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The eVGA GTX 460 Superclocked card is supplied in a well designed, understated box. There is little information on the front apart from the model number and onboard memory amount. It is worth pointing out that in a few weeks nVidia will be releasing a 1GB version of the board which is slightly more expensive and is paired with a 256 bit bus for higher memory bandwidth (115.2 GB/s). It will also have 32 ROP units, not 24 as on the model we are reviewing today. According to nVidia it will also consume slightly more power (nVidia quote 160 watts compared to 150 watts). Both cards are SLI capable, but be aware that there is a single SLi connector – so you can't daisy-chain more cards for more performance.
The back of the box contains a lot of generalised information on the hardware in various languages.
After removing the outer shell we are presented with an unusual egg crate shaped protective box (yep – you guessed it – this is the unusual egg laying contraption we've been running a competition on!). On the back is the manual, a driver disc and a mini HDMI to HDMI converter cable which is an extremely useful product to include. The Geforce GTX460 features enhanced audio support over HDMI, including bitstreaming support for Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio.
The manual is a handy little reference guide for the product which details instructions on how to fit the card. The disc contains a driver which has already been superseeded by a new driver from nVidia.
The card is very plainly designed and the first thing that we noticed was just how small it was. The fan is an 11 blade design which apparently spins a lot slower than the versions on the higher end Fermi cards, we will analyse noise later. Two copper heatpipes are paired with an extruded aluminum core to draw heat from the processor.
We took a shot of the GTX 460 next to a HD5870 and a Sapphire HD5670 Ultimate Edition for comparison purposes. The GTX 480 for instance is 10.5 inches long and the GTX 460 is only 8.25 inches. It is quite a compact card.
We like the black PCB and above you can see the rear of the card as well as the cooler mounting backplate.
The GTX460 requires two 6 pin power cables and the maximum power consumption is said to be in the region of 150Watts. We will look at this in detail later.
The card has two dual link DVI ports as a mini HDMI out. As stated earlier there is a mini HDMI to HDMI converter cable supplied.
performance is very good indeed.
Third time lucky, good card, seems to be almost worth the wait
Nice overclocked performance. Seems a reference card would be a good buy and then manually overclocking it to save some money,.
That evga board is really good value for money, under 200? the 5830 I never liked, and I can see why now.
Very good card from nvidia, power consumption is also impressive considering the performance.
I am quite surprised how good this card is, seems to be the top buy now under £200.
It is a tough call to make, spend a bit extra on evga superclocked to get moer performance for sure out of the box, or save some money, get the reference card and hope it overclocks as good. They all seem to overclock well, but you never know by how much until you take it home and trash it.
I think nvidia shares should go up with this one.
Ohhh, I like this card and I never thought id say that about fermi. which to this point has been a power sucking waste of space.
Yeah I agree the power consumption and noise levels are class leading. well done.
Well color me impressed with this one. Wasnt expecting such good performance and temperatures.
Its still not as good as the AMD 5850.
well of course its not as good as the HD5850, that card competes against the GTX465. its about £50 more?
Big release for nvidia, probably their biggest card release for sales in 4 years. It might save their sales in 2010. I know they are struggling.
performance figures are good, read a few reviews and it seems to be sending the HD5830 home in a coffin. its about time we see nvidia competitive again, even if its a mid range sector. the big sales are here and in the 100-150 sector.
thanks for including the HQV Benchmark 2.0 results.
Interesting results, and its good to see nvidia working on their drivers for IQ now in HQV Benchmark 2.0
fermi for the masses methinks. its a very solid product all round. Cant get over how small it is, but it still needs 2 x6 pin connectors.
Figures are good, noise is great, power drain is excellent. size is tiny. Not much to knock, even the price seems competitive.
wow, nvidia leading a price point, hell just froze over !
I like this card a lot. Might pick one up later in the month.
Have one on preorder.
Nice comeback. I’m waiting to see how AMD will respond, and find it hard to speculate on that. AMD can probably lower prices considerably if it wants, but on the other hand if Southern Islands are indeed expected in a couple of months’ time, perhaps it would just wait for that.