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As we have handled GTX 460 reviews before we wanted to concentrate on SLI performance today. With recent price drops, a GTX460 SLI configuration is well within the financial means of many enthusiast users. As these cards cost around £180 each then it logically means that an eVGA SC SLI system will set you back £360.
Our system today is built around one of the fastest KitGuru test beds, based on a Core i7 970 processor which we have overclocked. We will test at 1080p, 1920×1200 and 2560×1600 resolutions when applicable. There is such a small audience who currently own a 30 inch screen (under 1%) so we don't like to focus on this native panel resolution entirely.
Processor: Intel Core i7 970 CPU @4.33ghz (Validation here)
Cooling: Coolit Vantage
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tracer 1600mhz @ 1800mhz
PSU: Corsair AX850
Motherboard: MSI X58A-GD65
Hard Drive: OCZ Agility 2 120GB
Case: Lian Li PC 8FIB
Monitors: LaCie 730 30 inch LED screen & Panasonic Viera TV
Comparison cards:
MSI Cyclone N460GTX 1GB
GTX465 Reference
GTX460 Reference
HD5850 Reference
HD5830 Reference
Catalyst 10.8
Forceware 258.96
Thermal Diodes
Digital Sound Level Noise Decibel Meter Style 2
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp
Unigine Heaven Benchmark 2.1
3DMark Vantage
Crysis
Resident Evil 5
Aliens V Predator
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Far Cry 2
All the latest bios updates and WHQL drivers are used during testing. We perform under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru test all games across five closely matched runs and average out the results to get an accurate median figure.
Our minimum frame rate game graphs have three main zones. These are sampled over a specific 30 interval period of time and then mapped into a chart. These are handy reference guides to detail worst case performance of the product being reviewed.
Over 30fps is the zone most people want at all times, this means perfectly smooth frame rates with no hitching.
Between 30fps and 25fps is the KitGuru ‘Playable’ zone, although some people might notice occasional stuttering in specific scenes.
Under 25fps is classed as the KitGuru ‘Danger Zone’ which means that the game experience will be less than impressive. Settings and/or resolution would need lowered to help smooth out the frame rate.
Great review again Zardon, only question I have is, why buy one of these for £180 when the reference model is 146 ? I bet the reference model overclocks great
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-133-EA&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1830
eVGA make quality cards, always have. This seems no different and I agree I like the design idea, keeping it black and plain. The point about the cooler is good, I love the funky coolers on some cards but all that heat gets kept inside the case.
Trev. thats a 768MB model, not the 1GB model we reviewed today. Also a word of note, just after we went live with this, SCAN dropped the price of this card by another £17 to £163 ! follow the link in the conclusion.
Its good to see Nvidia competitive, even if its only in this sector right now. Any updates on the GTX450 Z ?
So the price has dropped from 360 for two to 325 now ! wicked.
I dont care what you say, the HD5850 is the better card, its faster, looks better and its got better drivers.
Eh? ‘It looks better’ WTF are you smoking There Gart? Good article and its interesting to see the power consumption, fairly reasonable considering the performance levels.
eVGA FTW. nice to see an SLI review for a change. id love this setup myself, but I recently bought a HD5770 and I need to make it last until I can pay off my college loan 🙁 Ah well maybe when im ready new ATI cards will be out !)
Does no one else get the reason why the nvidia cards are all dropping in price? Nvidia KNOW ATI have a new range about to hit in a few months, so its panic clearance time !
Hard to believe how small these are when compared to a GTX480 in physical size. The GTX460 is unfortunately 2 months too late. I know ALOT OF PEOPLE who arent buying them, even though they are great cause ATI have a new range launching end of this year or before.
excellent, im quite impressed with the SLI scaling in some games.
Thank you for the article, very good to read and well written. These are very good graphics cards and I need to get myself a 460 soon.
Very few 460 SLI reviews online . those 3dmark vantage scores are stunning but look at the CPu score for the 970 ! christ. I want that lol
460 is a great card and sl i looks to be in line with gtx480.
God sake this captha system drives me nuts !!!!!
Anyway, I love the 460, I bought a reference one a few weeks ago and I love it. Nice to see some taxing engines used and not all tests at 2560 res
enjoyed this article – those 460s are really good for the price. especially with all the reductions lately. nvidia are pratically giving them away
i love the design, very classy looking cards. its like the complete opposite of zotac with purple dragons and fireballs galore.
at this price point its hard to knock em down. nvidia must not be making a lot of cash at the current list prices though
for god sake you need to sort out this captcha crap security garbage on this site.
As for the review i thought it covered most of the ground. shows the differences with two and the scaling is pretty good. temps and noise are excellent. I dont see why anyone would want a 480 gtx now.
480gtx is dead, no one ever wanted it anyway, apart from the hardcore guys who want two to break records. far too much power sucked in fpr my tastes
this makes sense for many people. only problem is that its killing the rest of their range. no one wants the other cards.
I have a pair of eVGA GTX460 SC EE in SLI; 860/2100/1720 @ .975V. Ran them up to 910/2250/1820 @ 1.025V.
Really nice cards!
Hi Zardon
am really happy wit the way Kit guru has grown into a great site for tech info freaks like us, tho it would be nice if the bar graphs included comparison with other cards like the 5970 or a gtx 480 to show how well the SLI is scaling in comparison to those cards as opposed to cards which we know it will outperform in SLI
Hi BluSki, thanks for the kind words. I agree, however in the case of this specific review we built a new system so we couldnt slot in results of 480 and 5970 from the past – it would’nt have been accurate. We don’t have a 480 GTX handy right now apart from XFX 5970 card costing over £900 in the UK. Hopefully it was still a useful review in some way!
hey Zardon
it was definitely useful
now if only somone would make 2 of these on one board then we would have a killer card on hands( saw a review some where where it took on a 5970)