Thread: Gigabyte gtx460oc-1g

GIGABYTE GTX460OC-1G

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Price: TBA

Available: Now
Website: GV-N460OC-1GI - GIGABYTE


With all the GTX460 reviews on the net, I thought I should add my own mini review here of the GIGABYTE GTX460 Overclock. I won’t go into what makes the GF104 GPU tick and different from the GF100 it is based on as there are plenty of reviews on the net detailing that. What I am more concerned about here is the actual GIGABYTE GTX460OC and how it differs from other models and if that makes it better or worse.



Much like the SOC 5870 from GIGABYTE, the 460OC makes use of a custom blue PCB. Given the price point that the GF104 targets, you are likely to see more custom PCB cards than reference design cards and that’s simply because the price is just right for partners to decide how they want to market their specific products. As this is the 1GB version of the GF104, this represents the best configuration currently available for the GF104. Indeed there are functional units disabled still on the GF104, but for the most part at an MSRP of $229 this is going to be the configuration we are likely to see for the foreseeable future.



NVIDIA stated prior to the release of the graphics card that they would have some impressive overclocking headroom, so it’s no surprise that just about every manufacturer has an overclocked version out or due for release soon. Some have cards clocked as high as 800MHz up from the reference 675MHz which is very impressive to say the least. GIGABYTE may not have clocked the GTX460OC to those levels, but 715MHz is still a respectable speed and with some overclocking, 800MHz is easily reachable. Keep in mind however that not all samples are the same and some may not reach 800MHz at all. As it stands though, this particular model was fully capable of clocking up a storm and that was before we increased the GPU voltage which is set at 0.962 by default. (Note reference voltages will differ per GPU) So the odds are if you happen to have a sample that requires as low a voltage as the one I tested or lower it just may be a great overclocker.



Regardless, performance wise as you can see below, the OC edition does very well. In fact anyone using any 8800 or 9800 based GPU would do themselves well to consider the GTX460OC. IT really is faster than any of those graphics cards, runs considerably cooler, quieter and much faster. Some of the results placed it ahead of the GTX285, which is still a potent graphics card.
As far as GIGABYTE’s model is concerned there are probably not many that have a cooler this quiet and this efficient. In an air conditioned room at a fairly constant 25’, idle temperature was 26’C. With the Fan speed set to 69’C, the temps dropped to 23’C. (Obviously room temperature had dropped to below this level as well)



Not factoring local pricing, the GTX460 is probably the most impressive mid range card since the 6600GT of 2005. It’s not like the 8800GT, because it’s actually better than the 8800GT of the time.
With two of these in the system, the performance will certainly be better than that of the mighty GTX480 and such a configuration is definitely worth taking a look at.
Anyway here are my results with the GIGABYTE GTX460OC 1G at default clocks, and also at the highest clock I could manage without rendering anomalies.

Test System

Intel Core i7 980X @ 3.6GHz (200x18)
GEIL Black Dragon 6GB PC1600 Set (Review soon)
GIGABYTE X58A-UD9 (F4b)
Windows 7 64-bit
Forceware 258.96 Candidate


3DMark Vantage
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Stock: P15,534

OC 900MHz Core /2000MHz : P18,916

3DMark06:
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Stock: 26,262




Crysis Warhead- Enthusiast 1920x1080 64-bit

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Stock:


Score: - 90/100


Bottom line: The mid-range is back with a bang. There's simply isn't a better value card on the market right now. For quiet, there just isn't beating the GIGABYTE GTX460OC-1G


Note*: Will add other OC results soon