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.

Like the Nvidia reference GeForce GTX 470 graphics cards, this Palit version features a dual slot cooler, though the design has been improved. The heatsink found on the Palit version is much bigger, while also featuring not one but rather two fans, which provides a much more efficient means of keeping the GPU cool. Palit claims their design keeps the GPU around 12 degrees cooler under load, while generating 4dBA less noise.

The fans used are 75mm in diameter and use a traditional 2-ball bearing design opposed to the reference cards which utilize a blower type fan. Typically blower fans generate significantly more noise and this is likely why Palit has been able to create a quieter solution that provides even greater air-flow. Like the reference card, the Palit version does feature an exhaust system that pushes the hot air out of the case, though not all the hot air escapes out through the rear of the case.

The heatsink measures 17.5cm long, 7cm wide, and at its thickest just 1.5cm, so it is really quite a large heatsink. Palit has also designed a small fan shroud that directs more air-flow over the heatsink. Improving efficiency are three copper heatpipes that extract heat from the base plate directing it through the row of fins, and as you will find later on in the review, this setup works rather well.

Keeping the GeForce GTX 470 cool is serious business, as this complex GPU features 4 Graphic Processing Clusters, 14 Streaming Multiprocessors, 448 CUDA Cores, 56 Texture Units and 40 Raster Operations Units. The graphics clock speed for fixed function units is 607MHz, while the CUDA Cores operate at a more aggressive 1215MHz and Palit has not carried out any kind of factory overclocking with this graphics card.

When compared to the GeForce GTX 480 the memory buffer has been reduced by 17% from 1536MB to 1280MB, while the memory interface has been cut down in the same proportion to 320-bit. All up this makes for a 25% reduction in available memory bandwidth, putting the theoretical peak bandwidth of the GeForce GTX 470 at 133.9GB/s.

Palit is shipping their custom GeForce GTX 470 with Samsung ICs on-board (K4G10325FE-HC05). These GDDR5 modules are already rated for 4.0GHz operation, so we don't expect to be able to push them much further. Palit has provided cooling for the graphics cards onboard memory chips, just as the reference design does, by incorporating them into the main heatsink.

When compared to the GeForce GTX 480 the Thermal Design Power (TDP) has also dropped from 250 watts to a more manageable 215 watts. But even at 215 watts the GeForce GTX 470 is likely going to be much more power hungry than the faster Radeon HD 5870. The card requires a pair of 6-pin connectors and Nvidia is recommending a 550 watt or higher PSU to help power this graphics card.

Another interesting feature of the custom Palit GeForce GTX 470 graphics card is its I/O capabilities. This card is equipped with advanced DisplayPort and HDMI, which Palit says makes it a future proofed graphics card. Furthermore, the card also features a single DVI and VGA port, for the complete range of monitor support.

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 5970 (2GB) - Radeon HD 5870 (1GB) Crossfire - Radeon HD 5870 (1GB) - Radeon HD 5770 (1GB) Crossfire - Radeon HD 4890 (1GB) - Radeon HD 4870 X2 (2GB) - Radeon HD 4870 (1GB) - Radeon HD 5770 (1GB) - Radeon HD 5850 (1GB) - Radeon HD 5830 (1GB) - GeForce GTX 480 (1536MB) SLI - GeForce GTX 480 (1536MB) - Palit GeForce GTX 470 (1280MB) - GeForce GTX 295 (1792MB) - GeForce GTX 285 (1GB) - GeForce GTX 275 (896MB) - GeForce GTX 260 (896MB) - Asus P6T Deluxe (Intel X58) Software - Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) - Nvidia Forceware 257.15 - ATI Catalyst 10.5

When using 3Dmark Vantage to measure the performance of the Palit GeForce GTX 470 we find that the Radeon HD 5850 is 7% faster at 1920x1200. Also worth noting is the Radeon HD 5770 Crossfire configuration, which costs roughly the same amount, yet is 13% faster. Still, with a score of 8915pts, the Palit GeForce GTX 470 is 19% faster than the once mighty GeForce GTX 285.

Aliens vs. Predator is a new game that we now benchmark with and since it is a DirectX 11 game we have only tested the supporting graphics cards. While the game can utilize older rendering modes, we have limited the testing to DX11. The Palit GeForce GTX 470 rendered just 32fps at 1680x1050, making it a single frame faster than the Radeon HD 5850, while both graphics cards delivered 25fps at 1920x1200. Again this made the Radeon HD 5770 Crossfire configuration faster, as it delivered 12% more performance at 1920x1200.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 is another DX11 title, though it uses very few of the new rendering features. Again we find that the performance difference between the Radeon HD 5850 and Palit GeForce GTX 470 is very minimal. The Palit GeForce GTX 470 was 5% or just 2fps faster than the Radeon HD 5850 at 1920x1200, while once again the Radeon HD 5770 Crossfire configuration delivered even greater performance, beating the GeForce GTX 470 by a 7% margin.

Metro 2033 is yet another DirectX 11 title, though we must point out that the DX11 specific features were in fact disabled for testing. Features such as Tessellation kill performance in this game, as a result we find the Radeon HD 5850 and GeForce GTX 470 to be unplayable at 1920x1200. It is worth noting that in this game the GeForce GTX 400 series performs much better with Tessellation enabled when compared to the Radeon HD 5000 series. Though with frame rates so low on the mid-range cards, there is little point using it.

Still, even with Tessellation disabled the Palit GeForce GTX 470 was 16% faster than the Radeon HD 5850 at 1920x1200, delivering 5fps more performance on average. Interestingly, despite this performance boost the Radeon HD 5770 Crossfire graphics cards were still 5% or 2fps faster than the Palit GeForce GTX 470.

When testing with S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat the Radeon HD 5850 was 12% faster than the Palit GeForce GTX 470 at 1920x1200. The Radeon HD 5770 Crossfire configuration was even faster, delivering a 17% performance boost over the Palit GeForce GTX 470 with an average of 88fps.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is quite primitive on the rendering front using DirectX 9. In-game 4xAA is the highest anti-aliasing setting possible and as a result even the lower end graphics cards run ramped. The Nvidia graphics cards dominate this game, with the Palit GeForce GTX 470 beating the Radeon HD 5850 by an impressive 20% performance margin. While this is great news for Nvidia, it is a little disappointing that we see such an extreme performance advantage in a game that hardly calls for it.

Company of Heroes Opposing Fronts is another game were Nvidia graphics cards do well, and the Palit GeForce GTX 470 is no exception, beating the Radeon HD 5850 by an impressive 16% performance margin. Again while this is great to see, it comes in another game where the extra performance will most certainly go unnoticed given the Radeon HD 5850 averaged over 100fps.

Crysis Warhead is certainly a game where any extra performance is welcomed. However the Palit GeForce GTX 470 was really unable to deliver anything more, providing a rather unplayable 21fps at 1920x1200 which matched that of the Radeon HD 5850.

Far Cry 2 is another game where the Nvidia based graphics cards perform exceptionally well and this time the added performance is welcomed. This is also one of the few games where we can enable 8xAA without having to force it on using the drivers. The Palit GeForce GTX 470 was 50% faster than the Radeon HD 5850 at 1920x1200, which is obviously very significant and will not go unnoticed when playing.

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X is another game that really struggles to push the Palit GeForce GTX 470, as it delivered an average of 90fps at 1920x1200 using the maximum in-game quality settings. This made the Palit GeForce GTX 470 17% faster than the Radeon HD 5850, which is another significant victory. Still, with 77fps, the Radeon HD 5850 was far from slow, despite the beating that it received.

The Palit GeForce GTX 470 and Radeon HD 5850 delivered similar performance in Just Cause 2, with the ATI graphics card winning by just a single frame per second at 1920x1200. All in all with roughly 40fps each, it is fair to call this one a tie. The Radeon HD 5770 Crossfire configuration on the other hand did beat the Palit GeForce GTX 470 by a 10% margin, though this worked out to be just 4fps.

Like Just Cause 2, the results are very even when testing with Resident Evil 5, with the Palit GeForce GTX 470 beating the Radeon HD 5850 at 1680x1050, while the opposite was seen at 1920x1200. Still, with just a 2% performance margin separating the two graphics cards at 1920x1200, we feel it safe enough to call this one a tie.

Wolfenstein is the only OpenGL based game included in the testing phase, but like most games it was tested using maximum in-game quality settings, which also included 8xAA/8xAF. Despite the aggressive quality settings frame rates remained high, with the Palit GeForce GTX 470 averaging a healthy 87fps. Despite this the Radeon HD 5850 was 10% faster, though given the already high frame rate of the Palit GeForce GTX 470, this is somewhat of a hollow victory for ATI.

When overclocking the Palit GeForce GTX 470 we were able to increase the core clock to 760MHz, providing a nice 25% overclock. This improved our 3Dmark Vantage score by 8%, while we saw a massive 18% performance increase when playing Just Cause 2. Surprisingly Far Cry 2 only saw a 5% increase in performance, as the average frame rate moved from 66fps to 69fps.

Unsurprisingly the Palit GeForce GTX 470 uses the same amount of power as the Nvidia reference design card. However when overclocked the power consumption figures increased by 14% when under load, while idle levels remained much the same which is great news. Still, once overclocked the Palit GeForce GTX 470 used roughly the same amount of power as the Radeon HD 5970 under load, which is not good news at all.

Despite its power hungry design, the Palit GeForce GTX 470 operates at the very reasonable temperature of 76 degrees, with an idle temperature of just 39 degrees. These results make it significantly cooler than even the Radeon HD 5850. However once overclocked the Palit GeForce GTX 470 does heat up to 83 degrees under load, which is the same temperature reached by the Radeon HD 5850. Still, given the power consumption figures once overclocked, the custom Palit cooler does an incredible job of cooling this GeForce GTX 470 graphics card.

The key advantage of the Palit GeForce GTX 470 is certainly the upgraded cooler, as it reduced load temperatures significantly when compared to the Nvidia reference design. Even when heavily overclocked, temperatures were still lower than that of the reference design, which was impressive. Of course while it was possible for Palit to solve the thermal issues of the GeForce GTX 470, there is little they could do about the graphics cards power consumption problem.

When testing we found the Palit GeForce GTX 470 used roughly the same amount of power as the Nvidia reference card. However when overclocked we found it consumed a similar amount of power as the dual-GPU Radeon HD 5970 graphics card when under load, which put simply is quite shocking really. That said, this is no fault of Palit’s, as this is the same fate any heavily overclocked GeForce GTX 470 graphics card would face.

Another nice feature of the Palit GeForce GTX 470 is the added support for DisplayPort while also keeping HDMI and the dual DVI ports. Of course only two ports can be utilized at the same time due to Nvidia’s GPU design which means users simply have a broader choice of outputs to select from.

What we feel makes this Palit GeForce GTX 470 so impressive is the suggested retail price, which is roughly $20 US less than that of GTX 470 graphics cards based on the Nvidia reference design. Despite upgrading the cooling and re-working the PCB, making it slightly more compact in the process, Palit is offering a more affordable product. Typically when improved cooling solutions and custom PCB designs are on the menu users can expect to pay a hefty price premium.

So how is Palit offering all this at a more affordable price? The key is in the voltage regulation circuitry which has been downgraded to a cheaper solution. Generally speaking this can hurt stability, limit overclocking and generate more heat (consume more power). Thankfully none of these possible scenarios came true for the Palit GeForce GTX 470 and in fact quite the opposite, as this is an extremely stable product that boards impressive overclocking abilities.

Overall the Palit GeForce GTX 470 is the best examples we have seen and should it hit shelves at a price lower than $350 US, then it is most certainly going to be the most popular GeForce GTX 470 on the market. For those with their heart set on owning a GeForce GTX 470, we have no problem recommending the custom Palit version, especially if the pricing comes in as expected.