Bargain Bargain Alert! GTX 480 for £160 Anyone?

[V_R]

Regardless of your opinion of OcUK, this a good deal. Anyone looking to upgrade or even just thinking about it would be a fool not to seriously consider this card.

Its a refurb, comes with 1 year warranty.

http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-159-OK

Next generation gaming has arrived. Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 gives your games an adrenaline shot with the world's fastest performance and futuristic, visually stunning graphics. Experience heartpounding, cinematic visuals on your favorite games with the combined power of DirectX 11, CUDA and Nvidia PhysX technologies. And expand your visual real estate across three HD displays in jawdropping stereoscopic 3D for the ultimate in immersive gaming. Nvidia GeForce GTX 480: pure adrenaline meets visual bliss.

- Core Clock: 700MHz
- Memory: 1536MB GDDR5
- Memory Clock: 3696MHz (Effective)
- Memory Interface: 384-Bit
- Processing Cores: 480
- Shader Clock: 1401MHz
- Bus Type: PCI-Express 2.0
- Display Connectors: 2x Dual-Link DVI-I & 1x Mini-HDMI 1.3a (Includes HDMI & VGA Adapters)
- SLI Ready
- HDCP Capable
- DirectX 11 Support
- OpenGL 3.1 Support
- PhysX Enabled
- CUDA Enabled
- 1yr Warranty with OcUK
- This is a refurbished fully functional product, it may have minor visual defects and is just a bare card, no cables, drivers etc.

Just for reference, heres the same card brand new...

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-134-OK&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1750

£324

 

[floppybootstomp]

Tempting, tempting... but it's refurbished and it's from OCUK who don't seem to have had a good press for the last couple of years.

Same thing here at Aria for £170.00

And IIRC wasn't it the 480's that ran hot and had cooling that made as much noise at a jet engine?

Seems to be a lot of refurbished models for sale, one has to wonder how come they've been refurbished. Did the cooling problems knacker them in the first place?

Despite the good price I think I'd rather go for at least a 580 were I to upgrade my 9800GTX.

 

[V_R]

Yep a refurb as stated in the OP.

The 480s can run hot, but will be fine in decent case with good airflow. At idle/non gaming they are silent and fairly cool. (My old 480 was always under 45 degrees if i was just web browsing etc)

Apparently the 6870's run hotter than the NV cards.

I think the reason is that NV want to get rid of the old stock if readiness for the new 28NM chips later in the year.

 

[Abarbarian]

Yep a refurb as stated in the OP.

The 480s can run hot, but will be fine in decent case with good airflow. At idle/non gaming they are silent and fairly cool. (My old 480 was always under 45 degrees if i was just web browsing etc)

Apparently the 6870's run hotter than the NV cards.

I think the reason is that NV want to get rid of the old stock if readiness for the new 28NM chips later in the year.

45 degrees my 460 is running at 24 degrees whilst surfing.

Flops could get a 9800 GTX for £60 in that re-furb deal and go SLI then he might be able to get some playable frame rates in Metro

 

[floppybootstomp]

This thing about Metro2033, I complained previously that the game had lousy graphics when it's generally acknowledged the game has good graphics.

My 9800GTX actually gave me good frame rates and when I said bad graphics I didn't mean the quality per se but in fact how the game was presented. It was like wandering around half blind in a grey-brown murk whilst wading through treacle, it had a horrible feel to it.

Alien Vs Predator, the newer one, is a bit like that as well.

As for sli I'm not sure what my Asus P5B Deluxe has the capabilities for, Xfire or sli, I'll have to check

 

[V_R]

45 degrees my 460 is running at 24 degrees whilst surfing.

Really. Comparing a 460 to a 480 isn't exactly fair is it...What cooler, i take it its not the stock one, this in the middle of winter i take it?

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/315?vs=309

Flops could get a 9800 GTX for £60 in that re-furb deal and go SLI then he might be able to get some playable frame rates in Metro

Really again, whats the point, SLI 9800's...? even if he could it would be pointless.

And yes Flops the P5B-D is Crossfire.

http://uk.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_775/P5B_DeluxeWiFiAP/

 

[Abarbarian]

Really. Comparing a 460 to a 480 isn't exactly fair is it...What cooler, i take it its not the stock one, this in the middle of winter i take it?

Nope that's today's temp. It is an Asus ENGTX 460 TOP manufacturer overclocked so I am guessing it will run a bit hotter than a standard 460. Apparently if you oc these 460's they do not lag much behind the 480's, I'm going to give that a try in the autumn when I get a bit more time.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/315?vs=309

Really again, whats the point, SLI 9800's...? even if he could it would be pointless.

I wer jus funin.

 

[V_R]

Nope that's today's temp. It is an Asus ENGTX 460 TOP manufacturer overclocked so I am guessing it will run a bit hotter than a standard 460.

The ASUS ENGTX460 TOP has an upgraded cooling system installed on the card.

So, as i said, no not the stock cooler, it will run slightly cooler at idle.

Is your house cold or something? Thats very low, especially as you have two in SLI

Credit through, that is a mighty fine cooler on that card.

Apparently if you oc these 460's they do not lag much behind the 480's, I'm going to give that a try in the autumn when I get a bit more time.

I wer jus funin.

Only if SLI behaves itself.

 

[floppybootstomp]

I've always wondered about the wisdom/benefits of running multi graphics cards - why not just stick a pair of GPU's on one card (as some have done)? Much better.

And from all I've read the cost of two graphics cards for the extra performance gained is not worthwhile.

Abarb may have been funnin', as he says (hmmmm....) but I took the suggestion seriously, for 60 quid it may have been worth considering, I thought.

Silly silly Mr Flops! You should know by now sli & Xfire is not a good thing.

Well, if not so much 'not a good thing' not an economical thing.

 

[Abarbarian]

Is your house cold or something?

22 C when I did the reading

Thats very low, especially as you have two in SLI

Ah ha hmmmmmmmmmmm I'm only running one at the moment.
I did try out the SLI but was a bit worried that me 520 watt psu might not be up to SLI so I went back to single gfx use. Also the used copy of Crysis I had bought turned out to be a duffer and the games I am playing do not need SLI to max out the gfx. Now have a AX 850 psu and a brand new copy of Crysis and some spare time coming up so as a way of recovering from Bioshock will play at tweaking and SLI and have a darn good time in Crysis.

Credit through, that is a mighty fine cooler on that card.

It is and I am suitably impressed with it.

Only if SLI behaves itself.

You mean all those reviews and test charts and graphs might not be 100% true

Abarb may have been funnin', as he says (hmmmm....)

I was , I was

Seriously though for someone with an older set up capable of SLI and owning a 9800 GTX and wanting to get better graphics quality on some of the not so cutting edge games then I recon £60 is not a bad price at all. That is only just over a quid a week when spread out over a year.

 

[V_R]

22 C when I did the reading

Actually in a case? only two degrees over ambient is almost too low, Your claiming temps that are in WC territory, not that you'd bother WCing one... Screenshot of afterburner then i'll believe you.

Ah ha hmmmmmmmmmmm I'm only running one at the moment.
I did try out the SLI but was a bit worried that me 520 watt psu might not be up to SLI so I went back to single gfx use. Also the used copy of Crysis I had bought turned out to be a duffer and the games I am playing do not need SLI to max out the gfx. Now have a AX 850 psu and a brand new copy of Crysis and some spare time coming up so as a way of recovering from Bioshock will play at tweaking and SLI and have a darn good time in Crysis.

520w aint up to SLI, the 850w will be fine though.

Seriously though for someone with an older set up capable of SLI and owning a 9800 GTX and wanting to get better graphics quality on some of the not so cutting edge games then I recon £60 is not a bad price at all. That is only just over a quid a week when spread out over a year.

But why, 60 quid you could keep and spend later towards a new rig is a much better idea, you will get bugger all when you come to sell the 9800, so why on earth get another one? I thought you were 'frugal'

P5B-Deluxe doesn't do SLI by the way, well at least not officially, it can be done with unofficial drivers, but i would think Flops wouldn't be up for that.

 

[Abarbarian]

Room temp 26 C. Been playing Bioshock for three hours and was surfing for several hours prior to installing AB.

I have a sort of nearly open case affair.

I realise that flops set up is not a SLI. I still recon £60 spread over a year is pretty good if you get maxed out graphics in your favourite game. Realise that SLI can be very game dependant etc etc .

GPU temp is 53C max
GPU useage is 99% max
GPU Fan Speed is 94% max

 

[floppybootstomp]

Hey Abarb, didn't I sell you a copy of Crysis One? You mentioned above it was a duffer. Twas fine when it left here, was it the one I sold you that went belly-up?

 

[Abarbarian]

Hey Abarb, didn't I sell you a copy of Crysis One? You mentioned above it was a duffer. Twas fine when it left here, was it the one I sold you that went belly-up?

It very well might be. No sweat it maybe needed a clean or me drive might not have liked the disc. Got a new copy now so problem solved.
Biggest worry is how to finish in Bioshock. I'm tooled up and fuelled up but that angry guy just won't die. An I guess I'm going to have to kill him 4 times

 

[V_R]

Room temp 26 C. Been playing Bioshock for three hours and was surfing for several hours prior to installing AB.

I have a sort of nearly open case affair.

GPU temp is 53C max
GPU useage is 99% max
GPU Fan Speed is 94% max

So its not in a case then?

 

[Abarbarian]

So its not in a case then?

Like I said sort of.

Tut tut I recon I should tidy up the cables a bit.

 

[bootneck02]

And I thought my desk was a mess

 

[floppybootstomp]

Didn't last long, sold out now.

Je regrette nien

 

[V_R]

Sort out because it was a good deal.