GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 460 1GB OC Video Card

There's more to the 1GB version of the GTX 460 than extra memory. Let's have a closer look at the GIGABYTE version.

Published
Updated
Manufacturer: GIGABYTE
15 minutes & 36 seconds read time

Introduction




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We've already had a look at one GTX 460 today which came from MSI. That particular version was a 768MB card and while you might be thinking that the 1GB is much of the same thing, you would be mistaken.

There's more to the 1GB model than just a bit more memory; instead NVIDIA has chosen to bump up the specifications in some key areas. We'll get into that in just a moment, though.

Since the GIGABYTE card didn't come full retail, we'll be getting stuck straight into the card itself. Once that's done we'll have a look at the specifications of this model and also how it differs to the 768MB version.

This is also another OC version of the card, so let's see how GIGABYTE has chosen to mix it up. Let's not delay any longer and get stuck straight into it.

The Card and Specifications


The Card

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GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 460 1GB OC Video Card 04


GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 460 1GB OC Video Card 05


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With no package on this card from GIGABYTE we'll just get stuck straight into the card. As for the cooler you can see that GIGABYTE has opted for the dual fan design which has been very popular lately with it being seen on other mid range models.

A quick spin around the card doesn't reveal anything different to the MSI version we looked at earlier. We've got two 6-Pin PCI-E connectors, a single SLI connector and connectivity is provided by two Dual-Link DVI connectors and a single Mini-HDMI port.


Specifications

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The GIGABYTE card is overclocked out of the box which seems to be quite a common occurrence with this model. The card has moved from the 675MHz / 1350MHz / 3600MHz QDR Core / CUDA / Memory clocks to a 715MHz / 1430MHz / 3600MHz setup.

While not as big an overclock compared to the MSI which carried with it a 725MHz core, since this is the 1GB model we're dealing with a larger 256-bit memory bus verses the 192-bit seen on the 768MB version, while also seeing 32 ROP units verses 24.

It will be very interesting to see how this compares against the MSI version. Let's check out our test system and then get stuck straight into it.

Test System Setup and 3DMark Vantage


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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.

Today we'll be comparing the GTX 460 OC from GIGABYTE against a number of models from both NVIDIA and ATI. On the green side we've got the GTX 460 768MB Cyclone we just looked at from MSI; we've also got the Galaxy GTX 465 and Gainward GTX 470 Golden sample.

On the red side of the fence we've got the popular mid range to higher end ATI models the HD 5830 and HD 5850. It's going to be very interesting to see how this card compares to the other cards we're dealing with today.

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 out the gate we can see that the 1GB version pulls out a slight win. Compared to the other cards here you can see it's got a massive jump on the standard GTX 465 and really smashes the HD 5830.

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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Heaven performance is strong and only second to the GTX 470 which is much more expensive.

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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CINEBENCH doesn't hold any surprises and it performs as we would expect.

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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RE5 performance is strong and only falls slightly behind the HD 5850. The GIGABYTE version compared to the MSI one is slightly faster thanks to the extra memory bus and ROPs. The MSI has got a slightly higher core clock, though, which is the reason we're seeing it perform so close.

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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You can see here that the extra MHz that MSI has given the 768MB version puts both cards performing identical at all resolutions.

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.

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H.A.W.X. performance is very strong and at the lower resolutions sits only second to the GTX 470 again. We again see that performance between the GIGABYTE and MSI version is very similar, though.

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.

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Strong performance across the board; here the card does fall slightly behind the GTX 465.

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.

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We continue to see very strong performance from the GTX 460 considering the price and while we see a nice bump in speed compared to the 768MB version here at the highest resolution, we don't see an increase in the minimum which means we're still just below that 30 FPS we want to see.

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.

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Strong performance across the board with PhysX off. Turning it on and we see good numbers and the extra grunt means we're able to break the 30 FPS minimum at 1920 x 1200. Performance sits a little far back at the highest. Not much of a surprise, though, considering the price point of the model.

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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Again very strong performance across the board including when PhysX is turned on with a minimum of over 30 FPS at all resolutions.

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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We can see that the extra memory bus width and extra ROPs gives us the ability to break that 30 FPS minimum here.


Resident Evil 5

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Sitting only behind the HD 5850 and GTX 470 performance is strong; unfortunately not quite the 60 FPS average we need to see.


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

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Like above, the card sits in third place, but again its average is a little low for our liking.

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 good. Here it does perform slightly behind the MSI version, 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 when it comes to BADABOOM performance.

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.

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The temps are good thanks to the dual fan; it's running a little warmer than the MSI 768MB version, though, which is at 47.7c.

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).

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Noise levels are also good but the card does not only run a little warmer than the MSI version, but also a little louder.

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 as you would expect; the model sits almost identical with the 768MB version.

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.

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As you would expect, performance is slightly better than the 768MB version from MSI we looked at. It's not a load better, though, and most of those extra points have come from the 3DMark Vantage increase more so than the actual game tests.

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.

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With the price being $30 more expensive, but performance not being 15% better which is the price increase, the value just isn't quite the same as the 768MB version which is very interesting.

Final Thoughts




To be honest, I'm not too sure why we've got two versions of the GTX 460 and I mean that in the sense of two versions with clearly different specifications in some key areas and not just a 768MB and 1GB model.

Due to the core on the GIGABYTE card being slightly lower when compared to the MSI one, we can see that its performance is almost identical. A few more MHz on the 768MB version and it's clear that it would outperform a 1GB model which was 20MHz lower. Of course, you can overclock the 1GB version and gain even more performance; it's a little disappointing that GIGABYTE opted for 715MHz. While it's a very impressive overclock, it would have been nice to see an extra 10 or so MHz on it.

As for my issues with the card, they're the same as the MSI one and it's not so much the GIGABYTE version, but just the decisions NVIDIA chose to make. Two 6-Pin PCI-E connectors on a $229 video card seems a little excessive. On the topic of $229 as well, it completely kills the value of the GTX 465. In saying that, though, as we mentioned in our MSI review we've heard rumors of a GTX 465 price drop.

The cooler on the GIGABYTE card looks strong and no doubt will perform better than the standard GTX 460 cooler. It's not the best GTX 460 cooler we've looked at, though, which is saying something since we've only looked at one other. The extra heat and noise coming from the card is something you wouldn't really notice as it's only a small difference.

At $229 the card seems a little over priced compared to the 768MB version. We can see that with only a 10MHz higher core on the 768MB version we're able to perform very close to the 1GB card. The extra bus width comes in handy at the higher 2560 x 1600 resolution, but these cards aren't designed so much for this resolution; at 1920 x 1200 and below you can see both variants perform very similar.

Saying that, we're not trying to take anything away from the 1GB version we're looking at from GIGABYTE. $229 is still a very strong price and unlike previously where most ATI cards killed the value of the NVIDIA ones, the only card that affects the value of this version is the cheaper 768MB one. Of course, some people are going to want 1GB of memory and really for an extra $30, why not?

What's particularly great is people who have a hard $200 budget can get the 768MB version and easily achieve very similar performance to the 1GB one with very little effort. If your budget is a little more open, though, and you want the extra memory, the 1GB version like the one we're looking at from GIGABYTE today is a nice little buy. These two cards have pretty much made the HD 5770 and HD 5830 from ATI redundant. Outside of wanting a triple screen setup off a single card, we're not sure why you would buy that model now the GTX 460 is here.

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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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