| ASUS GeForce GTX 460 SLI Performance |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Video Cards | |||||||||
| Written by Olin Coles | |||||||||
| Monday, 02 August 2010 | |||||||||
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GeForce GTX 460 ConclusionIMPORTANT: Although the rating and final score mentioned in this conclusion are made to be as objective as possible, please be advised that every author perceives these factors differently at various points in time. While we each do our best to ensure that all aspects of the product are considered, there are often times unforeseen market conditions and manufacturer changes which occur after publication that could render our rating obsolete. Please do not base any purchase solely on our conclusion, as it represents our product rating specifically for the product tested which may differ from future versions. Benchmark Reviews begins our conclusion with a short summary for each of the areas that we rate. Tested as a single graphics card, frame rate performance delivers a big win for the ASUS GeForce GTX 460 over ATI's Radeon HD 5830 video card which shares the same $200 retail price point. Our performance rating considers how effective the 768MB ASUS GeForce GTX 460 DirectX-11 video card performs against competing products from both ATI and NVIDIA. Taking all of the collected results into consideration, the 768MB ASUS GeForce GTX 460 ENGTX460/2DI/768MD5 outperforms ATI's Radeon HD 5830 in nearly every benchmark test conducted. Further dominating over the Radeon 5830, NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 460 offers PhysX and 3D-Vision functionality, produces less heat, and requires less power at idle. It easily captures the best price to performance ratio for most games tested, especially in BattleForge. At the end of our test gauntlet, the results prove that NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 460 is the best choice at $200... but also a better choice than their own GeForce GTX-465. Combining two 768MB GeForce GTX 480 video cards into SLI, NVIDIA has a serious threat at the $400 price point. For this same price, ATI offers their Radeon HD 5870 single-GPU flagship. As our benchmark tests have demonstrated, two 768MB GeForce GTX 460's are better than one ATI Radeon HD 5870... to a certain extent. Sure, our GTX 460 SLI set surpassed the Radeon HD 5870 in most tests, but at 1680x1050 the graphics strain is rather modest. There were a few occasions where the twin GF104 GPUs didn't fare so well when the resolution increased to 1920x1200. Presumably, most users will likely start with one GTX 460 on a 1680x1050 monitor and later have enough money to add a second into SLI, this could be a non-issue. Still, the potential exists.
ASUS GeForce GTX460 Video Cards in SLIAppearance is going to be a more subjective matter, since so many of NVIDIA's AIC partners have custom cooling solutions each with their own unique look. The ASUS GeForce GTX 460 ENGTX460/2DI/768MD5 we've tested in this article takes on the reference, while the soon-to-be tested ASUS ENGTX460-TOP DirectCU goes way beyond the necessary. If you're planning to combine two of these units together into SLI, the reference cooling solution already cools the GeForce GTX 460 down to near-ambient levels at idle and keeps them both extremely cool under load. Personally, I prefer externally exhausting video cards to avoid heat build-up inside the computer case. In terms of video card pecking order, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 occupies the #4 spot just barely behind the GTX 465 in the NVIDIA product lineup and settled between the ATI Radeon HD 5830 and 5850. With so much power in a mid-level graphics board, this often creates an interest in paired SLI sets. As this article has proven, SLI is not only possible - it's ideal. Unfortunately, triple-SLI is not an option... but NVIDIA 3D-Vision Surround certainly is. As the first GF104 product (and fourth Fermi iteration), the GeForce GTX 460 has been designed with the same solid construction as its predecessors. There are exposed electronics on the back of the PCB, but nothing that protrudes enough to require a metal back-plate for protection. The top-side of the graphics card features a protective plastic fan shroud, which receives a recessed concave opening for the 75mm fan and allows for airflow in SLI configurations. While most PC gamers and hardware enthusiasts buy a discrete graphics card for the sole purpose of playing video games, there's a very small niche who depend on the extra features beyond video fast frame rates. NVIDIA is the market leader in GPGPU functionality, and it's no surprise to see CPU-level technology available in their GPU products. NVIDIA's Fermi architecture is the first GPU to ever support Error Correcting Code (ECC), a feature that benefits both personal and professional users. Proprietary technologies such as NVIDIA Parallel DataCache and NVIDIA GigaThread Engine further add value to GPGPU functionality. Additionally, applications such as Adobe Photoshop or Premier can take advantage of GPGPU processing power. In case the point hasn't already been driven home, don't forget that 3D Vision and PhysX are technologies only available through NVIDIA. With an SLI set, you can assign one card to PhysX tasks and use the other uninhibited. Defining product value means something different to everyone. Some readers take heat and power consumption into consideration, while others are only concerned with FPS performance. With regard to value, there are several ways to look at the $200 GeForce GTX 460 768MB GDDR5 version and compare it to the closest rivals: such as the $200 ATI Radeon HD 5830. In terms of product price to FPS performance, the GeForce GTX 460 is one of the most affordable DirectX-11 video card products available. The ASUS ENGTX460/2DI/768MD5 GeForce GTX 460 768MB video card is available at NewEgg for $200. There are also several other options to consider:
In conclusion, NVIDIA's GF104 Fermi GPU is exactly what the mid-range discreet graphics market needed. The 768MB ASUS GeForce GTX 460 beats the ATI Radeon HD 5830 at the $200 price point, and two GTX 460's combined into SLI usually trump the $400 Radeon HD 5870. It's great to see NVIDIA offer budget-minded gamers so much with the GTX 460, primarily because this video card wins over the segment, but also because it overclocks well into the next level of graphics products. To the delight of many, temperatures are way down and have suggested this could be the coolest-running mid-level NVIDIA video card in a very long time. Idle power draw was a mere 18 watts by our measure, demonstrating that the GeForce GTX 460 is more efficient than ATI's Radeon HD 5830 - and also demands half the power of the GTX 465. Even in SLI, the GeForce GTX 460 stands strong and surpasses the Radeon HD 5870 in most tests... except power consumption. What could be the best pitch for the GeForce GTX 460 is that one affordable video card works can work wonders, and then saving to add a second card into SLI is still within reach for many gamers. EDITOR'S NOTE: Benchmark Reviews has also separately published our review of the 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460.
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Comments
Great article!
Were I to go with a 2x460 purchase I'm at the limit of my expansion and if the cards don't hold up, I'd have to discard/sell them and start over.
I'm probably worrying about nothing though. A 2x460 setup, even before overclocking is such a huge jump from my GTX275 (OC 666MHz). I imagine it will more than satisfy my needs for this generation of cards. I'm just a worrier.
There's no indication that the GF104 will support triple-SLI. It appears to be reserved for their GF100 GPU.
That 460 SLI is great if you plan on playing one game at a certain resolution and tech setup for many years. The two games from this year REVIEWED...AvP and Metro2033 are games requiring more than 1GB at max settings...So it means SLI is playable at lower resolution but can't max most games at high resolution from 2010 which means 460 SLI will utterly fail in games from 2011 which will be even more demanding and will come with full physics engines.
1536 - 2048MB VRAM is what you should plan on having prior to going full SLI or Crossfire, specially if you are going triple monitor you need all the VRAM you can get. 1024MB is the new "baby-face" minimum.
i7 930 - OC to 4.0ghz with V6 fan cooler
RAM - Xtreem 2x3 6gbs
GPU - single HIS 4870X2
Mobo - Asus P6X58D Premium
PSU - Antec True Power 800w
Resolution - 1900x1020
Driver - Catalyst 10.7a
Since the graphics card give me so much problems, like minor stuttering and inconsistent fps in some games(yes, Crysis is one of them). My biggest disappointment is in Starcraft 2, though I can max out all, during some cutscenes and missions, the fps drops significantly (18-22). So, I am thinking to upgrade my graphics card and can you kindly suggest me which one I should choose: 460 SLI, single 480 or 5970 ? I think I will need to replace my PSU with higher 1k or 1.2k though if I do SLI.
Budget-wise, I am open to anything but I just want to get best of both world, value + performance since I believe why should I waste my money if I just need to take some time to search for the best instead of buying the most expensive(either gtx480 or 5970) which seems to be most powerful without knowing anything.
Since articles from you and tomshardware showing how new fermi is promising ##tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-460-sli-geforce-gtx-480,2694.html, I am thinking to give it a try but I am also worried if later when I want to upgrade, I will be in dead end. For SSD, any enlightenment for why I should use it ? I just know that it would be great for OS booting up part and data consistency.
SSDs will make everything open faster, and levels will load much quicker.
What I understand is like SSDs is reading from flash memory instead of magnetic tape so it will reduce the time for cycling and finding data from tape. Okay but how about games ? Since if I do partition, games will take huge amount (at least 200-300gb) and for that whole to be faster loading time, I need to use SSD and install all the game on that SSD ? That seems like it will be quite expensive though. Okay, thanks for the enlightenment and appreciate your help !
I was interested when it was released but pondered that for most purposes it wouldnt give any advantage whatsoever.
I'm unsure of how well it works with gaming, just a bit sceptical.
While I beleive that Nvidia has a real winner in the 460. The SLI scaling is really impressive so comparing a 5830 crossfire would have been nice. Keep up the good work
Still, since one GTS 460 easily beats a single 5830, and since two 460's in SLI are nearly twice the performance of one, it could be surmised that a pair of 5830's isn't going to beat an SLI set of 460's anyway.
I'm currently running 5870's in CF. It works great at 2560X1600 and the picture quality is fantastic (BC2 in DX11 is unreal). I held off until after the disappointing 480 launch where heat and power consumption was unacceptable to me.
Nvidia's SLI has always seemed more mature\robust to me so any comparisons between same level cards in single and dual modes is much appreciated.
Again thanks for the great reviews I've been sending links to this site out to friends I don't know how you've slipped under our radar :)
Please, it's f o n d a m e n t a l e xme!
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