Final Thoughts

The Inno3D GTX480 iChill Black Series graphics card is a animate being, there is no denying that fact based on what we have seen. Those prepared to do a little overclocking, which nosotros doubtable will include anyone looking at buying a water-cooled graphics card, will be rewarded.

Out of the box the GTX 480 iChill Black Series is a water-cooled GeForce GTX 480 that is at all-time 3% faster than a standard card. Having that said, it is a hell of a lot quieter and way cooler when under load, 2 massive improvements right there.

Every bit we insisted throughout the review, there is no sense in not tinkering with the carte du jour'southward settings and taking full advantage of the water-cooling provided. Practice some overclocking of your ain and yous volition find performance gains in the club of 10 to 20%. Holding us back on the overclocking front was the lack of voltage adjustments. This raises the concern for the lack of overclocking software support for this graphics card. In fact, it wasn't until we used the Nvidia Organisation Tools that nosotros received any kind of real overclocking back up at all.

The MSI R5870 Lightning used for comparison in this review is a superior product in terms of design (non necessarily performance or value). MSI redesigned their product from the ground upward, covering the hardware to the overclocking software, and the results speak for themselves. The fact that the Inno3D GTX480 iChill Blackness Serial is but a reference card with a water-block slapped on makes it a little less heady.

Performance-wise the GTX480 iChill Black Serial was still faster than the overclocked MSI Radeon for the most part. Out of the dozen gaming titles used for testing, the GTX480 iChill was much faster in seven of them, Resident Evil 5 and Metro 2033 were also close to phone call, while the R5870 Lightning was the improve performer in Battlefield Bad Visitor 2, S.T.A.L.Thou.E.R.: Call of Pripyat and Wolfenstein.

Given the toll premium Nvidia is asking for the GeForce GTX 480 over the Radeon Hard disk drive 5870 ($500 vs. $400), nosotros believe the latter is a meliorate value and more than applied alternative. Nosotros know that the MSI R5870 Lightning retails for a steeper $480, then how much does the Inno3D GTX480 iChill Black Series cost?

Unfortunately, at this stage the Inno3D GTX480 iChill pricing is still unclear. Yous won't find a card selling online just yet and information technology hasn't fifty-fifty been announced on Inno3D's website. We are lucky bastards, we will give you that. Now, Inno3D just recently announced the GTX 470 version of this card, and we are hearing they are charging a pocket-sized additional charge for the specialized cooling. Nosotros are talking less than $30, which if is indeed the example would be a no-brainer for anyone looking to purchase a GeForce GTX 400 serial product.

Update (5/24): We have received word from Inno3D that the price premium for the water-cooling is going to run at around $150 over the price of a GTX 480 reference bill of fare. It was too good to exist true at less than a hundred dollars, then you can consider this a hefty additional charge to pay for an otherwise exceptional upgrade to this GeForce GPU.

Those looking to secure ane of the fastest graphics cards money can buy, the Inno3D GTX480 iChill Black Series is a prime number candidate. While it is far from the best value graphics carte, this card was never meant to be. What the GTX480 iChill allows you to practise is overclock the hell out of the GTX 480 GPU without cooking your unabridged system and without compromising stability.