A note on GeForce GTX 480 noise levels

Similarly, Nvidia has obviously biased the fan profiles on the GTX 480 toward lower noise levels than toward lower GPU temperatures, but the GPU temperature readings we got for the card were only a few degrees higher than what we saw from the Radeon HD 5870.

More notably, the GTX 480's cooler is an impressive bit of engineering that attempts to mitigate the effects of the GPU's relatively high power consumption—and thus heat production.