Zotac GTX 480 Review

When building a system to test a graphics card, it is important that the rest of the system matches the hardware on review. For this review we would assume that the majority of people buying a GTX 480 will have a very high end system.

We will be comparing the GTX 480 against the top end AMD boards as well as nVidia's high end ‘last' generation. We are also including results from benchmarking the new XFX 5870 Black Edition which we reviewed a while ago.

Zotac GTX 480
Intel Core i7 980X
Asus Rampage III Extreme Motherboard
XFX 5870 1GB Black Edition
AMD reference 5870 1GB
AMD reference 4870 X2
nVidia reference GTX 295
nVidia reference GTX 285
(3x2GB) 6GB Crucial 1600mhz Ballistix Tracer

LaCie 730 30 inch LED screen

Coolit ECO A.L.C. (Review)
Enermax 1250W Revolution PSU
160GB Intel SSD
Silverstone Raven 2 Chassis

Thermal Diodes
Digital Sound Level Noise Decibel Meter Style 2
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp

Windows 7 64bit Ultimate Edition – all latest patches/updates
Catalyst 10.4a Driver
ForceWare 197.75
Fraps Professional

Aliens V Predator
Metro 2033
Grand Theft Auto 4: Episodes from Liberty City
Colin McRae Dirt 2
Napoleon: Total War
Far Cry 2

The system was built from scratch and all drivers updated – all our results are gathered from five individual runs to analyze and remove any possible result abnormalities. We try to mix and match games between reviews to keep it interesting for regular readers – no one wants to see the same four or five games benchmarked.

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