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Best Value Graphics Card - GTX460?

blawford

blawford

blawford

Associate
Joined
18 Oct 2010
Posts
13
First post, looking for some advice.

I am putting together a half decent gaming build for around £550 so I am looking to get the most 'bang for my buck' from each component. Not looking for something that will play Crysis at the highest resolutions or details but something that will run BC2, MOH and COD:BO to the best of its ability given the rest of the other components I have in mind: Athlon II X3 450, Gigabyte 880 Motherboard, 4GB DDR3 1600, 1TB Samsung F3, 500W PSU.

As the title says I have been looking at the GTX460 series but there are so many to choose from with various overclocks that I haven't been able to pull the trigger on one.

So, what would you say is the best choice for around £200?

To give a bit more info, I was first looking at the eVGA SC but the MSI 1GB HAWK and Talon Attack cards have since become the forerunners in my mind at the moment mainly because of their cooling abilities in comparison.

I have no interest in CrossFire'ing more than one, so scalability isn't a concern. Might be interested in overclocking but to be honest I would prefer an out of the box overclock so I don't have to bother, but could be willing to get my hands dirty if the saving is worth it.

Any help would be very much appreciated, can't wait to get on with building it.

Cheers!
 
easyrider said:
Its very close and attackes the 460 quite well.

The majority of reviews I have read have leaned towards the 6850 over the 460
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Yeah, I've read a fair amount of reviews on the new 68xx cards since Friday and I got the same impression.

I don't know the exact figures, but the 460 overclocks well as does the 6850, to roughly in the 6870 territory - which is also in the 470 territory.
 
I'd wait 4-6 weeks anyway. Come back in a month and ask, then we'll have some serioues benches out for the 68's and the prices may drop from enthusiast open prices. Plus 69's out might touch the 200 mark.

6870's are good cards. But lose out when you OC the 470gtx. Which (yes, as said a billion times) runs hotter and louder using more power.
 
Also, am I living in my own world, or does the 470gtx clock higher than any of the cards in the £200 price bracket. It's the fastest card. The 6850 is great when clocked, and thus the 6870 is not worth the added premium as is pants when oc'd. Go for the lower of the chipsets and OC up. 6850, 460gtx (dual fan), 470gtx (oc to nearing 480 speeds).
 
Snooble said:
I'd wait 4-6 weeks anyway. Come back in a month and ask, then we'll have some serioues benches out for the 68's and the prices may drop from enthusiast open prices. Plus 69's out might touch the 200 mark.
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If the sources at Tomshardware are to be believed, the problem with waiting is that the current price cuts for the 460 and 470 are only going to last for 3 weeks until they're put back up.

Immediately after receiving Nvidia's update, AMD forwarded a memo received by a French distributor, purportedly from Nvidia, which made it clear that the sale on both models is only going to last three weeks, after which time prices will presumably rise again. Ugh.
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It seems like a dumb move as only at their current prices do Nvidia remain in contention, the ATI cards are arguably better buys even now. I guess Nvidia cannot hold the prices that low as they'd be making a fairly big loss production/manufacturing wise.

Still, these are all seemingly rumours and if you don't care the for 460/470 then it's all moot.
 
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easyrider said:
Power hungry and hot

6870 on par and cooler and less power
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^^^ Wrong post quoted. He had two in a row about different cards

6870 is 15% faster than a 460 for 30% more outlay.

I didnt hear a good word said about the 6870 reference cooler (all you can buy right now) so the fact it uses about 8% less (max) power is not going to make up for the poorer noise output. And it is worse than the decent cooler 460s from reviews.

Edited stuff.
 
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Current price cuts for 3-4 weeks, then in 6 weeks they need to do the same but bigger probably with the top end 69xx parts hitting the shelves.

I wouldn't be surprised if Nvidia are trying to keep some market share now, knowing they need to slash prices in 6 weeks time.

Something that was interesting over at Anandtech is the fact that they felt they needed to post a specific article on why the included overclocked 460s in the reviews. Apparently Nvidia were pushing review sites to use overclocked cards "as they are readily available". TBH I can't see that Nvidia are anything than on the ropes at the moment, yes they will come back sooner or later but right now they MUST be feeling the pain.

Good competition is great for consumers as long as it is sustainable competition, either manufacturer taking some pain short term isn't an issue as long as longer term they get to fight back. I am sure Nvidia will bounce back early next year, but until then I cannot see them doing anything but reducing price to fight AMD since they technically have a weaker product taking all factors into account.
 
Best bang for buck..this overclocked to 800 core which it will easily do, you have 470/6870 performance and will run cooler and quieter than them two cards as well.
 
robskinner said:
Something that was interesting over at Anandtech is the fact that they felt they needed to post a specific article on why the included overclocked 460s in the reviews. Apparently Nvidia were pushing review sites to use overclocked cards "as they are readily available". TBH I can't see that Nvidia are anything than on the ropes at the moment, yes they will come back sooner or later but right now they MUST be feeling the pain.
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Tomshardware mentioned that in the article I linked above, whilst it does seem a little desperate for Nvidia to be so pushy, from an objective point of view I think it's a valid point.

The EVGA 460 F.T.W version is on market and is a guaranteed overclock. If I were to buy and saw a range of cards, I'd by interested to know how it compares to others in the same price band.

As it is, the EVGA 460 actually competes very well with the more expensive 6870, so much so that Anandtech recommended it. Another point is that the EVGA model serves as a good reference to what kind of speed you get if you overclock a standard, less expensive 460 model (such as the Cyclone RavenXXX2 linked).
 
I kind of agree its valid. Someone in the comments on Anandtech pointed out though that those cards are very highly binned and could not actualy find any in stock. Well they did find one, but it was vastly over RRP in cost and kinda defeated the point.

TBH I think normally they should stick to clock, if all cards can OC then the manufacturer should up their rates.
 
JTrickle said:
6870 is 15% faster for 30% more outlay.

I didnt hear a good word said about the 6870 reference cooler (all you can buy right now) so the fact it uses about 8% less (max) power is not going to make up for the poorer noise output. And it is worse than the decent cooler 460s from reviews.
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The 6870 is not 15% faster than a 470 ;)
 
robskinner said:
I kind of agree its valid. Someone in the comments on Anandtech pointed out though that those cards are very highly binned and could not actualy find any in stock. Well they did find one, but it was vastly over RRP in cost and kinda defeated the point.
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Yeah the EVGA model is way overpriced considering you can get pretty much the same overclock for £25 less.

robskinner said:
TBH I think normally they should stick to clock, if all cards can OC then the manufacturer should up their rates.
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Whilst all cards can be overlocked, I think the difference is that the EVGA model is factory overclocked, anyone buying that model will get those clock speeds (where as your own overclock may not reach them), so technically it is "stock" in a way.

This is why I think it's fair to be included in a test, but generally they would have reviewed the EVGA model on it's own rather than lumping it with a bunch of stock/reference cards.
 
RavenXXX2 said:
Best bang for buck..this overclocked to 800 core which it will easily do, you have 470/6870 performance and will run cooler and quieter than them two cards as well.
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For that price you could get a 6850 though, which is faster at stock and apparently overclocks quite well as well.

Seeing as you have £200 to spend, I would suggest getting a GTX470. Great performance and good overclocking.
 
Mojo said:
For that price you could get a 6850 though, which is faster at stock and apparently overclocks quite well as well.

Seeing as you have £200 to spend, I would suggest getting a GTX470. Great performance and good overclocking.
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http://www.anandtech.com/show/3987/...enewing-competition-in-the-midrange-market/16

They are about on par at stock give or take 2-3 fps, the 460's linked run cooler and quieter than the 6850/6870, the 470 runs hot and when overclocked will be noisy with reference cooler. £150 gets you a top quality card that will overclock past 6870/470 performance.
 
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