By Diabolos.Chupacabra 2010-04-01 04:16:44
Haven't personally tried them. Read lots of reviews. Depends on what you want in a PC. If you need the best of the best, and are willing to pay roughly 100 USD more for 8-10% more performance, the GTX480 is the way to go. Be warned though, the 7 month old ATI Radeon 5870 keeps up fairly well in most games, and is significantly cheaper, cooler running, and consumes way less energy. (The 5970 which is about 100USD more than the 480 takes a clear win here. It consumes less energy, produces less heat, and outperforms the 480 in every game.)
The TDP on the 480 is set at like 250W maximum... somebody isn't telling the truth, because it eats roughly 133 watts more than a 188w ish radeon 5870.
The card also runs at roughly 100c under full load. Nvidia claims the card was built to withstand these temps... but solder melts at a temp just above that... not sure what those temps would do to the lifespan of a card.
Just a heads up, make sure you look at reviews before you jump on this new card.
Edit: ATI could easily roll out a refreshed 5000 line at any time and increase clocks by 10% across the board, completely negating any performance lead by nvidia. It all hinges on whether ATI feels threatened or not by these new Nvidia chips.