GTX 460 Which one

Strudul · 26 Jul 2010 at 19:59

Which GTX 460 1Gb is the best to get.

Manufacturer / Price(£) / Chip Clock(MHz) / Memory Clock(MHz) / Shader Clock(MHz) / Additional Info

EVGA.........../ £170 / 675 / 900 / 1350/
Palit............/ £180 / 700 / 950 / 1400 / Sonic
EVGA.........../ £182 / 763 / 900 / 1526 / SuperClocked
Gainward....../ £188 / 700 / 900 / 1400 / Golden Sample
Gigabyte....../ £187 / 715 / 900 / 1430 / OC
Zotac........../ £187 / 675 / 900 / 1350 /
Sparkle......../ £188 / 700 / 900 / 1485 /
MSI............/ £190 / 725 / 900 / 1350 /
Palit............/ £196 / 800 / 1000 / 1600 / Sonic Platinum
Gainward...../ £204 / 800 / 1000 /1600 / Golden Sample GLH

Carper · 26 Jul 2010 at 20:10

aha look at my other post on a different forum!

rounddodger · 26 Jul 2010 at 20:29

Heard that the MSI is a cracker, has a great cooler and quieter than the others by all accounts.

chrisgt · 26 Jul 2010 at 20:33

I'm struggling to decide as well mate. So far I have a shortlist of:

1GB Gainward GTX 460 GS
1GB Gigabyte GTX 460 OC
MSI GeForce GTX 460 Cyclone 1024MB

Hard to choose, as they are all roughly the same price!

Carper · 26 Jul 2010 at 20:36

the gigabyte or msi seem like the best bets

J-I-M · 26 Jul 2010 at 22:04

Msi, overclocks very well.

HeX · 27 Jul 2010 at 08:33

Giga or MSI, those are the only two you should consider.

stulid · 27 Jul 2010 at 08:41

HeX said:
Giga or MSI, those are the only two you should consider.

this

kitch9 · 27 Jul 2010 at 08:50

HeX said:
Giga or MSI, those are the only two you should consider.

Guru3d have updated their Palit review with the retail card and updated bios...........

http://www.guru3d.com/news/updated-palit-gtx-460-sonic-platinum-results/

You may find their results somewhat surprising!!

stulid · 27 Jul 2010 at 08:54

but isn't every 3db twice as loud as before? being measured on a logarithmic scale

HeX · 27 Jul 2010 at 08:59

It's not just the loudness though, it's the type of noise.

The Palit/Gainwards use a horrible whiny fan which just cuts through background noise like a dentists drill.

The MSI fan is inaudible, the noise you hear is the whoosh of air, which easily blends in with background case noise.

Also as the MSI fan and heatsink is considerably larger than the Palit/Gainward cooler you can easily drop the MSI fan speed while maintaining excellent thermal performance (if you look on the chart you've just posted the MSI runs 10C cooler than the Palit!), unlike the Palit/Gainward which heats up very quickly if you mess about with the fan profiles too much.

Also, the card Palit sent them will have the new BIOS on, the original released cards will have the old bios, which makes the cards very noisy under load. So you will have to manually flash your card to the newer BIOS to gain the load noise given in the review.

Eitherway, having used both cards, I can say without a doubt the MSI is the FAR better card. Build wise and noise wise.

kitch9 · 27 Jul 2010 at 09:02

HeX said:
It's not just the loudness though, it's the type of noise.

The Palit/Gainwards use a horrible whiny fan which just cuts through background noise like a dentists drill.

The MSI fan is inaudible, the noise you hear is the whoosh of air, which easily blends in with background case noise.

Also as the MSI fan and heatsink is considerably larger than the Palit/Gainward cooler you can easily drop the MSI fan speed while maintaining excellent thermal performance, unlike the Palit/Gainward which heats up very quickly if you mess about with the fan profiles too much.

I ended up cancelling the RMA on my Palits, as the new fan profile is much better for me anyways. They are nowhere near as loud as my SLI 8800GT's used to be.

I played 3 hours of BFBC2 last night an my hottest card didn't get over 75C, I just wish I knew how hot the VRMS were getting, but they are safe up to around 120c I think.

stulid · 27 Jul 2010 at 09:02

HeX said:
It's not just the loudness though, it's the type of noise.

The Palit/Gainwards use a horrible whiny fan which just cuts through background noise like a dentists drill.

The MSI fan is inaudible, the noise you hear is the whoosh of air, which easily blends in with background case noise.

Also as the MSI fan and heatsink is considerably larger than the Palit/Gainward cooler you can easily drop the MSI fan speed while maintaining excellent thermal performance, unlike the Palit/Gainward which heats up very quickly if you mess about with the fan profiles too much.

Also, the card Palit sent them will have the new BIOS on, the original released cards will have the old bios, which makes the cards very noisy under load. So you will have to manually flash your card to the newer BIOS to gain the load noise given in the review.

Eitherway, having used both cards, I can say without a doubt the MSI is the FAR better card. Build wise and noise wise.

true.

its just that noise chart showing the revised card being 42db and the early version being 40db would have people thinking "hmmm its only 2db more" not knowing that just 1db more(making a total of 43db) makes it twice as loud.

HeX · 27 Jul 2010 at 09:05

kitch9 said:
I ended up cancelling the RMA on my Palits, as the new fan profile is much better for me anyways. They are nowhere near as loud as my SLI 8800GT's used to be.

I played 3 hours of BFBC2 last night an my hottest card didn't get over 75C, I just wish I knew how hot the VRMS were getting, but they are safe up to around 120c I think.

If you're happy with it then that's fine.

All I'm saying is, that after using both you wouldn't choose the Palit over the MSI

Ravenger · 27 Jul 2010 at 11:00

I fully agree about the Palit's fan noise. First impressions count, and if your 'out of the box' experience is a) The card's very loud and b) it's irritatingly whiny, then you're not going think it's a good quality card, which is why mine went back, dispite the excellent performance.

I'm going for the MSI or Gigabyte. I'm just waiting for the Gigabytes to become generally available and get some user review feedback first.

Strudul · 27 Jul 2010 at 11:15

Is fan noise and cooling more important than clock speeds?

e.g. you are saying to go for the MSI which is £190. However if I spend £8 LESS I can get the EVGA superclocked with much higher clock speeds.

psychas · 27 Jul 2010 at 11:23

msi does not have any heatsinks on memory do

The Running Man · 27 Jul 2010 at 11:30

xTatic said:
Is fan noise and cooling more important than clock speeds?

e.g. you are saying to go for the MSI which is £190. However if I spend £8 LESS I can get the EVGA superclocked with much higher clock speeds.

it can be if you want a quiet PC...

on most GTX 460 the clock speed means nothing as they can all (mostly...) overclock to at least 800 mhz core anyway.

hallmeister · 27 Jul 2010 at 11:36

xTatic said:
Is fan noise and cooling more important than clock speeds?

e.g. you are saying to go for the MSI which is £190. However if I spend £8 LESS I can get the EVGA superclocked with much higher clock speeds.

That EVGA card is only 768Mb. Still a nice card but you will be better off with a 1Gb if you game at a decent res. (I know EVGA have some 1Gb cards planned but not sure when they will hit retail).

HeX · 27 Jul 2010 at 11:48

xTatic said:
Is fan noise and cooling more important than clock speeds?

e.g. you are saying to go for the MSI which is £190. However if I spend £8 LESS I can get the EVGA superclocked with much higher clock speeds.

Clock speed is meaningless, you can do the exact same OC yourself with 2mins in afterburner, and half an hour of OCCT testing.

Fan noise and cooling you're stuck with, so always get the best you can for your money.

Also, OCUK are a little overpriced on the MSI cards, they can be had cheaper elsewhere, which is a shame.

Plus that EVGA card is a 768MB, not a 1GB.