Introduction
NVIDIA's latest member of their DirectX 11 lineup is the GeForce GTX 460. It 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%.
ASUS has released their ENGTX460 DirectCU as a high-clocked alternative to the reference designs using their DirectCU cooling solution. The card comes at clock speeds of 775 MHz core and 1000 MHz memory, which is in the upper half of the available out-of-the-box overclocks from all board partners (some go as high as 850 MHz). With a price of $229 the ASUS GeForce GTX 460 DirectCU 1 GB is also quite affordable.
| Radeon HD 5770 | Radeon HD 5830 | GeForce GTX 275 | GeForce GTX 460 | GeForce GTX 460 | ASUS GTX 460 DirectCU | GeForce GTX 465 | GeForce GTX 285 | Radeon HD 5850 | GeForce GTX 470 | Radeon HD 5870 | GeForce GTX 480 |
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Shader units | 800 | 1120 | 240 | 336 | 336 | 336 | 352 | 240 | 1440 | 448 | 1600 | 480 |
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ROPs | 16 | 16 | 28 | 24 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 40 | 32 | 48 |
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GPU | Juniper | Cypress | GT200 | GF104 | GF104 | GF104 | GF100 | GT200 | Cypress | GF100 | Cypress | GF100 |
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Transistors | 1040M | 2154M | 1404M | 1950M | 1950M | 1950M | 3200M | 1404M | 2154M | 3200M | 2154M | 3200M |
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Memory Size | 1024 MB | 1024 MB | 896 MB | 768 MB | 1024 MB | 1024 MB | 1024 MB | 1024 MB | 1024 MB | 1280 MB | 1024 MB | 1536 MB |
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Memory Bus Width | 128 bit | 256 bit | 448 bit | 192 bit | 256 bit | 256 bit | 256 bit | 512 bit | 256 bit | 320 bit | 256 bit | 384 bit |
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Core Clock | 850 MHz | 800 MHz | 602 MHz | 675 MHz | 675 MHz | 775 MHz | 607 MHz | 648 MHz | 725 MHz | 607 MHz | 850 MHz | 700 MHz |
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Memory Clock | 1200 MHz | 1000 MHz | 1107 MHz | 900 MHz | 900 MHz | 1000 MHz | 802 MHz | 1242 MHz | 1000 MHz | 837 MHz | 1200 MHz | 924 MHz |
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Price | $159 | $230 | $230 | $199 | $229 | $229 | $279 | $350 | $310 | $349 | $400 | $499 |
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