Introduction and The Package
Introduction
The last time we looked at a Gainward offering we were impressed. The GTX 470 we looked at a few months ago brought with it everything we wanted; better cooling and more performance, while at the same time not costing much more.
Today we're looking at another card from the company; this being the new GTX 460 which has become the apple of so many eyes. Its low price and high performance has made it a winner in so many people's hearts. If the GTX 480 stopped the heart of NVIDIA, the GTX 460 is the defibrillator that brought it back to life.
The version we're looking at today from Gainward is the GLH or Goes Like Hell edition. We wonder, though, how exactly does hell go? - To be honest, we already know since the card is pretty much a carbon copy of the Sonic Platinum Palit card we looked at a few weeks back. What that means is Hell goes fast...damn fast!
Since we ultimately knew how the card was going to perform in single form, we wanted to SLI it with the Palit version we looked at earlier on. We figure the only thing better than going through hell alone is going through it with your twin brother. Before we see how they went, let's have a closer look at the Gainward version of the GTX 460 1GB.
The Package
There's not a whole lot going on in the package. We've got some paperwork, a driver CD and a power convertor. Apart from that there's really nothing else to see, so let's have a closer look at the card itself now.
The Card and Specifications
The Card
As we mentioned already, the card is pretty much the spitting image of the Palit GTX 460 Sonic Platinum we looked at a few weeks back. Being a duplicate can be good or bad; the verdict on this particular card is all positive. To be honest, we actually prefer it over the Palit version because the red fan looks cooler than the orange.
As for the rest of the card, you won't find any surprises here with a pair of 6-Pin power connectors at the top, a single SLI connector and two Dual-Link DVI connectors and a single VGA and HDMI port to round off the I/O side of things.
Specifications
The clocks on the Gainward offering are impressive. Unlike most companies, they opted to overclock both the core and memory clock. Most others have chosen to only bump the core up.
A stock clocked GTX 460 comes in with a 675MHz core, 1350MHz Shader clock and the 1GB of GDDR5 carrying a clock of 3600MHz QDR. Gainward, like both Palit and Galaxy, have blown these numbers out of the water.
Out of the box the GLH Edition gives us an 800MHz core which bumps the Shader clock to 1600MHz. As for that 1GB of GDDR5, that gets rounded off to a lovely sounding 4000MHz QDR.
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.
We know how the GTX 460 GLH Edition from Gainward goes, because as we mentioned the Palit Sonic Platinum carries the same cooler and clock speeds. This is not a surprise since Palit bought out Gainward a few years ago.
We thought this was the perfect time to SLI the 1GB model. We've already had a look at what the 768MB version can do and we were impressed with it. When overclocked to 850MHz it still struggled to beat the GTX 470 SLI setup and while that's a lot more expensive, we had hoped that the GTX 460 768MB SLI setup overclocked would've been enough to beat it.
Today, though, we're dealing with an out of the box 800MHz core clock and 4GHz memory clock. Being the 1GB model, we're also dealing with more ROPs and a wider memory bus. How does the Gainward GTX 460 1GB GLH card go in SLI? There's only one way to find out.
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 can see the performance from the setup here. The GTX 460 1GB SLI setup we're looking at here doesn't fall behind any other setup we've got here, including the more expensive GTX 470 SLI one.
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.
Unfortunately the lead isn't sustained when we come to Unigine. Performance is still extremely strong across the board, though.
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).
CINEBENCH doesn't hold any surprises; there's nothing out of the ordinary here.
Benchmarks - Resident Evil
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.
Performance is again very strong. Compared to the 768MB setup the Gainward 1GB setup is standing out. We understand the massive out of the box overclock does help, 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.
We again see big numbers across the board. Performance on a whole is very impressive, especially when you consider the price and the fact that we haven't had to do any overclocking ourselves.
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.
We continue to see those big performance numbers. Compared to the GTX 470 SLI setup this one sits only just behind it by at most 5 FPS, which is very impressive.
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.
We again see that the this SLI setup we're testing is only just behind that GTX 470 one. Like the GTX 470 one there's no manual overclocking involved here which makes the numbers even more attractive.
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.
Big numbers are continued to be seen. Compared to the GTX 470 SLI setup we can see that at the higher resolution the GTX 460 SLI setup we're looking at here is able to outperform it, especially at the highest resolution which is fantastic since we're dealing with 280MB less memory.
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.
It comes as no surprise that with PhysX off we're seeing some big numbers. Moving to our PhysX on tests, though, the 2560 x 1600 performance is fantastic. We're still just shy of that 30 FPS minimum we need, but we're so close to it that it's not even funny now.
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.
Big numbers without PhysX which again doesn't come as a surprise. With PhysX turned on the setup screams along with it out performing the more expensive GTX 470 SLI setup in areas.
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
Those massive out of the box clocks are just leaving everything else for dead here. The numbers we're getting out of this setup are just amazing.
Resident Evil 5
While it comes in behind the GTX 470 SLI setup in this instance, the 104 average is just amazing.
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.
Fortunately we don't have that issue in H.A.W.X. AA testing like the MSI 768MB card. What this means is performance is excellent, but a little behind the GTX 470 SLI setup again, though.
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.
Not making use of SLI means that the performance is almost identical with the Palit version that carries the same clocks.
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.
No surprises under Badaboom with that mid 9 minimum mark we've become accustomed to seeing.
Temperature Test
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.
Heat on the cards are impressive. Like the MSI GTX 460 768MB Cyclone SLI setup, it's nice to be dealing with two identical coolers.
Sound Test
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 setup is a little loud, but nothing we would be worrying about, especially not when we consider the performance we're getting.
Power Consumption Test
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.
Power draw is getting up there when compared to some of the other setups, but really, under 500 Watt is very impressive considering the performance we're dealing with.
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.
The performance of this setup is just sick. If you look at the setups that are faster and then consider the price tag associated with those few that are ahead, it's just amazing what NVIDIA has done with the GTX 460.
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.
While the setup doesn't hold the same value as the 768MB one, its performance is still very strong and out of the box the clocks mean that an extremely fast setup is quick and easy.
Final Thoughts
By itself the Gainward GTX 460 1GB Goes Like Hell edition is just a beast of a card. That's thanks to the massive 800MHz core clock and 4GHz QDR memory clock that the company is offering.
I understand that not everyone is interested in overclocking. They can't be bothered, don't understand or are just generally worried that it could shorten the life of the product. That's why you buy pre-overclocked cards. Only a few companies have gone big with the overclock on the GTX 460, though, and fortunately Gainward is one of them.
Palit bought Gainward to become larger in the European market where Gainward has always been strong. What's so great about Gainward is the fact that Palit hasn't butchered them; they've kept with popular series names like "Golden Sample" while adding more to its repertoire. Gainward at worst is as good as they've always been. At best, though, they're better than they've ever been because of the power house that is Palit.
What's so fantastic about this card is that the overclock is so strong, when you throw it in SLI its performance is just massive. Sure, you can overclock yourself, but if you don't want to, if you can't be bothered or just simply don't mind spending a few extra dollars, this is just a fantastic buy. Performance is just crazy and like we said in our TPR graphs two pages back, have a look at the cost of the setups that are faster than this and you can really see the power that is on offer here.
The biggest issue with the Gainward GTX 460 1GB GHL edition is the same issue with most video cards these days; the bundle is lacking anything apart from the bare minimum. To be honest, though, who cares? - The card is the bundle and oh what a card it is.
If you're looking for an extremely fast out of the box GTX 460, this is one you want to look at. If you're simply looking for an extremely fast video card setup, two of these are what you should be looking at.
The bottom line is the performance of two of these cards just doesn't make sense for the price. The setup should be more expensive, but it's not, so quickly go out and buy a pair before someone discovers the money they could be making from this setup!