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Nvidia GeForce 480 & 470 Finally Debut

Geoff Duncan
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Graphics developer Nvidia has finally taken the wraps of its GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470 graphics cards, promising to bring new levels of performance and graphical capability to PCs. First announced way back in September of 2009—and delayed since then—the new cards represent the first in Nvidia’s much-touted “Fermi” line…and represents the company’s best hope of stealing back some thunder from rival ATI, which has been enjoying considerable success with high-end gamers.

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The GeForce GTX 480 boasts a 700 MHz graphics clock—along with a 1.4 GHz processor clock speed and a 1.8 GHz memory clock—1.5 GB of dedicated GDDR5 video memory, and 480 shader processors. The unit supports DirectX11 and Nvidia’s own 3D Vision Surround capability. The GTX 480 also supports Nvidia’s SLI configuration to handle up to three displays (although that requires two GTX 480 cards). The card supports two dual link DVI connectors and mini HDMI output; it’ll handle displays up to 2,560 by 1,600 pixels (with a max of 2,048 by 1,536 in VGA mode). Nvidia says the GTX 480 delivers twice the performance of its previous GeForce GTX 285 card…and without naming names says it delivers on average 27 percent better performance than “any GPU on the market” with newer DirectX11 applications.

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Nvidia says the GeForce GTX 480 and 470 will be available in mid-April from PC system makers and add-in cart retailers—the GTX 480 will carry a suggested retail price of $499, while the GTX 470 will be priced at $349. Nvidia says additional cards in the GeForce GTX 400-series will be announced over the next few months.

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Geoff Duncan
Geoff Duncan
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…
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