# MSI GTX 460 HAWK 1 GB



## W1zzard (Aug 24, 2010)

MSI's GTX 460 HAWK is the flagship GeForce GTX 460 from MSI. It comes with a quiet Twin Frozr II cooler, 1 GB of memory and 781 MHz core clock out of the box. MSI has also expanded on the voltmodding capability of the card which supports software control for three voltages.

*Show full review*


----------



## Kumitsu (Sep 2, 2010)

W1zzard, any word on when youll be doing the GTX 460 1GB from Gigabyte ? 
alot of people have been buying it off from newegg.com and i believe its the card
that has the most reviews right now avaliable.

only reason i ask is because i would like to see the max overclock stable,  and max overclock on voltage settings?


----------



## theonedub (Sep 2, 2010)

Awwww, no VRM and no RAM cooling? Great cooler and review, pass on the card


----------



## Jeffredo (Sep 2, 2010)

Is the Cyclone missing VRM and RAM cooling?


----------



## stefanels (Sep 2, 2010)

How come in the game benchmarks don't have GTA IV ?!


----------



## theonedub (Sep 2, 2010)

Jeffredo said:


> Is the Cyclone missing VRM and RAM cooling?



Yes, the only cooling comes from the fan on the card. I was hoping the Frozr (with its Premium price) would have RAM and VRM cooling. I guess I could always add some myself..


----------



## qu4k3r (Sep 2, 2010)

Very good review. I like this card, twin frozr cooler looks pretty good, but I always end up buying cards for 200 us$ or less.-


----------



## Jeffredo (Sep 2, 2010)

Am I fair to summarize it this way - its dead even with a stock HD 5850, won't be any faster when both are OC'd to their maximum, costs about $20-$30 less than a stock HD 5850 and uses about 40W more power at load?


----------



## Madmanden (Sep 2, 2010)

That seems like a really nice card. I would like one... 

Also, nice review. I love how I can compare noise and energy consumption. Keep up the good work!


----------



## GENTLEMEN (Sep 2, 2010)

I've been waiting for this card for a while. Low temps + better OC-ability + low noise = SWEET. But there is never a good time to be out of funds. :shadedshu


----------



## mstenholm (Sep 2, 2010)

An interesting fact is that it some games perform worse then the 768 MB Cyclone. See below


----------



## GENTLEMEN (Sep 2, 2010)

Strange, though no two benchmark runs are ever the same, I just noticed lower FPS on other cards in the 2nd pic. HD5870 loses 10fps, while GTX480 loses 14fps


----------



## theonedub (Sep 2, 2010)

Maybe it has to do with the different drivers used during each test?


----------



## Completely Bonkers (Sep 2, 2010)

Wiz, there might be some out of date copy+paste text in there. You may need to update your review templates:



> While the graphics of Clear Sky are based on the first Stalker game engine, there are numerous improvements, including support for DirectX10 and depth-of-field/volumetric effects. *The 0.0 FPS scores for NVIDIA cards at 2560x1600 are caused by driver crashes which seem to be related to card with 512 MB memory and below*.


----------



## W1zzard (Sep 2, 2010)

mstenholm said:


> An interesting fact is that it some games perform worse then the 768 MB Cyclone.



explanation is below the specs table



Completely Bonkers said:


> Wiz, there might be some out of date copy+paste text in there. You may need to update your review templates:



this review doesnt include 512 mb nvidia cards, other reviews do


----------



## Madmanden (Sep 2, 2010)

mstenholm said:


> An interesting fact is that it some games perform worse then the 768 MB Cyclone. See below


If you look closely, you can see that all the cards on the right have lower fps. Take the 5850 for example. So you can't compare those two reviews/benchmarks directly.


----------



## mstenholm (Sep 2, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> explanation is below the specs table



Didn't see any explanation but as stated below it is a general problem for that particular game/bench.



Madmanden said:


> If you look closely, you can see that all the cards on the right have lower fps. Take the 5850 for example. So you can't compare those two reviews/benchmarks directly.


----------



## W1zzard (Sep 2, 2010)




----------



## GENTLEMEN (Sep 2, 2010)

Almost same setup, except for drivers and HDD used. Didn't see the small note under the test system thing


----------



## rodneyhchef (Sep 2, 2010)

Great review, just one small thing - the pic on the box is a F117A stealth fighter not stealth bomber (Northrop B2).


----------



## cadaveca (Sep 2, 2010)

Hey W1zz, Digg links are still not working.

Oreviously, clicking hte box in your post would pop up a window, and I could log into digg to submit. now the button changes when I click it, but no popup. 

I am not logged into DIGG.


----------



## W1zzard (Sep 2, 2010)

rodneyhchef said:


> Great review, just one small thing - the pic on the box is a F117A stealth fighter not stealth bomber (Northrop B2).



the f117a is a ground attack aircraft and definitely not a fighter plane. for some reason airforce picked F over the A designation which would be appropriate for this kind of plane


----------



## rodneyhchef (Sep 2, 2010)

All I'm saying is The 'stealth fighter' is the nickname for the F117A whereas the 'stealth bomber' is the nickname for another aircraft.

Stealth Bomber


----------



## Kumitsu (Sep 2, 2010)

Kumitsu said:


> W1zzard, any word on when youll be doing the GTX 460 1GB from Gigabyte ?
> alot of people have been buying it off from newegg.com and i believe its the card
> that has the most reviews right now avaliable.
> 
> only reason i ask is because i would like to see the max overclock stable,  and max overclock on voltage settings?



Any reply on this, please ?


----------



## W1zzard (Sep 2, 2010)

Kumitsu said:


> Any reply on this, please ?



dunno .. not really talking to anyone at gigabyte


----------



## SpaceManSpiff (Sep 2, 2010)

Thorough review as always, Wiz.  Your hard work really lets me know how my card is holding up, and where the value is.  However, your 'value and conclusion' always leaves me baffled.

I have a year-and-a-half old HIS 4890 running a comfortable 10% OC.  According to your reviews, it's still nearly as good as this 460.  I did a quick look at your 4890 reviews in the archives, and the best one only scored a 9.0 and a Recommended.

This brand new card gets a 9.4 and an Editors Choice?  If anything, I'd dock 'em for lack of adequate progress.


----------



## gvblake22 (Sep 2, 2010)

SpaceManSpiff said:


> Thorough review as always, Wiz.  Your hard work really lets me know how my card is holding up, and where the value is.  However, your 'value and conclusion' always leaves me baffled.
> 
> I have a year-and-a-half old HIS 4890 running a comfortable 10% OC.  According to your reviews, it's still nearly as good as this 460.  I did a quick look at your 4890 reviews in the archives, and the best one only scored a 9.0 and a Recommended.
> 
> This brand new card gets a 9.4 and an Editors Choice?  If anything, I'd dock 'em for lack of adequate progress.


Old review scores aren't continuously updated every time a new review is published.Each day that passes makes the final score less relevant but the content and general performance can always be compared (assuming they are all tested on the same hardware).

As for your performance comparison, a 21% improvement with an 18% reduction in max power consumption all at the same (or less) price point on launch isn't adequate?


----------



## SpaceManSpiff (Sep 3, 2010)

Actually, _average _power consumption is for the 460 is only 9w lower, which is only a 6% improvement.  If the 4890 is using old numbers, then I suppose they'd only get better with improved drivers (ATI always seems to be plagued by drivers).  I don't know where you are finding a 20% performance increase, as the 3DMark numbers are awfully close.  I suppose I'm expecting a lot better performance at this price point over a card that's a generation old.

I appreciate all the work Wiz does, but I'm baffled by how the value/conclusion is calculated.  I've always considered it to be skewed by opinion, which is why I largely ignore it and go with the test numbers instead.  With that in mind, I find this card to be quite underwhelming and not 9.4/Editors Choice material.


----------



## gvblake22 (Sep 3, 2010)

SpaceManSpiff said:


> I don't know where you are finding a 20% performance increase, as the 3DMark numbers are awfully close.  I suppose I'm expecting a lot better performance at this price point over a card that's a generation old.


Relative Performance at all Resolutions.
That averages the scores of all benchmarks at all resolutions.  The 4890 has 79% of the performance available on tap with the GTX 460.


SpaceManSpiff said:


> I appreciate all the work Wiz does, but I'm baffled by how the value/conclusion is calculated.  I've always considered it to be skewed by opinion, which is why I largely ignore it and go with the test numbers instead.  With that in mind, I find this card to be quite underwhelming and not 9.4/Editors Choice material.


I think it is mostly subjective, especially since there is no obvious rubrick or scoring anywhere else.  But yeah, W1zzard will have to comment on that.

Personally, I think it's a great card.  The GTX 460 1GB is reasonably priced (although I wish it were a little closer to the $200 mark) and offers very good performance, even at higher resolutions with AA.  The relatively moderate to low power consumption and more compact PCB is just icing on the cake.  I was saving up for a 5850, but I've switched my sights to the GTX 460 1GB now instead.


----------



## GSquadron (Sep 3, 2010)

Nice looking card


----------



## Cecil (Sep 5, 2010)

mstenholm said:


> An interesting fact is that it some games perform worse then the 768 MB Cyclone. See below
> [url]http://img.techpowerup.org/100902/battleforge_1920_1200_cyclone.gif[/URL][url]http://img.techpowerup.org/100902/battleforge_1920_1200_hawk.gif[/URL]


In those cases, the game isnt bottlenecked by the memory bandwith. When that happens, its bottlenecked by the core.


GENTLEMEN said:


> Strange, though no two benchmark runs are ever the same, I just noticed lower FPS on other cards in the 2nd pic. HD5870 loses 10fps, while GTX480 loses 14fps



You cant compare direct framerates, you have to compare by percentages. They both took an 18% hit.


----------



## puma99dk| (Sep 9, 2010)

i think it could be nice if u tried to use MSI Afterburner, W1zzard and adjusted the voltage alittle to see if u could hit 1ghz with this HAWK version of the GTX460 1GB ^^


----------



## W1zzard (Sep 9, 2010)

puma99dk| said:


> i think it could be nice if u tried to use MSI Afterburner, W1zzard and adjusted the voltage alittle to see if u could hit 1ghz with this HAWK version of the GTX460 1GB ^^



thanks for reading the review:

You can control GPU VCore, Memory voltage and PLL voltage.

I did spend some time with it and the maximum I reached was 940 MHz core and 1070 MHz memory. Please be advised that simply dragging the sliders up to the maximum is not the way to achieve such clocks. You have to carefully try moving up and down while testing stability and clocks to reach the right maximum. Changing PLL clock did not do anything noticeable for the clocks.

The range of voltage is quite limited (measured physically at the measure points):
VCore: 1.02 V ... 1.14 V (default) ... 1.24 V (+8.7%)
VMem: 1.47 V ... 1.58 V (default) ... 1.69 V (+7.0%)
PLL: 0.98 V ... 1.08 V (default) ... 1.11 V (+2.8 %)


----------



## puma99dk| (Sep 9, 2010)

no shit W1zzard with was more bcs of this: http://www.msi.com/index.php?news_no=1088&func=newsdesc

even ino not every card is identical but still, 1ghz on MSI's GTX460 HAWK should be in reach on almost every card still my own Gainward does 900mhz on the core at 1.125v i haven't tested furter.


----------



## W1zzard (Sep 9, 2010)

that's the result i got. nothing i can do about it. check the other reviews and come to your own conclusion what reviewers reach


----------



## Calle2003 (Sep 9, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> thanks for reading the review:
> 
> You can control GPU VCore, Memory voltage and PLL voltage.
> 
> ...


So this card has very high voltage since default voltage on GTX 460 is:
1.012 V (default) ... 1.087 V (max)
My card doesn't have measure points but I have measured the max with TechPowerUps GPU-Z and reached the max voltage (without modifying the BIOS) with MSI Afterburner.
Temps doesn't seem very high though, so it's safe to flash my MSI GTX 460 Cyclone 1GB with MSI N460GTX Hawk 1024 MB BIOS?

PS
Unfortunately I only reach 850 MHz@1.087 V VCore but I reach 4500 MHz memory with no voltage adjustments.


----------



## puma99dk| (Sep 9, 2010)

Calle2003 said:


> So this card has very high voltage since default voltage on GTX 460 is:
> 1.012 V (default) ... 1.087 V (max)
> My card doesn't have measure points but I have measured the max with TechPowerUps GPU-Z and reached the max voltage (without modifying the BIOS) with MSI Afterburner.
> Temps doesn't seem very high though, so it's safe to flash my MSI GTX 460 Cyclone 1GB with MSI N460GTX Hawk 1024 MB BIOS?
> ...



i won't use that bios if i was u, it's not made for ur card so no guarantee that it will work on ur Cyclone card bcs it isn't the same pcb in basic.


and to W1zzard ino, but still it could be cool seeing what the GTX460 HAWK could do at 1ghz and be on that on air


----------



## Calle2003 (Sep 9, 2010)

puma99dk| said:


> i won't use that bios if i was u, it's not made for ur card so no guarantee that it will work on ur Cyclone card bcs it isn't the same pcb in basic.
> 
> 
> and to W1zzard ino, but still it could be cool seeing what the GTX460 HAWK could do at 1ghz and be on that on air



Well I figured the same thing, I'm just so disappointed with my clock@850/1700/4000 but I can see you also have rather high voltage (1.125 V instead of the maximum 1.087 V). What clock did achieve before changing your BIOS?  
BTW I'm joining your GTX 460 club and I'm going to post a nice pic of my system!


----------



## puma99dk| (Sep 9, 2010)

Calle2003 said:


> Well I figured the same thing, I'm just so disappointed with my clock@850/1700/4000 but I can see you also have rather high voltage (1.125 V instead of the maximum 1.087 V). What clock did achieve before changing your BIOS?
> BTW I'm joining your GTX 460 club and I'm going to post a nice pic of my system!



atm i am stock at 900mhz core 1000mhz memory and 2000mhz shader i think i need a new cooler to get higher core clock but still i am happy atm with the 900mhz, and Calle2003 i actually modded my GS (Gold Sample) to GLH (Goes Like Hell) 

but i have posted at my GTX460 Club a link with unlocked voltage bios' for some GTX460 cards and Calle2003 u r more than well come, all with GTX460 cards are ^^


----------

