Gainward GeForce GTX 460 1GB Goes Like Hell (GLH) Edition in SLI Overclocked

We crank up the MHz even more on the GLH Gainward cards. Can we make Hell go even faster?

Published
Updated
Manufacturer: Gainward
15 minutes & 4 seconds read time

Introduction and Overclocking the Cards


Introduction

Gainward GeForce GTX 460 1GB Goes Like Hell (GLH) Edition in SLI Overclocked 02


Out of the box the Gainward GTX 460 GLH Edition offers us a massive overclock when compared to the stock clocks that NVIDIA offer us, but that doesn't mean we don't want more MHz, which is exactly why we're here today.

With the help of the Gainward GTX 460 GLH Edition, the Palit GTX 460 Sonic Platinum and our favorite overclocking program from MSI, Afterburner, we're going to try and move past that 800MHz default clock the companies offer and see what we're able to achieve out of this $500 setup that has offered us simply amazing performance already.

With the MSI GTX 460 768MB Cyclone setup I had hoped to achieve 875MHz. Why 875MHz? Well, because it's 200MHz over the default 675MHz that NVIDIA offer. Unfortunately we didn't get there when running in SLI, but fingers and toes are crossed today since we're already starting with such a big out of the box overclock.

We ultimately want less than an extra 10% on top of what Gainward and Palit offer us. 75MHz; did we get it? Or did we get more? - And ultimately, what did that extra MHz on two cards do for our overall performance? - The setup is already climbing our TPR graph at an ungodly pace, but it did fall short of beating out the HD 5970 TOXIC from Sapphire which carries a price tag of over $1,000, or more importantly, a price tag that is double the cost of this setup.


The Gainward GTX 460 1GB GLH in SLI Overclocked

As I said just before, our aim was 875MHz which would be 200MHz over the stock 675MHz that NVIDIA give the model. With a bump in voltage from Afterburner and a bit of time, we ended up at 890MHz!

Since we really had no problems getting past the 875MHz clock, I tried so hard to get 900MHz with the fans set to AUTO, but I just couldn't get it. 890MHz is none the less very impressive; a good increase from the default 800MHz and a fantastic increase from the default 675MHz.

Gainward GeForce GTX 460 1GB Goes Like Hell (GLH) Edition in SLI Overclocked 01


This in turn of course pushed our Shader clock up to 1780MHz from 1600MHz. We also gave the memory a slight bump from 4000MHz QDR to 4200MHz QDR.

These are really some pretty impressive numbers, especially when you consider that these are the clocks on both cards and that we opted to leave the fans at AUTO and not 100%. We probably could've got that extra 10MHz on the core at the cost of some extra dB, but we wanted to try and keep it at a bearable and more realistic noise level as we're sure most people don't want to push the fans up to 100%.

Test System Setup and 3DMark Vantage


Gainward GeForce GTX 460 1GB Goes Like Hell (GLH) Edition in SLI Overclocked 99


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.

The setup today we're looking at we're comparing to everything you would expect, including the Gainward and Palit GTX 460 in SLI at the default 800MHz core, the GTX 470 Golden Sample by itself, the GTX 480 by itself, the HD 5970 and the GTX 470 SLI setup which has been the biggest hurdle for most cards.

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.

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Straight away we're seeing some massive numbers.

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.

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Under Heaven we don't see the same kind of gains. Performance is strong under V1 where the cards pull out top honors, but under V2 the setup falls a few points behind the GTX 470 SLI setup.

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).

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We don't see anything out of the ordinary in CINEBENCH, so let's get stuck into the real world games.

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.

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A nice little bump compared to the stock setup, but not quite GTX 470 SLI numbers. At the highest resolution the gap does come down to an extremely small 4 FPS, though.

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.

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We again see a nice boost in performance. At the lower resolution the setup also manages to pass the HD 5970 with no dramas and compared to the GTX 470 SLI setup the GTX 460 SLI OC setup does pull out a win at 1680 x 1050. It does fall back as we climb the resolution table, however.

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.

Gainward GeForce GTX 460 1GB Goes Like Hell (GLH) Edition in SLI Overclocked 25


The GTX 460 SLI setup at the out-of-the-box 800MHz setup not only fell behind the GTX 470 at the highest resolution, but it also fell behind the HD 5970. The same setup at 890MHz sees a win at not just the highest resolution, but at 1920 x 1200 and 1680 x 1050 as well.

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.

Gainward GeForce GTX 460 1GB Goes Like Hell (GLH) Edition in SLI Overclocked 26


Gainward GeForce GTX 460 1GB Goes Like Hell (GLH) Edition in SLI Overclocked 27


We again see that the SLI GTX 460 1GB setup is second to none thanks to that massive 890MHz core clock.

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.

Gainward GeForce GTX 460 1GB Goes Like Hell (GLH) Edition in SLI Overclocked 28


While in the first few tests the GTX 460 1GB SLI OC setup had a bit of a fight on its hands, the cards are now just running away with the win, especially at the highest resolution where we see some amazing minimum frame rates for a setup of this cost.

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.

Gainward GeForce GTX 460 1GB Goes Like Hell (GLH) Edition in SLI Overclocked 29


Gainward GeForce GTX 460 1GB Goes Like Hell (GLH) Edition in SLI Overclocked 30


Good numbers as you would expect across the board. Most importantly, though, it's the only setup here that's able to break that 30 FPS minimum at 2560 x 1600 with PhysX set to high. Setups costing $100s more aren't achieving this out of the box.

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.

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Gainward GeForce GTX 460 1GB Goes Like Hell (GLH) Edition in SLI Overclocked 32


Just huge numbers across the board with great wins being seen under Dark Void when PhysX is turned on.

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

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Nothing else here is touching the setup with the detail cranked right up. These numbers are just a testament to what NVIDIA has done with this model.


Resident Evil 5

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While the 800MHz out-of-the-box clock wasn't quite enough to pull out the win, the 890MHz core clock manages to sneak in a single 1 FPS win.


Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.

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While it's not able to get the clear win in our final benchmark, it is equal first with the more expensive GTX 470 SLI setup.

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.

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WSA performance is strong because of the massive clock speeds we've got. It's a pity we're not able to make use of SLI here, though.

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.

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No surprises under Badaboom which isn't a shock.

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.

Gainward GeForce GTX 460 1GB Goes Like Hell (GLH) Edition in SLI Overclocked 38


SLI does bring with it some extra heat, but it's not too bad considering the fans are on AUTO and we're dealing with an open testbed environment with no structured air flow.

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).

Gainward GeForce GTX 460 1GB Goes Like Hell (GLH) Edition in SLI Overclocked 39


At 67.1dB, noise levels aren't too bad. This is due to the fact that we opted for the fans to stay on AUTO.

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.

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Power draw is getting up there now. Throwing overclocking in to the mix, we would suggest a PSU in the 700 Watt area instead of the 650 Watt area if you weren't overclocking.

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.

Gainward GeForce GTX 460 1GB Goes Like Hell (GLH) Edition in SLI Overclocked 41


Just amazing performance. Really there's only one setup that is clearly faster and that's the GTX 470 SLI when overclocked with voltage adjustment. The setup leaves everything else eating dust including ones that cost twice as much like the HD 5970 TOXIC when overclocked to a massive 1GHz core.

Total Value Rating (TVR) and Final Thoughts


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.

Gainward GeForce GTX 460 1GB Goes Like Hell (GLH) Edition in SLI Overclocked 42


It's not the best valued SLI setup, but it's not far off it. Compared to most other setups that put out similar power numbers, it blows them away for value.


Final Thoughts

Words can't even describe the value of this kind of setup. They say a picture's worth a thousand words and we think that every graph you see tells you exactly what this setup is capable of.

The fact that Palit and Gainward has given us a 800MHz starting point for the card, we felt confident that we could achieve that extra 75MHz which would give us a clock rate of 200MHz higher than the standard GTX 460 which comes in at 675MHz. We flew past 875MHz and ultimately ended up with 890MHz. At the same time we got the memory to 4200MHz QDR which is again a massive jump on the stock 3600MHz QDR memory clock NVIDIA offer.

The GTX 460 SLI setup is just simply the best setup to buy at the moment. You just have to look at what else is on the market and you can see this. The GTX 480 is more expensive than this setup, but slower. The HD 5970 is more expensive, but slower. CrossFire HD 5800 series are more expensive, and again slower.

NVIDIA has ultimately created a perfect storm. You've got fantastic overclocking ability, excellent out-of-the-box performance, a sensational launch price, great temps and power draw numbers and fantastic SLI performance. What you end up with is a setup that just blows everything out of the water. And the few setups that are faster than the one we tested today aren't anywhere near as much as they need to be considering how much more expensive they are.

Amazing!

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Shawn takes care of all of our video card reviews. From 2009, Shawn is also taking care of our memory reviews, and from May 2011, Shawn also takes care of our CPU, chipset and motherboard reviews. As of December 2011, Shawn is based out of Taipei, Taiwan.

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