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MSI: *Offical* N460GTX Hawk 1GB OC Edition thread
- Thread starter MSI-Guru
- Start date
Will be made for the foreseeable future. The N460GTX Hawk is the second in the series, following the R5770 Hawk. There will be more in future, and maybe even some limited edition versions with higher clock speeds.
On top of the range products, we have the Lightning range. Currently the R5870 Lightning, but soon to be followed by an nVidia equivalent
The lightnings are even more fine tuned for getting the most from the top end GPU's.
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Soldato
Indeed it is. Just don't be too disappointed if you don't hit the magic 1GHz.
Just wish that I had had the self restraint to wait a couple of weeks before hitting the "buy now" button. Good job my motto is "no pockets in a shroud".
At this rate I'll be able to afford that 2nd one for SLI soon. Though I suspect my P55/I5 re-build comes first. Or should I get that OCZ Vertex 2E first? or maybe everything together. Where does it stop I ask myself
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Soldato
Good luck. I'm sure you wont be disappointed. It's a nice card. I'll be genuinely interested to hear how you get on.
Though Hardcop could not get theirs stable passed 932MHz and that was with more voltage applied to the core than the version of AfterBurner that you, or I can get our hands on. And tweaktown struggled to get theirs above 925 MHz until again picking up the "delux" version of AfterBurner (IE. able to apply up to +200mV). Though I accept that some other sites have hit 950-980MHz but are these "really" stable??? And I'm not sure how much truck I would put on some of the youtube videos that I've watched.
I'm not trying to take the mickey or anything. Just that I think you are very much at the wim of (like with pretty much any other chip, be it CPU, or GPU) as to how high it will go. With the 460, the problem isn't heat related, as even OC'd they still run pretty cool. It's just they have a ceiling like any other chip.
Soldato
Is it just me, or does anyone else think it's ridiculous that these premium overclocking oriented cards evidently dont have cherry-picked cores on them?? So the sell is actually 'pay a premium for beefed up circuitry and cooling and you might get to benefit from it if you're lucky in the core lottery!'. Get a so-so core (most likely) and you may as well have just bought the cheapest version of the card. Great - sign me up.
Not.
Not.
MSI-Guru - can you confirm or deney what he is saying?
At current price you save your self less than £10 between this and the cheapest... which arguably worth it for the cooler alone... surely?
P.S - If the GPU's were cherry picked, the stock clock would be much higher, and so would the cost of the card, pretty much exponentially.
Looking at the reviews it's obvious that the core is not the only limiting factor though, I saw the Hawk directly compared to a number of other overclocked cards from Zotac, Gainward & Gigabyte and the Hawk came out comfortably ahead of the rest on maximum stable overclock. The cooler and the power upgrades obviously have an impact.
Fancy buying a reference card from Sparkle or Pallit and trying to top 900MHz? let me know how you get on
Soldato
It was more of a general comment than specifically aimed at this Hawk card. It's only thanks to a TWO special offer that it's price reflects perhaps it's true worth over a 'normal' 460.
Just seems a slightly daft proposition to me to pay a premium price for premium features that may be of no value at all given the core lottery, and I mean in general not just this 460.
Seems like (excellent special offer prices not withstanding) you may as well take your chances with a 'normal' card. If OCUK had to take £20 off the price to shift them, perhaps others agree? I just wondered what other peoples thought were - not to attack this particular card.
Just seems a slightly daft proposition to me to pay a premium price for premium features that may be of no value at all given the core lottery, and I mean in general not just this 460.
Seems like (excellent special offer prices not withstanding) you may as well take your chances with a 'normal' card. If OCUK had to take £20 off the price to shift them, perhaps others agree? I just wondered what other peoples thought were - not to attack this particular card.
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but this was my point, it's obviously not a core lottery as the core is not the primary limiting factor when overclocking a 460.
A poor core might make the difference between 900 & 1000Mhz on a hawk but if the core was the only factor why would so many other brands fail to even reach 800Mhz? Zotac or Gainward may (or may not I dont know) cherrypick their cores for their overclocked cards but you don't you hear about their cards topping 900Mhz regulary so it can't be simply down to the core.
Soldato
Nope... it's not just you. I've expressed this opinion myself. I've even commented on it to the MSI guy who's been kind enough to post on this very thread. Also as commented before somewhere, I suspect this is one of the reasons for the rapid price drop (IE. people have started to realise this), that and I suspect they were not shifting at the previous price point.
Must admit myself to being "slightly" disappointed that they went to the trouble of designing a custom PCB (and that's what the HAWK version is) and fitted a VERY decent cooler, but then did not "cherry pick" the GPU. Crazy I think. I seem to remember someone who reviewed this board OL made a similar comment.
As the MSI guy said though. The custom PCB and decent cooler do remove any potential bottlenecks to OCing. But not a lot of use if your GPU is not a good OCer!
In my case, I can get it stable in Furmark/Kombuster and games at around 920MHz (+100mV) but that's it and it isn't OCCT stable at that though. 850 -880MHz is about the sweet spot for me. Can't say I'm too worried about this, as the idea was always to SLI it at some point anyway (when money and system permits). It should then fly...
At the current price though, I think they are a steal. And SLI is starting to look like a decent option now to me (once I get a new mobo of course).
PS. Some manufacturers do "cherry pick" the GPU. Well POV claim they do (on the Beast version etc.). Not sure about the ZOTAC AMP, possibly not, as a couple of the OL reviews I've read did not manage to push them much higher then the out of the box OC.
PPS. I think you would need a cheery picked GPU to hit 1GHz even if it was under liquid Nitrogen cooling!!!
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MSI-Guru
I have ordered the HAWK through Overclockers, does my card come with Assassins Creed 2 or have all the stock gone already?
There is no guarantee that cards shipped now will have the bundle, as the vast majority of stock is without it which is why the game has been removed from the image.
Cross your fingers
Soldato
Yeah but, no but, yeah but, no but. The thing is standard or 'lesser' 460s, including for example the MSI Cyclone, or even a Palit if you must, can achieve well over 900 MHz with a good core - such results are everywhere. That suggests the extra PCB upgrades of something like the Hawk are not required to reach that sort of level. i.e. they will only come into play when paired with an absolutely exceptional core, and then, and only then, those PCB upgrades may help that core reach the lofty heights of, say, 950+ MHz. Most cores wont even do 900 MHz whatever PCB they're on, so that brings me back to my original point - why make a card like the Hawk when chances are the random core it gets paired with wont get anywhere near taking benefit of the fantastic PCB. A great PCB needs to be gauranteed to be paired with a great core or the product is a crazy proposition imho.
But at the current price I'd buy one tomorrow if I was in the market for a GPU, just on the off chance the core on it is worthy of the PCB
EDIT: missed that post by mikeo - at least somebody understands my point
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