NVIDIA Designs New GTX 460 SE Variant with 288 CUDA Cores, 256-bit Memory

[btarunr]

NVIDIA is designing a new variant of its GeForce GTX 460 graphics processor, the GeForce GTX 460 SE. Based on the 40 nm GF104 silicon, it's positioned below the GTX 460 768 MB. It has 288 CUDA cores (6/8 streaming multiprocessors enabled, compared to 7/8 on the other GTX 460 variants), but uses the complete 256-bit wide memory interface, with GDDR5 memory. The GPU and memory are clocked at 650/1300 MHz DDR, compared to 670/1350 MHz DDR on the other GTX 460 variants. No information regarding pricing/availability is available.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

whats it competing with?

 

[KainXS]

you know i don't even know why they would make something like this it, seeing as it has 256bit it should have 32 rops and be in between the GTX460 192bit and the GTX460 256 336sp

 

[theonedub]

Like to see the pricing. Seems like it might be better to pick up something like this over the GTS 450 if the price difference is small.

 

[afw]

It would be better if they release this needing only 1 x 6-pin power connector ... even Galaxy came up with a single 6-pin GTX 460 IIRC .. so why need 2 connectors for this which has less cores ... and lower clock speeds ... :shadedshu

 

[Cpt.Derrek]

Hmm seems like just a way to use up lesser binned GF104 GPUs to me. I don't like how Nvidia has now 3 different GTX 460s all with different performance levels.

 

[alwayssts]

whats it competing with?

A quick number crunch puts it somewhere around 90% the speed of a GTX460 768MB...IE exactly what the 768MB is to the 1GB on average. It's closest competition would be the 5830 which is EOL and has no replacement in sight. In essence, this could be a smart call for nVIDIA if priced right because it will be essentially what everyone wanted from a 5830 but it failed to deliver because of how much it was maimed; A product that bridges the gap between 5770/5850 and overclocks to the next segment. This almost certainly will accomplish that (~6850 performance?).

Short answer: Faster product than 5770, cheaper than 6850...A viable 460 768MB replacement that may be priced less so nVIDIA can rid themselves of this special combo of all working ROPs and two faulty shader cores.

A much easier way to explain projected relative stock performance almost to the letter:

GTX 260 216 ~ 460 SE
GTX 275/280 ~ 460 768MB
GTX 285 ~ 460 1GB

 

[wolf]

now they're just taunting us... they must be saving up all of the top binning GF104's for something grand.

 

[motasim]

now they're just taunting us... they must be saving up all of the top binning GF104's for something grand.

... I hope that they'll release this "grand"something soon, otherwise it's going to be too late ...

 

[HalfAHertz]

..aand this little piggy is confused.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

We've been expecting them to release GF104 variants with more unlocked cores, not the other way around..

Are yields worse than we though?

 

[the54thvoid]

It's closest competition would be the 5830 which is EOL and has no replacement in sight. In essence, this could be a smart call for nVIDIA if priced right because it will be essentially what everyone wanted from a 5830 but it failed to deliver because of how much it was maimed; A product that bridges the gap between 5770/5850 and overclocks to the next segment. This almost certainly will accomplish that (~6850 performance?).

Umm... Not sure about that one.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6850/28.html

GTX 460 768 is 91% (all res summary) of 6850, so this at 90% (your workings) of a 768mb 460 would be ~80% performance of a 6850.

I think it's suicide for the 450's. The 6850 and the 768mb 460 trade blows well enough.

 

[HalfAHertz]

I have to agree, it looks more like a competitor for the hd5770

 

[Atom_Anti]

We've been expecting them to release GF104 variants with more unlocked cores, not the other way around.

Yeah, however the new SE variant with 1GB memory going to be more popular than the predecessor. Most of consumer cares about the memory size and 1GB sounds better than 768MB. Consumers might also thinks SE means Special or Second and not Shit Edition. Nvidia should include SE = Shit Edition with small characters on the bottom of the box.

 

[Swamp Monster]

I'm allergic to SE edition cards. Last time I bought one "Special Edition",
it was Radeon 9600 SE AGP With disabled half of display pipelines and half of Default memory bus. No more "SE" for me.

 

[DarthCyclonis]

I'm allergic to SE edition cards. Last time I bought one "Special Edition",
it was Radeon 9600 SE AGP With disabled half of display pipelines and half of Default memory bus. No more "SE" for me.

Both AMD and Nvidia should label cards like this as CE (Crippled Edition) not SE. Or even call it the GTX 455. This is just going to confuse every day consumers and have them spending money on what they believe is a full version of the 460. I'm sure this is what the N team wants but it is not right.

 

[the54thvoid]

The price diff in the UK is also only about £25 between a 450 and a 460. Doesn't seem to make much sense at all.

 

[Ren7on]

This is what the GTS 450 never be.

 

[newtekie1]

I think this is a smart move considering how memory limitted the GTX460 768MB becomes in some games, even at 1080p resolution.

I guess nVidia needs some way to get rid of the super defective GF104 cores. I'd prefer they release a GTX460 384SP version myself though.

 

[alucasa]

460 GTX SE is Nvidia's I-need-more-attention edition card.

 

[HalfAHertz]

I think this is a smart move considering how memory limitted the GTX460 768MB becomes in some games, even at 1080p resolution.

I guess nVidia needs some way to get rid of the super defective GF104 cores. I'd prefer they release a GTX460 384SP version myself though.

I can bet a shinny penny that those cores are not defective but cut on purpose. and 768mb is plenty for 19x12. You'd reach the card's fillrate limit long before you run out of memory imo. I think that this was a bad marketing move. If they needed to fill a price gap, an overclocked GF106 core would have been cheaper and more effective than this. I guess there was an over-supply of GF104 cores?

 

[wolf]

I can bet a shinny penny that those cores are not defective but cut on purpose. and 768mb is plenty for 19x12. You'd reach the card's fillrate limit long before you run out of memory imo. I think that this was a bad marketing move. If they needed to fill a price gap, an overclocked GF106 core would have been cheaper and more effective than this. I guess there was an over-supply of GF104 cores?

exactly, theres still 8 rops and 64-bit of the memory bus waiting on the GF106 core, which IMO would make it quite beastly given the clock speeds it's capable of.

commmme onnnnnn 384 sp's.... dual gpu... something!

 

[wahdangun]

wow, sub $200 card will be cramped with this card, but if it means lower price, i'm all for it

 

[Disparia]

Sounds like a model for OEM builders. They get to advertise a Special Edition with 1GB and 256bits, while quietly ignoring the rest of the specs. Like HD's that look like the retail model, but with half or quarter the cache.

 

[newtekie1]

I can bet a shinny penny that those cores are not defective but cut on purpose.

Normally I would agree, but I don't know here. I think some might still be functional units, but I'm betting there was a good batch or two that had enough failed SPs that releasing this SKU was the only way to use them.

and 768mb is plenty for 19x12. You'd reach the card's fillrate limit long before you run out of memory imo.

Ask erocker about his success running Dirt2 at 1920x1200 with GTX460 768MB cards in SLi. The cards hit the memory barrier. And I know Metro cranked up exceeds 768MB also.

I think that this was a bad marketing move. If they needed to fill a price gap, an overclocked GF106 core would have been cheaper and more effective than this. I guess there was an over-supply of GF104 cores?

Or an oversupply of defective GF104 cores.

Though a better fill for this price point would have been a 192-bit GF106, IMO.