NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 460: The $200 King
by Ryan Smith on July 11, 2010 11:54 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
- GeForce GTX 400
- GeForce GTX 460
- NVIDIA
Crysis: Warhead
Kicking things off as always is Crysis: Warhead, still the toughest game in our benchmark suite.Even 2 years since the release of the original Crysis, “but can it run Crysis?” is still an important question.
Crysis can be particularly memory-dependent, which in this case highlights the difference between the 768MB and 1GB GTX 460. 2560x1600 is not a viable option on the 768MB card here (or in most other games) due to the lack of VRAM, while at lower resolutions we can still clearly see the impact of having less RAM, less L2 cache, and less ROP power. At both 1680 and 1920, the 1GB GTX 460 is roughly 10% faster than the 768MB card. This much less than the 33% lead the 1GB GTX 460 has in terms of RAM/L2/ROP, but it’s still clear that there is a price to pay on the 768MB GTX 460.
Meanwhile the Radeon 5830 - already a hobbled card due to having half the ROPs of a full Radeon HD 5870 – takes a hard loss here. The 768MB GTX 460 comes ahead at 1920 by roughly 14% even with its RAM disadvantage. AMD definitely has their work cut out for them. As for the Radeon 5850, the 1GB GTX 460 trails right behind it until we hit 2560, where AMD’s continued advantage at high resolutions helps the card pull away some.
Looking at the minimum framerates, the difference in RAM/L2/ROPs becomes more pronounced. Here the 1GB GTX 460 has a 15% advantage at 1920, and strangely enough even beats a 5850 here. With the greater overhead of SLI this becomes even more of an issue, with our ragtag SLI set of 1GB GTX 460s beats our pair of factory overclocked EVGA 768MB GTX 460s by 33%. Finally the 5830 fares even worse, losing to the 768MB GTX 460 by 35%. In Crysis there is no substitute for more RAM and more ROPs.
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dumpsterj - Tuesday, July 13, 2010 - link
the gtx 465 was a joke , especially at the price. however , this 460 looks like a great card at a great price. If this is a sign of things to come from nvidia us guys running ati right now might have to take notice.Algorithm - Tuesday, July 13, 2010 - link
I see a lot of ATI fanboys on here. Read other reviews, a GTX 460 *1GB* OCed past 800 beats a HD5850 and gets in HD5870 territory. In DirectX 11, this 460 really shines over.Don't forget, the reviews are based on Nvidia drivers that are *1 day old* now. Expect the GTX 460 framerates to increase even more once the drivers mature.
I was almost ready to pull the trigger on a HD5850, but glad I held back (read: I really don't care for either Nvidia or ATI). I really see the GTX 460 being a standard that game software developers will use in the future. Features like CUDA, Fermi and PhysX will play a more significant role in newer games. I just want a card that gives me most for my money.
FuzzDad - Wednesday, July 14, 2010 - link
Pretty nice price coupled w/performance should make this an SLI powerhouse if you can't afford SLI on the 470/480. My 3x GTX 275 setup is solid...but I'm leaning towards 2X 460 now.Xpl1c1t - Wednesday, July 14, 2010 - link
How much better it would have been to see the 384SP version on launch day... seriously wtf is wrong with NV&TSMC's circuit design/fab process that makes manufacture of FULL parts so much more difficult than it is for ATI&TSMC? 5770, 4770, and 4750 were all full die parts produced with good yields TSMC. Genuinely, though some may be alright with it, there is no desire for dead silicon.aussiestilgar - Tuesday, July 20, 2010 - link
Yes. Ryan, is there anything on the grapevine that whispers Nvidia releasing the GF104 at full strength? Inklings of when? Cheers.Sunburn74 - Wednesday, July 14, 2010 - link
Pretty impressive gtx 460 crossfire results, trading blows with crossfire setups double its value. Overall a nice card, but shame it wasn't released 6 months ago when a lot of us just got tired of waiting. I probably would have bought it over the 5850 had this card been released in time. Oh well... better luck next year for Nvidia to take my money.mapesdhs - Monday, July 19, 2010 - link
(I think you mean GTX 460 SLI. ;)
...
I hate to be a comment repeater, but can 5850 CF results please be
included? The tables are distinctly incomplete without this since the
1GB 460 clearly competes directly against the 5850; the most common
discussion I see on forums is how 1GB 460 SLI compares to 5850 CF. On
price alone, 1GB 460 SLI is definitely better, so no wonder there are
games-bundling deals such as the following now appearing to sweeten
5850 sales:
http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/newsletter?pro...
Ian.
kajzatom - Thursday, August 19, 2010 - link
I want ask how did You make test Badaboom on GTX 460? According to Elemental Technologies inc. currently Badaboom doesn't support GF100,GF104 graphic card. Apps. crashed if try open any video file.fr500 - Tuesday, September 14, 2010 - link
You know a thing I would love.To be able to select the cards you are interested in with checkboxes in the reviews so you can compare the cards easily. I know there is the GPU bench but I can't seem to compare more than 2 gpus at a time.
WiseCow - Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - link
Fresh levels load very jerky, like steps fwd, as the game begins and causes the first few seconds to halt, halt, halt, until everything loads. My 8800GTX did not do this, everything woud run smooter as the textures loaded. I'm also experiencing long waits for the screen to turn on after time outs or sleep. Black Ops was unplayable and other games that ran smoothly on the 8800 now are jerky. Sniff...