Reviews - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 1,024MB and 768MB: Fermi done right

[Domestic_Ginger]

How did you measure rpm?

It should be a pwm fan so anything that reads the sensor will give you a reading. GPU-z and maybe HWmonitor will be able to tell you. (the first two progs which spring to mind).

[Champman99]

Well good to see some competition, but its incredibly late. Basically most of what Ive read these come close to, or match the value proposition of a 5850 (CUDA / 3D aside). But the 5850 is practically ancient in hardware terms, I mean its been creaking around for ages. I was fairly late to the 5850 party and even I've had mine for a few months.

Surely ATI has room for a price cut now, and Nvidia are struggling again for competitiveness instantly. ATI is doing to Nvidia with the 5850, what Nvidia did to Ati with the 8800GTX. A product that lasts well beyond the norm, and has the rival company striving to catch up.

[Percy1983]

It is true its very late, I wasn't waiting so ended up with the 5850 to which this seem slightly less performance for slightly less money which might have tempted me but I already have the 5850.

With that the green team does have many loyalists.

[Speed]

I noticed that in the review it states the EVGA comes with a 2 year warranty extendable to 3 by registering with EVGA.

However shouldn't this be 10 year? According to the Scan product page and the EVGA page: http://eu.evga.com/support/warranty/ ?

[Tarinder]

I noticed that in the review it states the EVGA comes with a 2 year warranty extendable to 3 by registering with EVGA.

However shouldn't this be 10 year? According to the Scan product page and the EVGA page: http://eu.evga.com/support/warranty/ ?

Hi,

We were advised by EVGA that the product ships with a two-year warranty that can be extended to three years upon registration. The product's code, ET, doesn't fit in with any listed on the warranty page, so we have sought further clarification from EVGA just now. We will update you accordingly.

Edit: 16:55. We've been advised by EVGA that the GTX 460s will ship with a three-year warranty as standard.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

im leaning towards a 480 now.

scalability of SLI is still not 100% effective yet.

If you've got SLI capability, why waste it on two mid range cards when all yuu currently need is one GTX480 that will currently run everything at max settings? If you then find you need extra power in 12 months time, get another GTX480 (which will most likely be cheaper then).

As I also said before, a single GPU gives a much smoother gaming experience too.

So what's better... a few frames per second more or a more fluid experience?

In my own personal experience it's the LATTER, and to me getting two mid level cards when you've got a nice system is just like putting cheap tyres onto a Formula One car.

[dangel]

TBH I've also been looking at the 480 - it's not yet time for me to upgrade but I do agree than non-SLI is far less hassle (plus two cards = two sets of waterblocks for me so..). I don't doubt it's improved enormously but the "one big card" thing really has worked great for me (8800->280->480?). Really for me it's either the 480 or the 5790 - and the latter is a dual gpu and costs considerably more. Ack.

Still, don't need it yet - Crysis 2 ain't out.

[Terbinator]

The only thing is buying a GTX 480 now and buying another further down the line is a waste. I don't see the issue with SLI'ing two GTX 460's they're faster than a single GTX 480 and cost less and scale very well in the titles I've seen, especially Crysis.

Edit: As with Dangel, its probably worth putting on purchases on hold at the minute and wait for the re-spins and Crysis 2 I think there is a general consensus we will see a full GF100 or dual GF104 (384CC or otherwise) before the years out.

[dangel]

I could buy another 280 and go SLI - but the big problem (aside from power/heat/double the waterblocks) is that tech moves on - so a more modern gpu would be dx 11 and do tessellation etc etc. As a policy it never really works - because it's the new features you want rather than just speed alone.

When's the 485 coming out?

[Percy1983]

Its interesting what people are saying about Sli, I have to say my current intention is to crossfire my 5850 when it gets older as the next generation will probably have the same feature set and just be faster. As I say thats the current plan it may change depending what comes next.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

TBH I've also been looking at the 480 - it's not yet time for me to upgrade but I do agree than non-SLI is far less hassle (plus two cards = two sets of waterblocks for me so..). I don't doubt it's improved enormously but the "one big card" thing really has worked great for me (8800->280->480?). Really for me it's either the 480 or the 5890 - and the latter is a dual gpu and costs considerably more. Ack.

Still, don't need it yet - Crysis 2 ain't out.

crysis 2 is a console port so expect even your 8800 to run it flawlessly OR expect it to not run at all due to a shoddy console port

[Speed]

Hi,

We were advised by EVGA that the product ships with a two-year warranty that can be extended to three years upon registration. The product's code, ET, doesn't fit in with any listed on the warranty page, so we have sought further clarification from EVGA just now. We will update you accordingly.

Edit: 16:55. We've been advised by EVGA that the GTX 460s will ship with a three-year warranty as standard.

Thanks for the confirmation. Guess Scan got it wrong.

Although I think the superclocked one does have a 10 year warranty going on the model number.

[dangel]

crysis 2 is a console port so expect even your 8800 to run it flawlessly OR expect it to not run at all due to a shoddy console port

Cynical much? Seriously - let's wait and see - there's no reason why an engine can't scale beyond it's console counterparts and, like it or not, crytek have a history of pushing boundaries (and taking the flak for doing so). Hope i'm right, and so do you (really)

[Speed]

TBH I've also been looking at the 480 - it's not yet time for me to upgrade but I do agree than non-SLI is far less hassle (plus two cards = two sets of waterblocks for me so..). I don't doubt it's improved enormously but the "one big card" thing really has worked great for me (8800->280->480?). Really for me it's either the 480 or the 5890 - and the latter is a dual gpu and costs considerably more. Ack.

Still, don't need it yet - Crysis 2 ain't out.

You mean 5970 right? 5890 isn't confirmed yet.

[dangel]

Its interesting what people are saying about Sli, I have to say my current intention is to crossfire my 5850 when it gets older as the next generation will probably have the same feature set and just be faster. As I say thats the current plan it may change depending what comes next.

There's a bit of a difference in opinion in the nVidia and ATI camps right now - nVidia seem to have bet big on tessellation and ATI haven't (although the 5790 does a good job all things considered). Will the next ATI part have a different feature set? Probably. Effectively we're talking early next year for it to come and I'm sure ATI have been busy (although not really needed to push out anything new because nVidia's pricing has sucked) and they know nVidia will probably be a lot stronger with it's next cards too (performance/feature set/pricing/fab size). I think it's fair to say, as a general rule, that we get feature set jump followed by refresh and then rinse and repeat.

The better question is will games pour out that make massive use of DX11 and things like tessellation? Right now - no. And that's why the 480 isn't all that great (despite being the fastest single gpu and yes, ignoring it's desperate need for a shrink [just like my 280 was way back] to fix the heat/power). In six months? Dunno. And what will be out then and how much will it cost?

[dangel]

You mean 5970 right? 5890 isn't confirmed yet.

Yup!

[I heard you the first time!]