Introduction

A few weeks back NVIDIA introduced the latest member of their DirectX 11 lineup. Their new GeForce GTX 460 is based on the all new 40 nm GF104 GPU which is based on the Fermi architecture introduced earlier this year. The GTX 460 is positioned at the lower end of the mid-range performance segment around the $200 price bracket. NVIDIA offers two variants of the GeForce GTX 460, one with 768 MB of GDDR5 memory and one with 1 GB. Due to the GPU architecture this change in memory size not only affects the actual memory but also other performance relevant figures. The reduction of memory size is achieved by installing less memory chips on the card which reduces the bus width of the GPU from 256-bit to 192-bit on the 768 MB version. Since the ROPs are coupled to the memory interface this also results in less ROP units. Combined all those changes reduce the fillrates and memory performance of the card by 25%.

Palit's GeForce GTX 460 Sonic Platinum Edition is one of the highest-clocked GeForce GTX 460 variants available at this time. It also comes with 1 GB of GDDR5 memory. Combined this makes the fastest out of the box configuration for a GTX 460 that you could think of. But Palit has not stopped at performance settings. They are also using a custom cooler and PCB which promise better thermals at a reasonable price point.

Packaging

Palit ships the card in their typical package - but where is the green frog? The "Sonic Platinum" sticker on the front easily identifies the package as an overclocked version. On the back you find further generic information in multiple languages.

Contents

You will receive:

• Graphics card
• Driver CD + Quick Install Guide
• PCI-Express power cable

The Card

Palit is using a customized PCB design and their own cooling solution.


Palit's GTX 460 Sonic occupies two slots in your system, just like the NVIDIA reference design.


The card has two DVI ports, one HDMI port and one analog VGA output. Unlike AMD's latest GPUs, the output logic design is not as flexible. On AMD cards vendors are free to combine six TMDS links into any output configuration they want (dual-link DVI consuming two links) - and use them all at the same time. On NVIDIA cards you can use only two displays at the same time, so for a three monitor setup you would need two cards.

NVIDIA has included an HDMI sound device inside their GPU which does away with the requirement of connecting an external audio source to the card for HDMI audio. The HDMI interface is HDMI 1.3a compatible which includes Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD, AC-3, DTS and up to 7.1 channel audio with 192 kHz / 24-bit. NVIDIA also claims full support for the 3D portion of the HDMI 1.4 specification which will become important later this year when we will see first Blu-Ray titles shipping with support for 3D output.


You may combine up to two GTX 460 cards in SLI for added performance or improved image quality settings. I find it a bit surprising that NVIDIA did not include a triple or quad SLI option, but it doesn't seem unreasonable considering the strategic positioning of the produt.


Here are the front and the back of the card, high-res versions are also available (front, back). If you choose to use these images for voltmods etc, please include a link back to this site or let us post your article.