 4870 X2. Just one single card configuration beat the GeForce GTX 480 at 2560x1600 and that was the dual-GPU Radeon HD 5970.

The GeForce GTX 480 was also very fast when testing Crysis Warhead and with an average of 38fps at 2560x1600 it was able to match the performance of the GeForce GTX 295. This made the GeForce GTX 480 around 31% faster than the Radeon HD 5870 and 19% faster than the Radeon HD 4870 X2. Again the only single card configuration to beat the GeForce GTX 480 was the Radeon HD 5970.

The GeForce GTX 480 outperformed the Radeon HD 5870 by a 9% margin when testing with Dawn of War II at 2560x1600, with an average of 63fps. Furthermore this made the GeForce GTX 480 roughly 47% faster than the old GeForce GTX 295, while it was just 13% slower than the dual-GPU Radeon HD 5970.

The Far Cry 2 performance is by far the best showing we have seen from the GeForce GTX 480. Impressively at 2560x1500 with 8xAA enabled the GeForce GTX 480 averaged 52fps, making it a whopping 53% faster than the Radeon HD 5870. Moreover, it was also 6% faster than the Radeon HD 5970, while just 5% slower than a pair of Radeon HD 5870 graphics cards in Crossfire.

The GeForce GTX 480 also performed nicely in Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X, with an average frame rate of 74fps at 2560x1600. This made the GeForce GTX 480 around 11% faster than the Radeon HD 5870, while it was able to match the performance of the Radeon HD 4870 X2.

The GeForce GTX 480 is considerably more impressive when testing with the new Metro 2033 game. Despite only rendering an average of 35fps at 1920x1200, the GeForce GTX 480 was 17% faster than the Radeon HD 5870 and 46% faster than the old GeForce GTX 285. However it was still 8% slower than the GeForce GTX 295 and 27% slower than the Radeon HD 5970.

The Resident Evil 5 results are average, with the GeForce GTX 480 matching the performance of the GeForce GTX 295 and Radeon HD 5870 graphics cards at 2560x1600. This made the GeForce GTX 480 around 4% slower than the Radeon HD 5770 Crossfire graphics cards and a whopping 18% slower than the Radeon HD 4870 X2.

Honestly, I was expecting the GeForce GTX 480 to have a very good showing in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat, but with just 59fps on average it was 13% slower than the Radeon HD 5870. This meant that the GeForce GTX 480 was just 5% faster than the Radeon HD 5850 and 14% faster than the old GeForce GTX 285.

The GeForce GTX 480 performs well when testing with World in Conflict, as it was found to be 22% faster than the Radeon HD 5870 at 2560x1600. The GeForce GTX 480 was on the other hand 6% slower than the GeForce GTX 295 and 18% slower than the Radeon HD 5970.

The GeForce GTX 480 was 5% slower than the Radeon HD 5870 when testing with Wolfenstein at 2560x1600. This meant that the GeForce GTX 480 was only able to match the performance of the Radeon HD 5770 Crossfire configuration.

The power consumption figures of the GeForce GTX 480 are truly terrifying, particularly for a single GPU graphics card. With a total system consumption of 506 watts with the GeForce GTX 480, the Radeon HD 5870 is the next most power hungry single GPU graphics card, which consumed 22% less or 110 watts less. The GeForce GTX 480 uses slightly more power than the dual-GPU Radeon HD 5970 at both idle and load, while it is comparable to a pair of Radeon HD 5870 Crossfire graphics cards.

All that power makes for one seriously hot graphics card. Do not be fooled by the 97 degree load temperature. While this is the maximum temperature that we recorded, the fan was spinning so fast things started sliding across my desk towards the test system. The GeForce GTX 480 was truly deafening when running our full load test.

Letting the card sit at the Windows 7 desktop for 20 minutes after stress testing saw the temperature only drop to 65 degrees. When it came time to remove the GeForce GTX 480 from our test system I had to wear a pair of gloves to avoid any possible burns or dropping the extremely hot graphics card. The PCI Express power cables were amazingly soft from all the heat that had been thrown at them.

In short the GeForce GTX 480 is around 11% hotter than the Radeon HD 5870 under load and a whopping 71% or 27 degrees hotter at idle.

The games where the GeForce GTX 480 faired rather well were Metro 2033 with a 13% lead, Company of Heroes Opposing Fronts with a 14% lead, World in Conflict Soviet Assault saw a 22% advantage, then 32% in Crysis Warhead, and finally a huge 35% performance advantage in Far Cry 2. As you can see, there were only a few instances where the GeForce GTX 480 was faster than the Radeon HD 5870 by a 20% margin or greater.

On average in the games where the GeForce GTX 480 did beat the Radeon HD 5870, it was only 16% faster. Of course a 16% performance boost over an already very fast graphics card is impressive, though we have to take into account that the GeForce GTX 480 does come at almost a 20% price premium over the Radeon HD 5870.

Although the GeForce GTX 480 is unquestionably impressive in terms of performance, granted not as impressive as some may have hoped, it is no bargain. The GeForce GTX 480 simply fills a price range that AMD are yet to target and they are doing so at a premium.

However we feel that value is not the biggest concern for the GeForce GTX 480. Rather this graphics card is a power addict in desperate need of some rehab. Avid gamers that plug one of these into their system are surely going to notice the impact it will have on their power bill.

The GeForce GTX 480 sucked down 28% more power when compared to the Radeon HD 5870, which equates to around 110 watts more. Given that it was very rare to see a 28% or greater performance increase, it is fair to say that the GeForce GTX 480 is considerably worse in terms of efficiency.

Even when compared to a pair of Radeon HD 5870 Crossfire graphics cards the GeForce GTX 480 did not look great, using just 13% less power than two of AMD’s flagship single GPU graphics cards. However when simply idling, the GeForce GTX 480 still consumed 25% more power than a pair of Radeon HD 5870 Crossfire graphics cards, which is a real concern.

Of course all this power is then translated into massive heat output. As a result the GeForce GTX 480 is one of the hottest, if not the hottest, graphics card available in terms of operating temperatures. Amazingly the GeForce GTX 480 is able to make the latest and greatest dual-GPU graphics cards look rather tame.

The good news for Nvidia and their new GeForce GTX 480 graphics card is that it is still a very fast product, and as the drivers have time to mature it is likely to become even faster. For now I am going to reserve my opinion on whether or not the GeForce GTX 480 is a good buy, and wait for it to hit shelves to review the pricing. It will also be very interesting to see what upgrades Nvidia’s board partners can throw at the GeForce GTX 480 to help keep temperatures under control.