Voltage Regulator on the GTX 480/470

[jimmy545]

Is anybody aware if the gtx 480/470 has the VT1165 voltage regulator? Thanx

[Unwinder]

Originally Posted by jimmy545

Is anybody aware if the gtx 480/470 has the VT1165 voltage regulator? Thanx

No, there is not VT1165 on-board. 480 has an alternate programmable VRM. And 470 have no I2C programmable VRM onboard.

[Bodar]

Originally Posted by Unwinder

No, there is not VT1165 on-board. 480 has an alternate programmable VRM. And 470 have no I2C programmable VRM onboard.

Thanks Unwinder!! He would know more then anyone! I dont really know how that works but it seems to be good.... maybe

[CartCSS]

Originally Posted by Bodar

Thanks Unwinder!! He would know more then anyone! I dont really know how that works but it seems to be good.... maybe

According to W1zzard (regarding GTX480) :

Hey, that's something new. NVIDIA uses a CHiL CHL 8266 voltage regulator on their card. To be honest I have never heard of a company by that name until I saw it used on the GeForce GTX 480. Unfortunately there is not a lot of info available about that voltage regulator, but it is certain that it supports voltage adjustments via I2C.

Now it's up to Unwinder to find the appropriate voltage registers

[mkchiu]

The 480's 6 phase, 48 pin QFN, CHL8266 power controller is likely based-on, or is a stripped-down-nvidia/fermi-only version of the 8316 which is marketed as high efficiency (especially at low loads), low parts counts (as visible in the few photos on the net--techpowerup & ht4u), and having I2C.

For the next few months, it's probably not useful to work on the 480 in terms of voltage. Both of the sites I mentioned indicate the 480 runs at a fixed voltage (0.990 or 0.995V) at both idle and load. Voltage under load does raise minimally like the other model buck controllers used in other GPUs.

Nvidia may have to goto newer A4(?) silicon or the mainstream 450/440/430 before variable voltage states (and thus o/c and tuning) makes works or sense. It should be remembered, AMD had 40nm 4770 silicon about a year ago. Nvidia started (late) with a large complex design with 512 cores instead of going slowly and learning with small techical jumps. As such, enthusiasts will be paying for that in multiple ways including likely little to no benefit from voltage control. Cross your fingers for the <GF 460 designs.

[jimmy545]

Originally Posted by Unwinder

No, there is not VT1165 on-board. 480 has an alternate programmable VRM. And 470 have no I2C programmable VRM onboard.

ok Unwinder thanks - do you anticipate Afterburner being as successful at voltage alteration with CHL8266 as it has been with VT1165? I mean generally speaking, not specifically with 480.

Originally Posted by mkchiu

The 480's 6 phase, 48 pin QFN, CHL8266 power controller is likely based-on, or is a stripped-down-nvidia/fermi-only version of the 8316 which is marketed as high efficiency (especially at low loads), low parts counts (as visible in the few photos on the net--techpowerup & ht4u), and having I2C.

For the next few months, it's probably not useful to work on the 480 in terms of voltage. Both of the sites I mentioned indicate the 480 runs at a fixed voltage (0.990 or 0.995V) at both idle and load. Voltage under load does raise minimally like the other model buck controllers used in other GPUs.

Nvidia may have to goto newer A4(?) silicon or the mainstream 450/440/430 before variable voltage states (and thus o/c and tuning) makes works or sense. It should be remembered, AMD had 40nm 4770 silicon about a year ago. Nvidia started (late) with a large complex design with 512 cores instead of going slowly and learning with small techical jumps. As such, enthusiasts will be paying for that in multiple ways including likely little to no benefit from voltage control. Cross your fingers for the <GF 460 designs.

have you seen what Asus are offering? Voltage Tweak through updated Smartdoctor enabling 50% higher performance - clearly they must be exaggerating, but still.

I agree with you though - every which way I look at gtx480, all I see is catastrophic failure: heat, power, noise, price, with too small a performance advantage after 6 extra months for all those drawbacks. I mourn the loss of Nvidia as an impressive technology company. Will they resurrect?

The only hope I see for the product is in overclocking it, which seems to provide surprisingly big returns, and that's at stock voltage.

[Unwinder]

Originally Posted by jimmy545

ok Unwinder thanks - do you anticipate Afterburner being as successful at voltage alteration with CHL8266 as it has been with VT1165? I mean generally speaking, not specifically with 480.

I cannot say anything, even generally speaking, until I see any card with CHL8266 installed here, in my development PC. And my 470/480 have not arrived yet.

Originally Posted by jimmy545

have you seen what Asus are offering? Voltage Tweak through updated Smartdoctor enabling 50% higher performance - clearly they must be exaggerating, but still.

I'd say that ASUS are giving way too optimistic promises, which will unlikely transform into reality. In its current form 480 is clearly really hot chip even @ default clocks and voltage, I wouldn't expect even 20% boost in real world conditions.

[jimmy545]

Originally Posted by Unwinder

I cannot say anything, even generally speaking, until I see any card with CHL8266 installed here, in my development PC. And my 470/480 have not arrived yet.

understood

Originally Posted by Unwinder

I'd say that ASUS are giving way too optimistic promises, which will unlikely transform into reality. In its current form 480 is clearly really hot chip even @ default clocks and voltage, I wouldn't expect even 20% boost in real world conditions.

they should be sued for such a crazy claim, right there in big letters on the box.

[mkchiu]

Originally Posted by jimmy545

have you seen what Asus are offering? Voltage Tweak through updated Smartdoctor enabling 50% higher performance - clearly they must be exaggerating, but still.

I agree with you though - every which way I look at gtx480, all I see is catastrophic failure: heat, power, noise, price, with too small a performance advantage after 6 extra months for all those drawbacks. I mourn the loss of Nvidia as an impressive technology company. Will they resurrect?

The only hope I see for the product is in overclocking it, which seems to provide surprisingly big returns, and that's at stock voltage.

Yes, and MSI is offering a 15% boost.

If nvidia has specified those constant voltage levels, they're probably a good reason related to stability through the thermal profile over an expected lifecycle. Any working voltage changes are likely to be increases, if available, and it will be up to the enduser to ensure it works.

I imagine they're shipping Unwinder LN2 to so he can make the 15% happen in Afterburner--not really.

Nvidia tends to be more of a architecture / IP company vs. manufacturing. The fermi design isn't bad, it's just consistent with the way the company thinks and ignores manufacturing.

[Unwinder]

Originally Posted by mkchiu

I imagine they're shipping Unwinder LN2 to so he can make the 15% happen in Afterburner--not really.

I would SERIOUSLY like to ask to avoid involving my name into any marekting games.

[mkchiu]

Originally Posted by Unwinder

I would SERIOUSLY like to ask to avoid involving my name into any marekting games.

I doubt anyone expects you to personally runs the tests. However, they probably do expect I2C functionality so they can perform the relevant (warranty) qualifications.

A quick google of "MSI 480 15%" brought up the below photo of the box art. I have not seen that icon (plane over green circle) used except with Afterburner.
http://news.softpedia.com/images/new...-Its-Own-2.jpg

[Unwinder]

Originally Posted by mkchiu

A quick google of "MSI 480 15%" brought up the below photo of the box art. I have not seen that icon (plane over green circle) used except with Afterburner.
http://news.softpedia.com/images/new...-Its-Own-2.jpg

Really interesting stuff. A good question to box designers where does it come from. However, I clearly repeat once again: there is no GTX 480 voltage control capable Afterburner version yet.

[mkchiu]

Originally Posted by Unwinder

Really interesting stuff. A good question to box designers where does it come from. However, I clearly repeat once again: there is no GTX 480 voltage control capable Afterburner version yet.

Marketing is sales. Sales has a different perspective about reality. Think of their expectations as a compliment of your abilities.

[chanw4]

Probably the sale department heard of this afterburner utility and that it can overclock the GPU. So they just slapped it on. They probably didn't know that it can't change the voltage yet and pulling 15% out of their asses.