• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

gtx 460 768?

PrinzEugen

PrinzEugen

PrinzEugen

Associate
Joined
30 May 2005
Posts
104
Hi - ok so for around the £120 mark is the GTX 460 768 the only show in town? How do the ati cards measure up - I'm moving up from an ati 3870. Are the 1gb cards worth the extra? I'm only on a non-widescreen monitor, although I fancy an upgrade at some point.

Thanks
 
And as a supplementary question: if it was much better to get a 1gb card I see you can get the ati 5850 for around the £140 mark, with the equivalent 460 about the same - which, if any, is best?
Does any of this make any difference given it's being used with c2d x6800 processor?
Edit - and what about the ati 6850? Confused? I am!
 
Last edited:
I've heard that the GTX 460 can punch well above it's weight when overclocked but if you're not willing to overclock the HD 6850 or 5850 would be fine.

Mixed feelings about the MSI 5850 if you search in this graphics card section. So read up on users views on the 5850 before hitting the "buy" button.

As for 1GB vs 768MB, well that's for you to decide regarding what you'll be doing in the foreseeable future regarding your screen. If you will upgrade your screen during the time you'll have this card then go for the 1GB model, on the other hand, if you think you'll upgrade the graphics card before the screen then go for the 768MB model.
 
The lower ram on the cheaper 460s doesn't appear to hold it back much at all and it's extremely overclockable. It's generally a couple of FPS slower than the 1gb in games in the tests I've seen.

On the other hand if you can stretch to a 1gb model or a 5850 then do that instead the extra chunk of ram could be beneficial on some titles.
 
SouthEastBlue said:
The lower ram on the cheaper 460s doesn't appear to hold it back much at all and it's extremely overclockable. It's generally a couple of FPS slower than the 1gb in games in the tests I've seen.

On the other hand if you can stretch to a 1gb model or a 5850 then do that instead the extra chunk of ram could be beneficial on some titles.
Click to expand...

Skyrocket said:
756mb memory on a nvidia card is meh...avoid.
6850 better choice for £130.
Click to expand...

I agree SouthEastBlue. SkyRocket could have at least tried to explain without just writing "meh".

PrinzEugen said:
Thanks for the thoughts - I think I might be gravitating towards the 5850.
Click to expand...

Well as I said above, if you're going for the MSI £140 card then please check the thread on here to see others feelings and findings on the card before hitting buy.
 
GTX460 768MB is a decent entry level card. But it's depending on the price point as well.

If it is closer to the £100 side, that the GTX460 768MB is a good choice; but if you need to pay above £125, the £135 HIS 6850with the Modern Warfare download voucher is probaly a better choice.

There's also PowerColour 6850 for £125 from other etailer, but I think we all know that PowerColour's RMA and warranty is kinda crap, so it depends if you'd want to take your chances with them.
 
Last edited:
It's easy to get a GTX460 1GB for £120 if you shop around. I did it last week, and there were a couple to choose from.

These cards really shine in comparison to 5850s and 6850s at similar prices when heavily overclocked. Many reach 900MHz core or thereabouts, at which speeds they'll beat all but the most heavily overclocked 5850s, I believe, as well as besting even 470s and 5870s at stock speeds in many games and benchies.

If you get your £120 card to 900MHz core (as I am just on the verge of managing), you'll be laughing. If you get a duffer of a clocker, though, you'll probably be wishing you'd gone for a 6850...
 
My spare PC for BC2 on High settings (No AA) @ 1920x1080


GTX460 768 @ 890/2000 with a 3.0 GHz E6320 (The old one!) = 35-45 fps in built up areas with action and feels generally smooth. On 1280x1024 it is a bit faster but not much .... Seems to be CPU limited in BC2 as GPU usage is around 50%.

MW2 sees 90%+gpu usage and with maxxed settings gives around 50fps.


(I have 3 PCs with GTX460s (the other 2 have a E5200 cpu) and they all go to 890 core - 900 core does not crash but gives the odd 'flash' on screen)
 
Last edited:
strumpusplunket said:
These cards really shine in comparison to 5850s and 6850s at similar prices when heavily overclocked. Many reach 900MHz core or thereabouts, at which speeds they'll beat all but the most heavily overclocked 5850s, I believe, as well as besting even 470s and 5870s at stock speeds in many games and benchies.
Click to expand...
That's a bit exegurated, as GTX460 1GB overclock to around 800MHz is only close to as fast as a GTX470, and overclock to 900MHz would only be touching 5870 speed, whereas 5850 overclock to 900MHz it would be faster than the 5870, and the overclock doesn't stop there and 950MHz to 1000MHz is also doable.
 
Ah well, maybe...

It's so hard to get an accurate picture as results and opinions vary from one review to another. I know I read somewhere that 815MHz would equal a 470 at stock, and 875 would be reasonably on par with a stock 5870. But then of course this could only be in benches that tend to favour nvidia cards. Depends on what the sites like to use. Anandtech, for instance, have a fairly mild 460 overclock of 835MHz core only 1.4FPS behind a stock 5870 in Crysis and with better minimum frames. Though you'd probably struggle to find many other benchmarks where moderate clock like this could touch a 5870.

I also know that some 5850s seem to clock like billy-o, but then I read many reports in the MSI Twin FrozR thread of a lot of people having trouble getting good clocks.

It's all a bit luck-of-the-draw and game-dependent I guess.

Edit: and there's no way I'd be getting a clock from my 460 that could touch the speed your 5850 is at, that's for sure!
 
Prices are fluctuating a fair bit at present - and I see there's advocates for the 460 1GB, 6850 and 5850s... With a bit of a hunt around and perhaps in the coming weeks there'll probably be offers where any can be got for £120-5 ish judging from what people are saying. If all the cards were the same price - which would be the best to go for? From a comparison on Tom's hardware it looked to me like the 5850 was marginally the quickest, although not by a meaningful margin.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-6870-radeon-hd-6850-barts,2776-23.html

Re overclocking - not something I plan to do, if that helps.
 
Given price parity, I'd say go for the 5850.

At current prices of around £120 for a 460 1GB and £140-150 for a 5850 or 6850, I'd go for the 460 (that's what I did do, in fact!). I also thought that PhysX and improved tessellation performance might be good to have, but they're really not that important and not currently very well-employed. If you're not interested in these features then a 5850 is a very good choice too even for a bit more cash for better raw performance.

Basically, it's really positive at the moment that there are some excellent cards at this price point. I used to bank on paying £200 for a card that could reliably play the latest games with everything turned up at my monitor's native 1680x1050. To be able to get cards that do that now for £120 or so is a brilliant situation. My 460 is by quite a bit my cheapest graphics upgrade since I snagged a mis-priced 5900XT!

So basically weigh up these issues on a subjective level, as you'll never find everyone agreeing on their relative merits...
 
Yes - it's been some time since I last bought a card - I think my current 3870 was £140 ish - and that was a medium performer. The current crop of mid rangers seem to be pretty hot. Thanks for the input!
 
I've recently bought a GTX460 768mb, the Asus direct CU top edition to be exact, and i have to say its amazing bang for your buck, im running, crysis, dirt 2, bad companies at 1920 by 1080 resolution super smooth and full settings. Im using a q8300 and 6gb of ddr3 RAM in the home computer atm. I'm new to computers but from what I've seen and read online for £120 its very hard to go wrong with it. I got it for 105 quid actually in the christmas sale. For the equivalent in price, the HD 5830, the 460 768mb surpasses it from what ive read, but as i said im new to PCs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom