Gigabyte GeForce GTX 470 Super Overclock Edition Video Card Review

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Last week when we took a look at the EVGA GeForce GTX 470 Hydro Copper FTW I was impressed with the GeForce GTX 470 series. Quite possibly because it is an overclocked version it was able to have a leg up on the HIS Radeon HD 5870. Today, I am even more impressed with the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 470 Super Overclock Edition. One of the reasons is the price to performance ratio. Last week the EVGA GeForce GTX 470 Hydro Copper could be found for $459.99 at EVGA.com. Today we can find the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 470 Super Overclock Edition for only $279.99 plus $1.99 shipping at newegg.com. At the end of last week there was a bit of a price war between AMD and NVIDIA which caused a drop in several of the NVIDIA GeForce series cards. If you are curious about that you can find responses from both AMD and NVIDIA in our forums here.

When we got our first look at the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 470 Super Overclock Edition my first thought was sexy but noisy. With three fans you would anticipate the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 470 Super Overclock Edition to be on the loud side. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Even during the overclocking session with the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 470 Super Overclock Edition the single Yate Loon high speed 120mm fan was quite a bit louder than the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 470 Super Overclock Edition fans at 100%. I will admit I was shocked yet pleasantly surprised!

Performance-wise, the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 470 Super Overclock Edition was, for the most part, the card to beat today. In the majority of our benchmarks the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 470 Super Overclocked Edition was running 5% faster than the EVGA Counterpart. It was also consistently faster than the flagship single GPU graphics card from AMD, the Radeon HD 5870.

Currently the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 470 Super Overclock Edition is available for $279.99 plus $3.99 shipping at newegg.com. This price does make it the highest priced GeForce GTX 470 on the market right now. Though with the high price come the fastest core clocks available from any of the GeForce GTX 470’s. The GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 470 Super Overclock Edition has a core clock of 700MHz, the next fastest available is the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 470 Overclock Edition which has a core clock of 630MHz which sells for only ten bucks less; I know where I would put my money. The GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 470 Super Overclock Edition is backed by a three year warranty.

Legit Bottom Line: The GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 470 Super Overclock Edition is an incredibly fast version of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470 graphics card. Sure you pay a premium, but you are getting a premium product! Superior performance, a barely audible cooler that does a bang up job, and the least important factor to me – great looks. Put the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 470 Super Overclock Edition at the top of my short list of graphics cards!