NVIDIA started GeForce GTX 480 sales 7 December 2010 at a recommended price of $499 . This is a desktop graphics card based on a Fermi architecture and made with 40 nm manufacturing process. It is primarily aimed at gamer market. 1536 MB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 1.85 GHz are supplied, and together with 384 Bit memory interface this creates a bandwidth of 177.4 GB/s.

Compatibility-wise, this is dual-slot card attached via PCIe 2.0 x16 interface. Its manufacturer default version has a length of 10.5" (267 mm) (26.7 cm). 6-pin & 8-pin power connector is required, and power consumption is at 295 Watt.

General info

Some basic facts about GeForce GTX 480: architecture, market segment, release date etc.

Place in performance ranking	395
Place by popularity	not in top-100
Value for money	1.27
Architecture	Fermi (2010−2014)
GPU code name	GF100
Market segment	Desktop
Release date	7 December 2010 (13 years old)
Launch price (MSRP)	$499
Current price	$15.99 (0x MSRP)	of 168889 (A100 PCIe 80 GB)

Value for money

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

Technical specs

GeForce GTX 480's specs such as number of shaders, GPU base clock, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of GeForce GTX 480's performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider its benchmark and gaming test results.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	480	of 20480 (Data Center GPU Max NEXT)
CUDA cores	480
Core clock speed	700 MHz	of 2610 (Radeon RX 6500 XT)
Number of transistors	3,100 million	of 14400 (GeForce GTX 1080 SLI Mobile)
Manufacturing process technology	40 nm	of 4 (H100 PCIe)
Power consumption (TDP)	295 Watt	of 2400 (Data Center GPU Max Subsystem)
Maximum GPU temperature	105 °C
Texture fill rate	42 billion/sec	of 969.9 (H100 SXM5 96 GB)
Floating-point performance	1,345.0 gflops	of 16384 (Radeon Pro Duo)

Size and compatibility

This section provides details about the physical dimensions of GeForce GTX 480 and its compatibility with other computer components. This information is useful when selecting a computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards, it includes details about the interface and bus (for motherboard compatibility) and additional power connectors (for power supply compatibility).

Bus support	16x PCI-E 2.0
Interface	PCIe 2.0 x16
Length	10.5" (267 mm) (26.7 cm)
Height	4.376" (111 mm) (11.1 cm)
Width	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	6-pin & 8-pin
SLI options	+

Memory

Parameters of memory installed on GeForce GTX 480: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Note that GPUs integrated into processors have no dedicated memory and use a shared part of system RAM instead.

Memory type	GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount	1536 MB	of 192 (Radeon Instinct MI300X)
Memory bus width	384 Bit	of 8192 (Radeon Instinct MI250X)
Memory clock speed	1848 MHz (3696 data rate)	of 23000 (GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER)
Memory bandwidth	177.4 GB/s	of 3276 (Aldebaran)
Shared memory	-

Video outputs and ports

Types and number of video connectors present on GeForce GTX 480. As a rule, this section is relevant only for desktop reference graphics cards, since for notebook ones the availability of certain video outputs depends on the laptop model, while non-reference desktop models can (though not necessarily will) bear a different set of video ports.

Display Connectors	Two Dual Link DVI, Mini HDMI
Multi monitor support	+
HDMI	+
HDCP	+
Maximum VGA resolution	2048x1536
Audio input for HDMI	Internal

API support

APIs supported by GeForce GTX 480, sometimes including their particular versions.

DirectX	12 (11_0)
Shader Model	5.1
OpenGL	4.2	of 4.6 (GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile)
OpenCL	1.1
Vulkan	N/A
CUDA	+

Benchmark performance

Synthetic benchmark performance of GeForce GTX 480. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

GTX 480 10.59

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark, part of Passmark PerformanceTest suite. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

Benchmark coverage: 25%

GTX 480 4102

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

GTX 480 5014

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

GTX 480 3650

GeekBench 5 OpenCL

Geekbench 5 is a widespread graphics card benchmark combined from 11 different test scenarios. All these scenarios rely on direct usage of GPU's processing power, no 3D rendering is involved. This variation uses OpenCL API by Khronos Group.

Benchmark coverage: 9%

GTX 480 13125

Octane Render OctaneBench

This is a special benchmark measuring graphics card performance in OctaneRender, which is a realistic GPU rendering engine by OTOY Inc., available either as a standalone program, or as a plugin for 3DS Max, Cinema 4D and many other apps. It renders four different static scenes, then compares render times with a reference GPU which is currently GeForce GTX 980. This benchmark has nothing to do with gaming and is aimed at professional 3D graphics artists.

Benchmark coverage: 4%

GTX 480 54

Gaming performance

Let's see how good GeForce GTX 480 is for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in frames per second. Comparisons with game system requirements are included, but remember that sometimes official requirements may reflect reality inaccurately.

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

16−18

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	21−24
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	16−18
Battlefield 5	35−40
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	27−30
Cyberpunk 2077	16−18
Far Cry 5	27−30
Far Cry New Dawn	27−30
Forza Horizon 4	35−40
Hitman 3	27−30
Horizon Zero Dawn	21−24
Red Dead Redemption 2	18−20
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	21−24
Watch Dogs: Legion	18−20

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	21−24
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	16−18
Battlefield 5	35−40
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	27−30
Cyberpunk 2077	16−18
Far Cry 5	27−30
Far Cry New Dawn	27−30
Forza Horizon 4	35−40
Hitman 3	27−30
Horizon Zero Dawn	21−24
Metro Exodus	16−18
Red Dead Redemption 2	18−20
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	21−24
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	21−24
Watch Dogs: Legion	18−20

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	21−24
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	16−18
Battlefield 5	35−40
Cyberpunk 2077	16−18
Far Cry 5	27−30
Far Cry New Dawn	27−30
Forza Horizon 4	35−40
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	21−24
Watch Dogs: Legion	18−20

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	14−16
Hitman 3	16−18
Horizon Zero Dawn	16−18
Metro Exodus	9−10
Red Dead Redemption 2	7−8
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	14−16

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−11
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	7−8
Battlefield 5	18−20
Cyberpunk 2077	5−6
Far Cry 5	16−18
Far Cry New Dawn	18−20
Forza Horizon 4	18−20
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	10−11
Watch Dogs: Legion	5−6

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	7−8
Hitman 3	10−11
Horizon Zero Dawn	9−10
Metro Exodus	4−5
Red Dead Redemption 2	6−7
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	6−7
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	8−9

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	6−7
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	5−6
Battlefield 5	9−10
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2
Far Cry 5	9−10
Far Cry New Dawn	10−12
Forza Horizon 4	12−14
Watch Dogs: Legion	3−4

Relative performance

GeForce GTX 480's performance compared to nearest competitors among desktop video cards.

GeForce GTX 660 Ti 107.46

Radeon R9 270 105

Radeon RX 460 100

GeForce GTX 480 100

GeForce GTX 780 Rev. 2 97.73

Radeon R7 265 97.54

GeForce GTX 660 97.45

AMD equivalent

According to our data, the closest AMD alternative to GeForce GTX 480 is Radeon RX 460, which is nearly equal in speed and lower by 1 position in our ranking.