The ASUS GTX 470

We’ve already reviewed the GTX 580 for you a few days ago. But at Rs 31,000 it will burn a big hole in your pocket, albeit also burn through every single game ever made (except Crysis). There are a lot of gamers out there who want a graphic card which can perform as well as the GTX 580 does, but at the same time doesn’t cost as much.

The ASUS GTX 470 looks like a contender to fill that void. Based on the much-hyped Fermi architecture, the GTX 470 has some powerful specs to brag about. With a total video memory of 1280 MB (GDDR5) and Memory Clock of 837 MHz, it certainly looks powerful enough to chew out games without much of a hassle.

For a full rundown of the specs, take a look below:

• Video Memory: GDDR5 1280MB
• Engine Clock: 607 MHz
• Shader Clock : 1215 MHz
• Memory Clock: 3348 MHz ( 837 MHz DDR5 )
• Memory Data Rate, effective: 3348 MHz
• Texture Fill Rate: 34.0 Billion/sec.
• Memory Interface: 320-bit
• Memory Bandwidth: 133.9 GB/sec.
• D-Sub Max Resolution: 2048 x 1536
• DVI Max Resolution: 2560 x 1600
• D-Sub Output: Yes x 1 (via DVI to D-Sub adaptor x 1 )
• DVI Output: Yes x 2
• HDMI Output:  Yes x 1
• HDCP Support: Yes  

Now that all the technical stuff is outta the way, let's have a closer look at the card, shall we?

Closer Look

The ASUS GTX 470 is a dual-slot single GPU video card that measures in at 9.5" in length and should be able to fit in most cases. It features an all-black finish and looks very plain, except for the awesome carbon fiber sticker on it. The matte black and the carbon fiber make for an eye-catching combo and how can you ever go wrong with black plastic fan housing complemented by the black carbon fiber sticker?

Two DVI outputs for multi-display goodness

Moving over to the connectivity options. The GTX 470 has a pair of dual-link DVI-I outputs along with a mini-HDMI output header. ASUS did not include a adapter for the HDMI, but a DVI-to-HDMI adapter was included.

When it comes to Power Consumption, the GTX 470 requires a 550 Watt or greater power supply, with NViDIA suggesting that your power supply have a minimum of 38Amps on the +12V rail. So with all things considered, you will need a 600W or greater power supply to bring this puppy to life. Keep in mind that your power supply needs to have two 6-pin PCI Express power connectors for proper connectivity.

Performance
To test this bad boy, we constructed a rig using the following components

CPU: Intel Core i7-940
Motherboard: ASUS Rampage III Extreme
RAM: 6 GB Corsair Dominator GT DDR3
Power supply: Cooler Master Silent Pro 1000W

The GTX 470 performed quite well in our tests. In Battlefield Bad Company 2, it constantly delivered 60 FPS at maximum settings (1920x1080). The Far Cry 2 Benchmark tool told us that the GTX 470 scored a respectable 74 FPS in DirectX 10 mode (1680x1050). The Unigine Heaven 2.0 has tests for DirectX 11, Hardware tessellation, DirectCompute, and Shader Model 5.0. With the resolution at 1680x1050, 4xAF, no AA, tessellation on and shaders set to high, the GTX scored an average of 46.5 FPS.

Noise and Temperature
This is where the GTX 470 loses a few points. During our tests, we noted down the idle power consumption as well as the consumption at full load. The card idles at 29W, which is quite acceptable. But at peak and maximum load, it draws in 171W and 397W respectively. This is quite a lot, considering electricity ain't getting any cheaper for any one of us and low-power consumption on any device is a nice bonus to have. In comparison, the GTX 580 draws in just 345W - this should give you an indication on how power-hungry the 470 is.

The other issues I had with the card were the heat and noise. At full load, the GTX 470 nearly hit a 100 degrees (threshold is 105 degrees). NVIDIA has set the fan speed at a conservative setting, so we upped the fan speed to 3000 RPM and the temperate dropped to 80 degrees in a few minutes.So unless you have an air conditioner where your computer is, or have excellent chassis cooling, expect the temperatures to be an issue.

Due to the heat and fan being kicked into high gear, the noise generated by the card is quite noticeable. While I understand that noise is a subjective matter and people can have different opinions, this was definitely an issue for me.

Final thoughts
The ASUS GTX 470 is definitely a great card with awesome performance figures. It delivers what it promises and is a good choice for those who aren't looking at the top tier for their next gaming fix.The bottom line is that at Rs. 19,945. The GTX 470 is a superb option, but is overshadowed by the heat, noise and power issues.