EVGA GeForce GTX470 1280 MB DDR5 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card 012-P3-1470-AR

by EVGA

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 2.9 x 11.8 inches ; 3 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B003EEMFTI
• Item model number: 012-P3-1470-AR
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 22, 2009

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The EVGA GTX 470 ushers in the next generation of NVIDIA GeForce GPUs! Experience heart-pounding cinematic visuals with the EVGA GTX 470 thanks to the combined power of DirectX 11, NVIDIA PhysX, and NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround technologies.

The EVGA GTX 470 contains double the CUDA cores of previous generation GPUs, a high speed GDDR5 memory interface with 1280 MB onboard and full DirectX 11 support providing for unrivalled performance and breathtaking image quality. Compatible in 2-way and 3-way SLI configurations, the EVGA GTX 470 provides brilliant and immersive experiences in games and unsurpassed computational power.

With EVGA Precision, monitor and control fan speeds, core clocks, temperatures, frame rates, take screenshots and more. EVGA OC Scanner combined with Precision make the perfect combo with built-in artifact scanning, benchmarking, and more. Features include a built-in stress tester, benchmarking to quickly test your performance, and a GPU protection feature that automatically shuts off at a set temperature. EVGA's Step Up program protects your investment with an exclusive upgrade option within 90 days of purchase (not all customers will be eligible for this program). EVGA is available for you day or night to help answer any questions with its 24/7 technical support. Follow EVGA on your favorite social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Steam, and the EVGA Gaming Community. Join in at www.evga.com/sonet/.

NVIDIA Technologies

NVIDIA GeForce series graphics processors are the epitome of graphics performance, and deliver phenomenal frame rates with stunning visuals in the latest 3D games and applications. NVIDIA SLI technology enables up to three EVGA GeForce-series (3-way SLI support varies by model) graphics cards in one system for up to 280-percent performance gains. NVIDIA PureVideo HD technology empowers EVGA GeForce-series graphics cards with HD playback capabilities for vivid visuals and hardware decoding of Blu-ray disk formats. NVIDIA GeForce GPUs with CUDA technology enable hyper-realistic GPU accelerated PhysX gaming effects such as explosions that cause dust and debris, amazing natural water and fluid effects, characters with life-like motion or cloth that drapes and tears naturally.

Key Specifications Core Clock: 607 MHz Memory Clock: 3348 MHz Effective Shader Clock: 1215 MHz CUDA Cores: 448 Bus Type: PCI-E 2.0 Memory Detail: 1280 MB GDDR5 Memory Bit Width: 320 Bit Memory Speed: 2.5 ns Memory Bandwidth: 133.9 GB/sec Software Compatibility NVIDIA ForceWare Drivers Microsoft DirectX 11 OpenGL 3.2 Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7 Connectors Two dual-link DVI (up to 2560 x 1600) Mini-HDMI 1.3a w/audio (8-channel LPCM) HDCP ready

Key Features

• Microsoft DirectX 11 Support: DirectX 11 GPU with Shader Model 5.0 support designed for ultra high performance in the new API's key graphics feature, GPU-accelerated tessellation.
• NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround Ready*: Expand your games across three displays in full stereoscopic 3D for the ultimate "inside the game" experience with the power of NVIDIA 3D Vision and SLI technologies. NVIDIA Surround also supports triple screen gaming with non-stereo displays.
• Interactive Ray Tracing: By tracing the path of light through a 3D scene, ray tracing uses the power of the GPU to create spectacular, photo-realistic visuals. Get a glimpse into the future of gaming with ray tracing.
• 3-way NVIDIA SLI Technology**: Industry leading 3-way NVIDIA SLI technology offers amazing performance scaling by implementing 3-way AFR (Alternate Frame Rendering) for the world's premier gaming solution under Windows 7 with solid, state-of-the-art drivers.
• NVIDIA PhysX Technology: Full support for NVIDIA PhysX technology, enabling a totally new class of physical gaming interaction for a more dynamic and realistic experience with GeForce.
• NVIDIA CUDA Technology: CUDA technology unlocks the power of the GPU's processor cores to accelerate the most demanding tasks such as video transcoding, physics simulation, ray tracing, and more, delivering incredible performance improvements over traditional CPUs.
• 32x Anti-aliasing Technology: Lightning fast, high-quality anti-aliasing at up to 32x sample rates obliterates jagged edges.
• NVIDIA PureVideo HD Technology***: The combination of high-definition video decode acceleration and post-processing that delivers unprecedented picture clarity, smooth video, accurate color, and precise image scaling for movies and video.
• PCI Express 2.0 Support: Designed for the new PCI Express 2.0 bus architecture offering the highest data transfer speeds for the most bandwidth-hungry games and 3D applications, while maintaining backwards compatibility with existing PCI Express motherboards for the broadest support.
• Dual-link DVI Support: Able to drive industry's largest and highest resolution flat-panel displays up to 2560x1600 and with support for High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP).
• HDMI 1.3a Support: Fully integrated support for HDMI 1.3a including xvYCC, Deep color and 7.1 digital surround sound.

* NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround requires NVIDIA release 256 driver, two or more graphics cards in NVIDIA SLI configuration, 3D Vision glasses and three matching 3D Vision-Ready displays. See www.nvidia.com/surround for more information.
** A GeForce GTX 470 GPU must be paired with another GeForce GTX 470 GPU (graphics card manufacturer can be different). SLI requires sufficient system cooling and a compatible power supply. Visit www.slizone.com for more information and a listing of SLI-Certified components.
*** Supported video software is required to experience certain features. Visit www.nvidia.com for more details.

What's in the Box
EVGA Driver/Software Disc with EVGA Precision Tuning Utility; Mini-HDMI to HDMI Cable; DVI to VGA Adapter; two 6-pin PCI-E power cables; User Guide

Warranty
All EVGA products come automatically with a one year, parts and labor, limited warranty. Upon registration within 30 days of your original purchase, this card is entitled to be upgraded to a limited lifetime warranty.

Product Description

The EVGA GTX 470 ushers in the next generation of NVIDIA GeForce graphics processing units. Experience heart-pounding cinematic visuals thanks to the combined power of DirectX 11, NVIDIA PhysX, and NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround Technologies. The EVGA GTX 470 contains double the CUDA cores of previous generation GPU's, a high speed GDDR5 memory interface with 1280 MB onboard and full DirectX 11 support providing unrivalled performance and breathtaking image quality. Compatible in 2-way and 3-way SLI configurations, the GTX470 provides brilliant and immersive experiences in games and unsurpassed computational power. Specifications include the GTX 470 (607 MHz core clock) chipset, 1280 MB of 2.5ns GDDR5 memory with a 3348 MHz memory clock and 133.9 GB/second memory bandwidth, 320 bit memory interface, 1215 MHz Shader Clock, 448 CUDA cores, and PCI Express 2.0 compatibility. Additional features include Microsoft DirectX 11 support, NVIDIA PhysX and NVIDIA PureVideo HD technologies, NVIDIA 2-way and 3-way SLI readiness, NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround readiness, NVIDIA CUDA technology with CUDA C/C++, DirectCompute 5.0, and OpenCL support, PCI-Express 2.0 support, OpenGL 3.2 support, Dual Link HDCP capability, and Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7 support. Connections are 1 Mini-HDMI 1.4 connector and 2 Dual-Link DVI connectors. Package includes the EVGA Driver/software disc with EVGA Precision Tuning utility, 1 Mini-HDMI to HDMI cable, 1 DVI to VGA adaptor, 2 6-pin PCI-E power cable, and a lifetime warranty if registered within 30 days at <www.evga.com>.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Kills your graphics woes dead. For a price..., July 6, 2010

By	Jon Watte "hplus" (Menlo Park, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: EVGA GeForce GTX470 1280 MB DDR5 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card 012-P3-1470-AR (Electronics)

I was playing one of the more ridiculously graphics-hungry modern games on my GeForce 8800 GT/512, and it just wouldn't quite keep up. After thinking about it and doing research for a few days, I settled on the GTX 470. My last two cards were EVGAs, so I might as well go with that brand again -- especially given that the other competing leading brand had a lot of complaints about poor packaging and banged-up cards in more than one forum.

The draw-back of this card is the power it draws. I had a 500 W power supply in my machine, and it might have powered this card. Then again, it might not have -- the card recommends at least a 550 W power supply. I decided to take no chances and got a 650W power supply to drive it, with 90% efficency to avoid generating more heat than necessary. So, a $330 upgrade turned into a $480 upgrade...

I don't have any performance problems any longer, though! The card is no longer the limiting factor in my computer -- next, I'll need a new CPU, which means new motherboard, and RAM, and at that point, I might as well get a dual-CPU setup -- by comparison, this graphics card upgrade was cost effective, power supply and all!
Also, I might have lived with my 8800GT (112 processing cores, compared to the 448 in this GTX 470), except it wouldn't heep HDCP sync when I plugged it into my TV. That must have been an old hardware problem, because the GTX 470 has performed solidly for weeks, running through a Sony AVR/HDMI receiver to a Sharp LCD TV with no problems, running in glorious HD and 8x anti-aliasing. 130 GB/s fill rate in this card -- gotta figure out something to do with that power :-) Also, the HDMI sound output works pretty well through the receiver, keeping the digital-to-analog conversion in the amplifier, rather than the rather noisy environment of a computer. It's actually a step up in quality from my Sound Blaster X-Fi!

When it comes to price/performance, this card actually beats both its bigger brother the 480, and its little brother the 465. The 465 has significantly fewer cores, and the 480 only have a few more cores, not enough to make up for the significantly higher price. (Do the math yourself: dollars / (cores * megaherz) equals price/performance)

That being said, the card is actually clocked slower than the 8800, even though it draws a lot more power. Thus, for shading power, it's not actually 4x faster than the 8800, more like 3x-3.5x. It's also "only" 2x faster in fill rate.
I downloaded and installed the lastest WHQL drivers from the NVIDIA site, and am running the card with Windows 7 64-bit. Trying to use a 1280 MB graphics card on a 32-bit OS is a bit like putting a rocket engine on a Yugo -- it'll make a lot of noise and heat, but won't really get you what you want.

Speaking of heat -- the cooling blower on the card is somewhat loud when you play a real 3D game (it's a blower, not a fan, because it doesn't move air axially). However, when just idling at the desktop, surfing the web, encoding videos or whatever, it spins down, and is at least as quiet as my old card.

However, requiring > 200 Watts at peak, being clocked lower than the old 8800, making noise while playing (not vacuum cleaner like, but still noise) and requiring a power supply upgrade drops off a star, to land at a four-star rating.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best upgrade ever!, June 6, 2010

By	Gavin Scott (Sunnyvale, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: EVGA GeForce GTX470 1280 MB DDR5 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card 012-P3-1470-AR (Electronics)

Bought one of these today to replace two old GT8800's in SLI. Works great, excellent frame-rates in games at 2560x1440 with settings cranked up to extreme, all as one would expect.

Secondary bonuses I didn't expect: BIOS boot is faster, fan noise is greatly reduced (I hadn't realized how loud the 2xGT8800 fans actually were, and the machine is virtually silent now), and a recurring system freeze has so far not shown up.

Running the GPU renderer Octane Render, the speed is eight times faster than using the GT8800s.

A few years ago a trillion floating point operations per second was a pure geek fantasy, now you can own this processing power that would have put you well into the top 500 world supercomputer list ten years ago.

Beautiful piece of hardware for a first-generation product. Recommended over the GTX 480 because of not only the higher price for the 480, but the extreme heat and power requirements of the 480 that are much more reasonable in the 470 version.

If you're doing something that can benefit from GPU acceleration (like Octane or a similar GPU-based 3D rendering program) then one of these Fermi-based card (470 or 480) is a must-have.

If you want the absolute high-end video card and are willing to spend the money to get it, then one of these is also a good choice.

If you're not desperate for this level of performance though, you're probably better off waiting for the second generation of Fermi cards, which will probably be much more reasonable in terms of price/performance and power/performance.

But if you decide to go for one of these, I really don't think you'll regret it.

G.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EVGA GTX 470, May 18, 2010

By	Andrew Cooper (Nome Alaska) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: EVGA GeForce GTX470 1280 MB DDR5 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card 012-P3-1470-AR (Electronics)

This is a very excellent card. If you could afford it, I say go for it. But make sure you have the right slot connection on your motherboard and a minimum of a 550 watt power supply with a 12v rail of 38 amps to run it. Also, have a decent processor (minimum quad core) or your cpu is going to bottle neck and you wont be able to get the performance out of this card. If your going to run in in SLI then I recommend having a Intel Core i7 920 overclocked to 3.2 ghz, or higher. Another thing to make note on is that it runs extremley warm, make sure you have good air flow going through your case and increase the fan speed of the card with the software that EVGA incudes called EVGA Precision. Other then that, the games look amazing with it, I had no problems running the DirectX 11 games that I own (Aliens vs. Predator, Battlefield Bad Compnay 2), it handled them really well with all the eye candy turned up. In my system, I previously had 2 Geforce GTX 275 in SLI and it's just as powerful as those cards put together. Overall it would give you the performance and power savings that you would expect. Other notable games that ran well were Modern Warfare 2, Crysis, Left 4 Dead 2, Assassins Creed 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and FEAR 2. If you want to move on to future gaming, then I recommend this card, but if you willing to spend the extra money, go for the 480's. But right now, with all the gaming I do, I think this is just fine.