Introduction
From the word go, there's been strong talk that the GTX 460 is an overclocking master. Considering the fact that Palit offered us a core 125MHz over the stock one, we're going to believe those rumors. Let's be honest, though; companies never push a card as hard as it can go, so while we're extremely impressed with what Palit has done we're sure there's going to be more room under the hood of this 1GB variant of the GTX 460.
Today our main aim is to get this model to outperform the GTX 470 Golden Sample from Gainward that we've been using in our GTX 460 reviews recently. This GTX 470 is no ordinary card, though; Gainward have taken the time to overclock the card which means we're making the job a little harder for the GTX 460 card.
It's become clear though that we've got some serious head room when it comes to the potential of the GTX 460; the real question is do we have enough potential? I like to think we do but there's really only one way to find out, so let's jump forward to the next page and find out with the help of our old faithful Afterburner software how it went.
Palit GTX 460 Sonic Platinum Overclocked w/ Voltage Adjustment
When it comes to video card overclocking there's really only one choice. MSI Afterburner has become a favorite of not just me but anyone who's interested in overclocking their video card period. When you combine the fact that the program is capable of handling both ATI and NVIDIA cards with the fact that MSI is on top of updating the program and making sure voltage adjust ability is present in as many models as possible and it's just a winner of a program.
We heard that we should be able to get around the 850MHz / 4000MHz QDR clock so this was our main target. We had hoped we wouldn't run into too much trouble getting these clocks because it was only 50MHz more on the core from the stock Sonic Platinum clock and the memory was the same.
The first thing I did was push the memory to 4200MHz while staying at 800MHz on the core; I thought if we could up that a bit to pass what we were told what we should get I would be happy and we could start working on the core.
We ended up with a core clock of 925MHz which is not only a 125MHz overclock from the Sonic Platinum but more importantly it's a huge 250MHz overclock from the stock 675MHz speed. This means that the Shader clock has sky rocketed; at 1850MHz it's 250MHz higher then what the Palit offers out of the box, compared to the reference NVIDIA clocks, though, it's 500MHz up which is just insane.
We also managed a bit of wiggle room with the memory and ended up at 4200MHz QDR which is 200MHz QDR above the out of the box Palit clocks and an impressive 600MHz QDR up on the reference card.
Test System Setup and 3DMark Vantage
We would like to thank the following companies for supplying and supporting us with our test system hardware and equipment: Intel, ASRock, Kingston, Western Digital, Noctua and Thermaltake.
While we've included the Palit GTX 460 Sonic Platinum in the article at its default 800MHz clock we want to see more so how the model compares against the GIGABYTE model which carries a 715MHz clock and default memory speed which is a lot closer to the reference design.
The other card we really want to compare the 925MHz Palit against is the overclocked Gainward GTX 470 Golden sample. We're hoping that this massive core clock will give us the performance we need to knock this card off its perch. We like our chances since we're dealing with such a high core clock but not until we get into the benchmarks will we really be able to tell how we're doing.
Let's get started!
3DMark Vantage
Version and / or Patch Used: 1.0.1
Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com
Product Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmarkvantage/
Buy It Here
3DMark Vantage is the new industry standard PC gaming performance benchmark from Futuremark, newly designed for Windows Vista and DirectX10. It includes two new graphics tests, two new CPU tests, several new feature tests, and support for the latest hardware.
3DMark Vantage is based on a completely new rendering engine, developed specifically to take full advantage of DirectX10, the new graphics API from Microsoft.
Straight away we see big performance numbers from the Palit card when it is overclocked so high. It just blazes past everything else here in both the P and X preset which is absolutely amazing.
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
Version and / or Patch Used: 1 and 2
Developer Homepage: http://www.unigine.com
Product Homepage: http://unigine.com/press-releases/091022-heaven_benchmark//
New benchmark grants the power to unleash the DirectX 11 potential in the gift wrapping of impressively towering graphics capabilities. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. With the interactive mode emerging experience of exploring the intricate world is ensured within reach. Through its advanced renderer, Unigine is one of the first to set precedence in showcasing the art assets with tessellation, bringing compelling visual finesse, utilizing the technology to the full extend and exhibiting the possibilities of enriching 3D gaming.
Note: If a card doesn't support DirectX 11 the benchmark will be left out, if it does it will be included along with the DirectX10 results.
Here we can see very strong performance again from the GTX 460 Palit when overclocked to 925MHz; it just trails behind the GTX 470 Golden Sample in this case, but only buy a tiny bit.
Benchmarks - CINEBENCH
CINEBENCH
Version and / or Patch Used: Release 10 and Release 11.5
Developer Homepage: http://www.maxon.net/
Product Homepage: http://www.maxon.net
CINEBENCH is a real-world test suite that assesses your computer's performace capabilities. MAXON CINEBENCH is based on MAXON's award-winning animation software, CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Spider-Man, Star Wars, The Chronicles of Narnia and many more.
MAXON CINEBENCH runs several tests on your computer to measure the performance of the main processor and the graphics card under real world circumstances. The benchmark application makes use of up to 16 CPUs or CPU cores and is available for Windows (32-bit and 64-Bit) and Macintosh (PPC and Intel-based).
R10 CINEBENCH performance seemed to jump a little; R11.5 performance saw no change.
Benchmarks - Resident Evil 5
Resident Evil 5
Version and / or Patch Used: Demo Benchmark
Developer Homepage: www.residentevil.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.residentevil.com/
Resident Evil 5 is a survival horror video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the seventh installment in the Resident Evil survival horror series, and was released on September 18. Resident Evil 5 revolves around Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar as they investigate a terrorist threat in Kijuju, a fictional town in Africa.
Across the board we've got big performance from the card here. In this case we're just behind that GTX 470 again; not by a whole lot but slightly behind it none the less.
Benchmarks - BattleForge
BattleForge
Version and / or Patch Used: Auto Patched at Load
Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Test
Developer Homepage: http://www.battleforge.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.battleforge.com/
The Gods have disappeared and the old sun has died, letting a vile twilight engulf the world of Nyn. In exchange for all treasures the mortals possessed, the evil giants agreed to forge a new sun and hurl it into the sky.
But the deal was betrayed, the treasure stolen and now the mortals flee the wrath of the giants. Under the light of a new sun the mortals stumble into a world changed and twisted by an age of twilight. The long journey home has become a conquest of survival.
Note: Supporting DirectX 11 we have seperated the graphs for NVIDIA and ATI cards. While the numbers between the two brands can be compared you have to make note that ATI based HD 5000 series cards are running DirectX 11.
Compared to the Gigabyte GTX 460 the performance increase we're seeing from the Palit when overclocked is just nuts. Under BattleForge, which is quite intensive, it falls behind the GTX 470 more than some of the other games we've looked at.
Benchmarks - Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.
Version and / or Patch Used: Benchmark Demo
Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Test
Developer Homepage: http://www.ubi.com/UK/default.aspx
Product Homepage: http://www.hawxgame.com/
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X is an arcade-style flight simulator video game developed by Ubisoft Romania and published by Ubisoft for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and iPhone OS.
The fundamental gameplay mechanics are similar to those of other console-based flight series. Players take on enemies with over 50 aircraft available. Each mission is at real world locations in environments created with commercial satellite data. A cockpit, first person, and third person view are selectable. The third person view gives the player an external view of both their plane and the target.
Set above the skies of a near-future world, increasingly dependent on private military companies with elite mercenaries who have a relaxed view on the law. As these non-governmental organizations gain power, global conflict erupts with one powerful PMC attacking the United States.
Checking out H.A.W.X. we can see that the GTX 460 at 925MHz and the GTX 470 overclocked are neck and neck with the GTX 460 at one point being able to pull out the win.
Benchmarks - Darkest of Days
Darkest of Days
Version and / or Patch Used: 1.4
Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Test
Developer Homepage: http://www.darkestofdays.com/index.php
Product Homepage: http://www.darkestofdays.com/index.php
Darkest of Days takes the player through time into historic battles in an effort to save key individuals from certain death. The battles range from Custer's Last Stand at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876 to fighting in Pompeii as ash and fire rain down from an erupting Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. Other locations include the battles of Antietam and Tannenberg, and a German World War II P.O.W. camp. There are different missions in every time period and the game takes about 4 hours to complete.
The game features over twenty weapons, both from the original time period as well as those brought back from the future. In addition, there are artillery weapons from different time periods to assist in battle.
Note: With the PhysX set to Medium or High Darkest of Days take advantage of the NVIDIA PhysX abilities. For that reason we will test ATI cards at the Low preset, NVIDIA based cards though will be tested at Low and High.
Big performance gains again and very close to that GTX 470 here; it begins to fall back slightly as we climb the resolution table.
Benchmarks - Far Cry 2
Far Cry 2
Version and / or Patch Used: 1.01
Timedemo or Level Used: Ranch Long
Developer Homepage: http://www.ubi.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.farcry2.com/
Buy It Here
The Dunia Engine was built specifically for Far Cry 2 by the award-winning Ubisoft Montreal development team. It delivers the most realistic destructible environments, amazing special effects such as dynamic fire propagation and storm effects, real-time night-and-day cycle, dynamic music system, non-scripted enemy A.I. and so much more.
Here we see more huge numbers across the board. You can see at the highest resolution the Gigabyte GTX 460 offered us a 28 FPS minimum which we consider not playable; the GTX 460 form Palit at 925MHz came in at 39 FPS which we consider very playable. The GTX 470 and GTX 460 and 925MHz are again fighting it out with the averages being better on the GTX 460 at all resolutions.
Benchmarks - Batman Arkham Asylum
Batman Arkham Asylum
Version and / or Patch Used: 1.1
Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Test
Developer Homepage: http://www.batmanarkhamasylum.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.batmanarkhamasylum.com/
Batman: Arkham Asylum exposes players to a unique, dark and atmospheric adventure that takes them to the depths of Arkham Asylum - Gotham's psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane. Gamers will move in the shadows, instigate fear amongst their enemies and confront The Joker and Gotham City's most notorious villains who have taken over the asylum.
Using a wide range of Batman's gadgets and abilities, players will become the invisible predator and attempt to foil The Joker's demented scheme.
Batman: Arkham Asylum features an original story penned exclusively for the game by famous Batman author and five-time Emmy award winner Paul Dini, whose credits include Lost season one and Batman: The Animated Series.
Note: With support for PhysX NVIDIA based cards will be tested with the technology on and off, ATI cards will be tested with the technology off due to it not being supported on their cards.
Strong performance across the board; with and without PhysX we can see that the GTX 460 Sonic Platinum with a 925MHz core is able to trump everything else and while we don't have playable numbers at 2560 x 1600 with PhysX the numbers at 1920 x 1200 and below are awesome.
Benchmarks - Dark Void
Dark Void
Version and / or Patch Used: Benchmark Demo
Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Test
Developer Homepage: http://www.airtightgames.com
Product Homepage: http://www.darkvoidgame.com/
The game's story takes place during World War II and centers around a cargo pilot named William Augustus Grey (voiced by Nolan North) who is teleported to another world while flying through the Bermuda Triangle. In this world, known as the 'Void', Will encounters an alien race as well as other humans, which are known as the Watchers and the Survivors respectively.
Will reluctantly joins the Survivors who are engaged in a feud with the alien race to satisfy his desire to return to Earth. While aiding the Survivors, Will discovers that the Void is a middle ground that connects both the Watchers homeworld and Earth. It also becomes apparent that the Watchers are supplying the Axis powers with various supplies for reasons unknown. With the help of Nikola Tesla, Will utilizes retrofited Watcher technology to combat the Watchers and eventually find a way to escape the Void.
Huge numbers again with massive gains from the Gigabyte card which uses closer to the stock clocks. Compared to the GTX 470, the massively overclocked GTX 460 from Palit is able to pull out a win against the pre-overclocked GTX 470.
Benchmarks - High Quality AA and AF
High Quality AA and AF
Our high quality tests let us separate the men from the boys and the ladies from the girls. If the cards weren't struggling before they will start to now.
Far Cry 2
Fantastic numbers again for the GTX 460 Sonic Platinum with its huge overclock; compared to the GTX 470 again the setup is able to pull out the win.
Resident Evil 5
While a single FPS behind the GTX 470 here the main thing we need to notice is that we're over that 60 FPS average that we need. The only other card to do that here is the GTX 470 Golden Sample which is very impressive.
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.
We see some good gains again but all the cards remain below that 60 FPS average that we need to see.
Benchmarks - Elcomsoft Wireless Security Auditor
Elcomsoft Wireless Security Auditor
Version and / or Patch Used: 1.51
Timedemo or Level Used: Sample File
Developer Homepage: http://www.elcomsoft.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.elcomsoft.com/ewsa.html
ElcomSoft has pioneered many software innovations that have made it easier to recover passwords protecting various types of resources. For the first time in the industry, the company's patent-pending GPU acceleration makes its way into Wi-Fi password recovery, reducing the time required to recover Wi-Fi passwords up to a hundred times.
Supporting up to four NVIDIA boards such as GeForce 8, 9, and 200, as well as ATI video cards such as RADEON HD 4000 Series and up, Elcomsoft Wireless Security Auditor allows building servers with supercomputer performance at a fraction of the price.
The extra grunt on offer from the core has really boosted WSA performance.
Benchmarks - Badaboom
Badaboom
Version and / or Patch Used: Release 1.2.1.7
Developer Homepage: http://www.nvidia.com//
Product Homepage: http://www.badaboomit.com/
Badaboom eliminates the frustration of video conversion by providing users with speed, efficiency, quality, and a sleek interface. In a practice that used to take several hours, Badaboom converts feature-length movies in a matter of minutes while keeping the videos looking crisp and clear.
By harnessing the power of NVIDIA CUDA-enabled GPUs, Badaboom offloads the CPU to allow users to continue browsing the Internet or checking email without decreased system performance, making transcoding high-quality video fast, easy, and painless.
Note: With the requirement for a CUDA enabled graphics card to run Badaboom, this means that we can only use NVIDIA based cards for this test.
Under BADABOOM we don't really see anything new.
Temperature Test
Temperature Tests
With the TES 1326 Infrared Thermometer literally in hand we found ourselves getting real-world temperatures from the products we test at load (3D clock speeds).
There are two places we pull temperature from - the back of the card directly behind the core and if the card is dual slot and has an exhaust point we also pull a temperate from there, as seen in the picture.
With the fan at 100% it doesn't come as much of a surprise that the temperature is quite low even though we're pumping extra voltage through the core.
Sound Test
Sound Tests
Pulling out the TES 1350A Sound Level Meter we find ourselves quickly yelling into the top of it to see how loud we can be.
After five minutes of that we get a bit more serious and place the device two CM away from the fan on the card to find the maximum noise level of the card when idle (2D mode) and in load (3D mode).
The trade off to those cool temps though is the noise that comes out of the fan at 100%.
Power Consumption Tests
Using our new PROVA Power Analyzer WM-01 or "Power Thingy" as it has become quickly known as to our readers, we are now able to find out what kind of power is being used by our test system and the associated graphics cards installed. Keep in mind; it tests the complete system (minus LCD monitor, which is plugged directly into AC wall socket).
There are a few important notes to remember though; while our maximum power is taken in 3DMark06 at the same exact point, we have seen in particular tests the power being drawn as much as 10% more. We test at the exact same stage every time; therefore tests should be very consistent and accurate.
The other thing to remember is that our test system is bare minimum - only a 7,200RPM SATA-II single hard drive is used without CD ROM or many cooling fans.
So while the system might draw 400 watts in our test system, placing it into your own PC with a number of other items, the draw is going to be higher.
With the extra Voltage power draw does jump up, but it's not at a level that we can't handle. The idle still remains very good as well.
Total Performance Rating (TPR)
Total Performance Rating
The TPR graph is a combination of all our benchmarks in which NVIDIA and ATI are on an even playing field. This includes benchmarks where PhysX can be forced off like Dark Void and Batman: Arkham Asylum, but not Darkest of Days.
The TPR number is a combination of:
3DMark Vantage, Heaven Benchmark V2, CINEBENCH R11.5, Resident Evil 5, BattleForge, Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X., Far Cry 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum (PhysX Off), Dark Void (PhysX Off) and our three High Quality tests which include Far Cry 2, Resident Evil 5 and Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.
All of the benchmark results achieved are then combined into a single number. As this graph will grow over time and cards won't be re-tested, next to each model you'll find the driver version that was used when the card was benchmarked.
This graph really paints the picture. We're really able to pick off the Gainward GTX 470 Golden sample here and at the same time we pass the HD 5870 2GB, normal HD 5870 and GTX 465 at 860MHz core as well. You can see for yourself we're really not all that far from the overclocked GTX 470 and the stock GTX 480.
Total Value Rating (TVR)
Total Value Rating
The TVR graph is the TPR score divided by the price of the video card. The price of the video card is based on the list price of the model on Newegg.com. In the event the card isn't listed, it will be based on the U.S. $ MSRP given to us by the manufacturer.
In the event we can't source a price from either, the product will not receive a TVR rating. As with our TPR graph, the amount of video cards on the list will grow over time and the price of the model won't change from what it was when first reviewed. For this reason the U.S. $ price that the card is based off will be included next to the name of the model.
In the event you want to find the TVR rating yourself based on the current price, all you have to do is simply divide the TPR number by the list price.
TVR numbers are rounded to the nearest whole number; 100.3 will be 100; 100.8 will be 101 and 100.5 will be rounded down to 100.
With all this extra performance at no extra price the value just sky rockets.
Final Thoughts
When I spoke to a few partners, they said that we should be able to achieve a 850MHz core and 4000MHz QDR memory clock. At the same time, if I got a good card I should be able to get 900MHz on the core. The good news is that we didn't seem to just get a good card but a great card.
The performance on this card is just nuts though. Looking at it compared to the GTX 465, which is an overclocking beast, the best we get on that card is around 860MHz on the core and the GTX 460 outperforms that with ease.
I said to someone recently when they mentioned about how everyone is talking about how fantastic NVIDIA is at the moment with these mid range cards, they said what about ATI and what they've been doing for six months. The thing is ATI has had praise for six months, they saw the GTX 470 and GTX 480 and felt like there was no threat from NVIDIA. In the past month and a bit though we've seen NVIDIA shake the video card world up.
One word you don't associate with NVIDIA cards is value. Let's be honest; it's always been one of the best features of ATI cards. NVIDIA was more known for just flat out power and features like PhysX and CUDA. With these models, they're really shaking up our value graphs.
No matter what all the NVIDIA partners are telling us this is an important model for NVIDIA. The $200 price bracket is the biggest selling area for video card companies; it's difficult to sell the mid range models though when you're not king of the mountain in the high end segment. Speed and power from the high end cards build faith around the mid range models that people buy. You feel confident that if a company can do the high end well, they can do the other models as well.
Confidence in NVIDIA with the release of the GTX 470 and GTX 480 wasn't high though; it was important that NVIDIA offered mid range cards so fantastic that people could ignore the launch of the hot and loud GTX 470 and GTX 480. It looks like they've managed to do that. The GTX 470 has also become better as partners have slapped on new coolers, and while the GTX 480 doesn't run any cooler then launch its price has come down a lot in certain countries.
NVIDIA won't be able to dominate with the GTX 400 series because it's just too late. What they're going to be able to do though is set the foundation for the next generation of cards. AMD have been here too long with the HD 5000 series and getting in on that market share is just going to be too hard. Come the next generation of cards though I think NVIDIA is going to be very strong as it's clear they've perfected the mid range lineup. Now all we need is those typical lower end cards that will come and a new high end card that can take top spot from ATI.