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http://www.anandtech.com/show/3809/nvidias-geforce-gtx-460-the-200-king/1
Moving on to the cards, NVIDIA is launching 2 cards today. At $229 there is the GeForce GTX 460 1GB, the closest thing we’ll see to a “full” GF104 part for the time being. The GTX 460 1GB has 7 of 8 SMs enabled along with all 32 ROPs, with a 256bit memory bus connecting the GPU to 1GB of GDDR5. The core is clocked at 675MHz core, 1350MHz shader, and 900MHz (3.6GHz effective) memory. The TDP for this part is 160W, with an unofficial idle power draw in the 20W-30W range.
The other GeForce GTX 460 being launched today is the GeForce GTX 460 768MB at $199, a slightly further cut-down card. As NVIDIA’s ROPs are closely tied to their memory controllers, the only way to reduce the amount of memory on a card is to disable memory controllers along with the ROPs. As a result the GTX 460 768MB has less memory than the GTX 460 1GB, but also only 24 ROPs connected to a 192bit memory bus. The shaders remain unchanged, giving the GTX 460 768MB the same compute/shading abilities as the GTX 460 1GB, but only 75% of the ROP capability and memory bandwidth. The clocks are unchanged from the GTX 460 1GB: 675MHz core, 1350MHz shader, and 900MHz (3.6GHz effective) memory.
Given these differences, we’re a bit dumbfounded by the naming. With the differences in memory and the differences in the ROP count, the two GTX 460 cards are distinctly different. If NVIDIA changed the clockspeeds in the slightest, we’d have the reincarnation of the GTX 275 and GTX 260. NVIDIA’s position is that the cards are close enough that they should have the same name, but this isn’t something we agree with. One of these cards should have had a different model number – probably the 768MB card with something like the GTX 455. The 1GB card does not eclipse the 768MB card, but this is going to lead to a lot of buyer confusion. The best GTX 460 is not the $199 one.