14 DAY TRIAL // NVIDIA is working hard on making sure that it prepares as many Fermi cards as possible for PAX 2010. The company is undoubtedly very optimistic about its device and wants to make a debut in force, an idea supported by its secrecy concerning product specifications. Of course, the Internet being what it is, it was no surprise when the actual specs finally came out. Nevertheless, there is still one aspect that might be essential in the competition between GF100 and Cypress.
As consumers probably guessed, it is the actual power consumption of the cards that will make the difference. Even if either, or both, NVIDIA adapters turn out to be stronger than the HD 5870, the performance will have to offset not just the higher price, but also the power consumption. Prices were already revealed to be lower than initially expected, but the TDP was still unclear. Until now, that is. Fudzilla has managed to find out both the GTX 470 and the GTX 480 thermal design powers, revealing figures lower than the initial expectations.
According to the report, both cards consume more power than the 188W of ATI's Radeon HD 5870, currently the strongest single-GPU device from Advanced Micro Devices. The GTX 470 supposedly has a TDP of 215W, which might be problematic if its performance turns out to be lower than its competitor's. Also, the GTX 480 supposedly consumes 250W. This is significantly less than the 300W initially estimated, but still quite a bit more than 188W. Granted, this adapter will likely be more potent, as benchmarks seem to suggest.
NVIDIA will release its card on March 26th. All that remains is for reviewers to finally find out whether the higher performance of the devices is enough to offset the disadvantages of a higher price and power consumption.