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.