Reviews - KFA2 GeForce GTX 460 1GB LTD OC graphics card review

Quote:

---

Pre-overclocked goodness from a new brand hoping to unsettle the established order? We take a look.

---

Read more.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by hexus

Kick F***in Ass ²

---

:ban:

You could have at least replaced it with diddly ;)

(good review, thanks for the note about noise)

Yup, ban that user!

Does what is essentially just an expensive, pre-overclocked, noisy card deserve 4 HEXUS-es out of 5 HEXUS-es though?
Surely the target market for this card is more than capable of OCing themselves & would probably do it anyway, maybe I'm wrong though.

It's the fastest GeForce GTX 460 we've come across. There may be a faster one - TGT claims 820MHz core - but the KFA deserves credit for coming and validating these speeds.

The price isn't extortionately high for what is very much a customised design. Indeed, it gets pretty damn close to a GTX 470 most of the time. We expect to see it dip below £200 soon.

Lastly, we like to see something different once in a while. We were internally discussing if it should be awarded 3.5 or 4 stars, and we went with the latter because it offers the best out-of-the-box GTX 460 performance around.

Don't get me wrong I've no issue with the review, more the product & the (IMO) confused target market.

If I were making these cards I'd have made some must-have features considering the price & the fact your target users are probably OC-ers anyway so the speeds are the least of their priorities.

As you mentioned the ability for an aftermarket 80 (or even 120mm) fan would be fantastic, surely to make a bracket would have cost a very similar amount to the one they ended up with anyway so why skimp? especially as you're trying to break into a saturated market.
A couple of clips would have done it...

They could have offered a fully removable shroud (simple clips so no screwdriver needed) with extras available with say a 120mm for users who want low-noise, a high RPM for users who just want cooling, LED options/different colours/etc they could sell for ~ £10 ( = more income for them) and I'm sure many users would be tempted to replace the stock 'noisy' fan.

Anyway…I've gone off track!

this is one awesome card

It's not bad. Obviously nVidia's strange superiority in MW2 makes up all of it's aggregate fps over the 5850.

I got my 5850 for £215 delivered from Scan last September. We're now almost in August and a heavily overclocked 460 consuming far more power can just about keep up with it at the same price.

So the 5850 costs £25 more now, but has a lot more overclocking headroom and will still consume less power. More importantly, it's practically silent at idle and not noisy on full blast.

So for £25 you get quite a lot more with the 5850. I agree with the others, 3.5 stars would probably be a bit more like it. 10 months later and it's still no match for the 5850 in every department. On top of that, I expect to see price cuts on all current 5-series pretty soon, as ATI readies Southern Islands for an October launch.

Given how well the HD 5850 has stood the test of time in one of the harshest segments of the computer hardware industry, it would get either 4.5 or 5 stars now. We just don't see too many partners push them now.

Thing is I think the 5850 is overpriced and has been for quite a while.

I'd give it 4 stars now because of that, that's why I'd give this oc'd 460 3.5. ;)

what happened to bang4watt?

While the idea of a detachable/easier to clean fan is, imo, a good idea, that one looks incredibly flimsy to me...

does the fan spin faster than the reference cooler ? it could be set to so that it keeps cool with the overclocking applied

as for those saying about the market being people who would buy reference cards and OC themselves, you find that's rarely the case

thing is, normal overclockers don't just ramp up volts and speeds, they buy coolers and fans to accommodate the expected extra heat, you can't really do that with graphics cards and the risk of damaging what is most probably the most expensive part in the PC deters most

CPUs are well catered for overclocking and its the norm, but graphics cards less so, the risk FAR outweighs the reward, so those looking for the most power will usually opt to pay a bit extra for an OC model, that's why there's such an abundance of OC cards available - the market is there

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tunnah

does the fan spin faster than the reference cooler ? it could be set to so that it keeps cool with the overclocking applied

as for those saying about the market being people who would buy reference cards and OC themselves, you find that's rarely the case

thing is, normal overclockers don't just ramp up volts and speeds, they buy coolers and fans to accommodate the expected extra heat, you can't really do that with graphics cards and the risk of damaging what is most probably the most expensive part in the PC deters most

CPUs are well catered for overclocking and its the norm, but graphics cards less so, the risk FAR outweighs the reward, so those looking for the most power will usually opt to pay a bit extra for an OC model, that's why there's such an abundance of OC cards available - the market is there

---

apparently they've fixed the problem with a new bios

Still glad I got my 5850 for £195 and from the looks of it it probably does offer a better bang/watt.

One thing I would like to see is when comparing overclocking if they could overclock other cards too.

EG, my 5850 is sat quite happily at 900/1200 after a bios flash, basically seeing what all the cards are capable off at the same time.

This card looks very promising as it's now only £185.12 Inc VAT @ Scan.

Does anyone know if it's possible to fit a waterblock to this card as I believe it's not made with the standard 460 PCB?