NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 Reference Design Pictured

[btarunr]

Here are the first pictures of NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 460 graphics card, an upper-mainstream model based on the company's new GF104 GPU which was pictured earlier. The pictures reveal the reference design card to be shorter than any of the GF100-based graphics cards (such as GTX 470, GTX 480), and compacted in many ways. The cooler is dual-slot, and instead of an air-channel that's draws air from the interior and blows it out from the rear, the cooler has a centrally-located fan right over the GPU. As expected from the older article, the GPU package indeed is rectangular in shape rather than square.

The PCB is black, though a green PCB cannot be written off given the product's positioning. There are traces for eight memory chips on the card (looking at the components on the reverse-side of the PCB), confirming a 256-bit wide memory interface, though six chips are occupied (indicating that for this SKU only, a 192-bit wide memory interface is used. There is only one SLI finger showing that it only supports 2-way SLI multi-GPU standard. Connectivity on the rear panel is consists of the usual 2x DVI-D and mini-HDMI. Power is drawn in by two 6-pin PCI-E power inputs. Other specifications include DirectX 11 compliance, 336 CUDA cores, 768 MB of 192-bit GDDR5 memory (or another SKU with 1 GB of 256-bit GDDR5 memory), and clock speeds of 675 MHz core, 1350 MHz shader (CUDA cores), and 900 MHz (or 3600 MHz effective) memory. The GTX 460 768 MB is expected to launch next month at a price of US $230.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[francis511]

Would this be faster than a gtx 275 performance-wise ?

 

[KainXS]

230 dollars they better drop that to 199 before they launch that thing

maybe a 260

 

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

looks weak

 

[douglatins]

Wow they decided to change the cooling? This seems like an aftermarket one. Looks to perform better than blower ones. So does it heat up?

 

[btarunr]

Wow they decided to change the cooling? This seems like an aftermarket one. Looks to perform better than blower ones. So does it heat up?

It's the reference one. Under the shroud, it's got spirally-projecting aluminum fins (just like Intel stock CPU cooler). Two copper heatpipes seem to project out of the base (which is also copper), to a common heatspreader that cools memory and VRM.

 

[Yellow&Nerdy?]

So, finally something mainstream-ish from Nvidia. Not really sure about the price though, because it puts it against the 5830, and if we take to notice, that the GTX465 already is slower than the 5850, and this card has less shader-cores, memory interface and memory itself, it's probably overpriced.

 

[douglatins]

It's the reference one. Under the shroud, it's got spirally-projecting aluminum fins (just like Intel stock CPU cooler). Two copper heatpipes seem to project out of the base (which is also copper), to a common heatspreader that cools memory and VRM.

They totally copied 5850 toxic cards

 

[SeanG]

I dont see the point of this card?The 470 is barely faster in most games than a 275 if you play in directx11.If you dont play directx11 games like me,its pointless.What im trying to say is,If you play a directx11 game with my 260 in directx10,you will probably get less fps with this card in directx11.

 

[ebolamonkey3]

That launch price is fail. What happened to under $200 MSRP? Radeon 5830s can be had for $200 or less now, and is faster than this card, so I don't see what the point of this product is, once again.

 

[crow1001]

Weak and expensive = bad combination, nVfail when it comes to pricing cards, ripoff. :shadedshu

 

[Benetanegia]

I dont see the point of this card?The 470 is barely faster in most games than a 275 if you play in directx11.If you dont play directx11 games like me,its pointless.What im trying to say is,If you play a directx11 game with my 260 in directx10,you will probably get less fps with this card in directx11.

That can be said about every card. Apples to apples (same settings) the 470 is almost twice as fast as the 260. And in fact DX11 is faster than DX10 when the same settings are used. Of course if you enable DX11 features, framerates drop, but it looks better too. If you tone down the settings enough a 8800GT will get exactly the same frames than your 260, and can subjectively look the same too.

 

[OnBoard]

Only thing I hate about this card at the moment is the mounting holes, NO aftermarket cooler will fit that. Horrible horrible thing to do yet again. There would be a gazillion of cooler that could be used on this, but no, lets make holes rectangle too so not even the newest Fermi compatible coolers will work.

 

[Benetanegia]

Regarding the 460, there's no way of knowing with certainty how this card will perform. If the rumors that the full version of GF104 is made of 16 clusters of 24 SPs is true (and it looks like that's the case since 384/332 cannot be divided by 32, but 24) it might very well perform better than most think. If you look into GTX4xx results compared to the GTX2xx results the performance increase is in line with the cluster increase (10 on GT200, 16 on Fermi) rather than the SP increase. Especially on DX10 level engines, GF104 may perform 50% faster than GT200 since it will have 50% more shaders and those shaders are grouped the same way, unlike in GF100 where they are grouped in larger clusters.

So it wouldn't surprise me one bit if GF104 derivatives perform close or even better on occasions than Fermi derivatives (470/465) with much higher SP count, but lower cluster number. I think that GF104 will perform very well compared to GF100 on current games, but GF100 will obliterate it (and other current GPUs) once that new engines start popping up (if that ever happens before PS4, "Xbox720" launch, which tbh seems pretty unlikely at the moment, as sad as it is).

 

[Lionheart]

Hmmm this looks like a good physX card, not Like I need it

 

[Flanker]

any chance of this thing being more efficient than fermi derivatives?

 

[Benetanegia]

any chance of this thing being more efficient than fermi derivatives?

Chances, many. Nothing sure.

GF100's problem is not in the architecture, but the chip itself and the process, so chances are many, but it all depends how late GF100 and GF104 developments took different paths.

 

[SeanG]

That can be said about every card. Apples to apples (same settings) the 470 is almost twice as fast as the 260. And in fact DX11 is faster than DX10 when the same settings are used. Of course if you enable DX11 features, framerates drop, but it looks better too. If you tone down the settings enough a 8800GT will get exactly the same frames than your 260, and can subjectively look the same too.

Yeah but the difference is,my 260 cost $159.00 and this is almost $100 more for a little better eye candy and same fps.And with the same settings running my 260 in directx10 and the 470 in directx11,the 470 isnt twice as fast in the same game.I have seen plenty of people complain that they upgraded from a 260 to a 470 running different directx and fps was the same.

 

[Benetanegia]

Yeah but the difference is,my 260 cost $159.00 and this is almost $100 more for a little better eye candy and same fps.And with the same settings running my 260 in directx10 and the 470 in directx11,the 470 isnt twice as fast in the same game.I have see plenty of people complain that they upgraded from a 260 to a 470 running different directx and fps was the same.

No way. They either have a problem on their PC or the card is faulty. Or... this:

Let's see if we clear this out. Take both cards use the 260 on DX10 and 470 on DX11, but use the same settings (I'm aware this is not always possible), that is, do not use DX11 only features like tesselation and the 470 rapes the 260 big time.

Problem is that many games use higher settings (this means more accurate lighting and shadows, higher resolution post effects, etc) when DX11 is enabled, because they assume you have a much faster card and in fact, you do, but yeah the effect is that you may get similar fps. The visual improvement is there tho and if you are not able to see it, you shouldn't have invested in a new card to begin with. There's still the fact that when used under DX10 the new cards are almost twice as fast, except the highest end versus previous generation highest end, because of what I said above. Since usually only 2-3 clusters are disabled the lower derivatives fare better against their predecessor, like 470 fares much better against 260 than 480 does against 280.

280 10 clusters
480 15 clusters
50% improvement

260 8 clusters
470 14 clusters
75% improvement

EDIT: Let me note, that I understand your point, but I do not agree in the complain. Fact of the matter is that I'm still on a 9800GTX+ and not because I cannot afford a new card. It's because I can play every game out there with enough eye candy and the improvements that newer cards can offer are not enough to bother going to a PC shop. The thing is that I'm very aware of the visual improvements, but I do not consider them enough to bother me when I'm playing. Objectively, the difference (in the settings that are posible) is enormous between my 9800GTX and your 260 and again between 260 and 470, but subjectively I refuse to upgrade in order to play a game that is a console port anyway. I'm waiting for Crysis2 or id tech 5 (or maybe Source Engine 2? haha) in order to upgrade (and still, we'll see).

 

[SeanG]

The fact is,I see plenty of people post thier BFBC2 fps in forums and they get the same as i do with full settings.The only difference is directx version.

 

[pjladyfox]

Let's see if we clear this out. Take both cards use the 260 on DX10 and 470 on DX11, but use the same settings (I'm aware this is not always possible), that is, do not use DX11 only features like tesselation and the 470 rapes the 260 big time.

I think the point he's trying to make is that most of the time when you get a new generation of cards they're supposed to perform better than the previous generation cards. Sure, you get the extra eye candy but outside of the additional eye candy you still wind up with the same performance as the previous generation card. The only way where the newer one seems to dominate is when you drop the eye candy features off which makes it a decision of is the extra eye candy worth it if all you are going to get is the same performance numbers?

A new card is supposed to dominate on all levels not just on the aspect of better eye candy is I think the general idea that most expect. *shrug*

 

[Benetanegia]

The fact is,I see plenty of people post thier BFBC2 fps in forums and they get the same as i do with full settings.The only difference is directx version.

Man, but DX11 full settings is not the same as DX10 full settings. Not with BC2, but I can say the same about my 9800GTX in other games. Crysis for example. I can post very similar fps on this 9800GTX+ under DX9 as you can with your card. Both on Very High settings. But fact of the matter is that my DX9 Very High is not the same very high as yours.

 

[SeanG]

Yeah but what im trying to say is it worth the eye candy?I have seen games in directx10 compared to directx11 and i have never seen a $200 difference.In fact besides bricks looking more like bricks and heads being rounder,you would never notice the difference in a first person shooter with all the action around.

 

[Benetanegia]

So your point is that DX11 is pointless, not the card. I mean no single card out there can render DX11 full settings as fast as the previous generation of cards can do DX10.

Like I said, like you, I do not consider the improved eye candy enough to make me upgrade, but it's undoubtely there.

You may not need a 240 bhp car and have enough with a 120 bhp one, especially since you are going to be limited by your country's top speed limit, but the 240 one is not pointless (it has other extras other than speed, like responsiveness). You might not find it usefull or worthy. Does not mean that it isn't.

I don't even have a car now. The one I had broke and I'm using public since then. You get the point of what I'm saying?

 

[NdMk2o1o]

Yeah but what im trying to say is it worth the eye candy?I have seen games in directx10 compared to directx11 and i have never seen a $200 difference.In fact besides bricks looking more like bricks and heads being rounder,you would never notice the difference in a first person shooter with all the action around.

Go get yourself a 9800gt and stick to dx9 then.

It is the same with every dx version, from 9-10 the fps dropped as the eye candy was somewhat improved