So there you have it. nVidia has a Fermi card in the market that makes perfect sense. While you can’t argue with the overall top speed of the GTX 480 (in the same way that we all know drag racing cars are amazing over a quarter mile), it really isn’t practical for most people to spend over £400 for a single card.
The GTX 465 succeeds in delivering Fermi to the masses. It’s that simple. This is a proper, next generation nVidia card at a much more affordable price.
Is it perfect? Far from it. nVidia has obviously hit a series of problems (not least of which is the dollar rate), which means that the GTX 465 is probably around £50 more expensive that it needs to be if it really wanted to shake AMD’s tree. It’s clearly a better product than the 5830 but by the same token, it’s clearly not more powerful than the 5850.
Each generation of graphic card produces its ‘golden child’. For nVidia, the 6800GT was one such card. Same for those lucky people who bought an early 8800GT card (which still plays many games well today).
At £199 inc vat, the GTX 465 would be nVidia’s ‘golden child’ of the Fermi generation. But it isn’t £199, it’s probably going to be just over £250. With the benchmarks we’ve seen, at that price point, it’s definitely worth buying if you are an nVidia fan, but it’s not a ‘must have’ product.
One note of warning to the Radeon fans out there. nVidia is investing an arm, leg and half a merchant bank in TWIMTBP titles for the second half of the year. Given nVidia’s success in influencing code over the years, don’t be surprised if the GTX 465 improves greatly. Improved drivers and a lower price could make this into a vintage card that just gets better with age. KitGuru is a wizened sommelier, with a nose for such things. This card is not a classic now, but has the potential.
KitGuru says: Fermi at a reasonable price, we like it. Want to know if we like it more when it’s been overclocked? Stay tuned!
Discuss over here in our forums or just leave a quick message below.
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May 31, 2010
#1
Thats actually a really good card. thanks for the unbiased and impartial results
May 31, 2010
#2
its still quite hot for a mid range card but compared to the higher end models its pretty cool. Nice performance.
May 31, 2010
#3
5850 is definiately faster overall but it holds onto it pretty well. if you dont like ATI drivers this is a good option.
May 31, 2010
#4
Interesting results – but the pricing is off. thanks for explaining why though, I will wait for it to drop a little over the next month. my next card!
May 31, 2010
#5
I was expecting the 465GTX to score a little better, but its clearly outclassed by the 5850. That said, for nvidia fans this is a good option, just seems a little too little , too late.
May 31, 2010
#6
Funny text in places, gave me a chuckle. 5850 is a better card which this review verifies but the 465 is better than I thought it was going to be.
May 31, 2010
#7
260 is too much money for this. 200 quid id be tempted. nothing more.
May 31, 2010
#8
excuse my english – 255 will be how much euros?
May 31, 2010
#9
bit disappointed, thought it would be the class leader
May 31, 2010
#10
drop the price nvidia, get into the real world !
May 31, 2010
#11
good review, informative. it seems to hold its own again the strong AMD competition, noise seems ok, temps a bit hot, but not like 480. all in all a pretty good card, even if its late to the table.
May 31, 2010
#12
better than I expected, nice card. drop the price.
May 31, 2010
#13
I am not really that impressed . it should be beating the 5850, its more expensive, later to market and runs hotter while consuming more power. Why is everyone so positive about this?
May 31, 2010
#14
I agree with long jumper – why is this being received so positively?
May 31, 2010
#15
because ATI drivers suck, thats why. people are prepared to pay a little extra for forceware, its well known
May 31, 2010
#16
Thats actually quite a good card, nice performer. Temps are still a bit worrying for me to be honest, I don’t have a great case at home.
May 31, 2010
#17
5850 is still better and actually cheaper, dont know what nvidia are thinking
May 31, 2010
#18
Nice nice nice, I like it. I prefer nvidia cards to ATI and this is next on my list. ill do some shopping around to see if I can get a bit of a deal on one.
May 31, 2010
#19
I was expecting this to be crap, its not bad. still cant believe how hot they get though, thats really poor design methodology from nv
May 31, 2010
#20
surprised kitguru got a sample after all the ermm interesting nvidia news reportage lately.
Still have to say, good unbiased review. seems to be a capable board. good job,
May 31, 2010
#21
Its pretty close to HD5850, which is good enough for me. ill have one
May 31, 2010
#22
very nice, thanks
May 31, 2010
#23
too hot for me, i like my cards cold. will wait on third party cooler to come out. hopefully by then the price has dropped also as they cost a bit much right now. good to see why they cost more though in the conclusion.
May 31, 2010
#24
not a flop at all. I bet KitGuru are gutted they couldnt slag it off
May 31, 2010
#25
im impressed with the review, thanks for the coverage so soon.
May 31, 2010
#26
Overpriced, too hot. no thanks.
May 31, 2010
#27
This is a total flop. its far too late and offers no performance improvements over 5850, it actually costs more too ! WTF!
May 31, 2010
#28
wise up NV, almost 90 c under load when overclocked? could double up as a good egg frier. toasty, far too toasty
May 31, 2010
#29
AMD really have this market still in their pocket. If NV drop the price by £30-50 quid then its a different story, but its still AMDs market.
May 31, 2010
#30
You AMD fanbois need to shut up. this is a wicked card, the review shows its actually very close in some and WINS IN OTHERS! I wouldnt touch AMD with a 10 foot pole, cause the drivers such azz.
May 31, 2010
#31
[...] 465 @ HardwareHeaven Zotac GTX 465 and EVGA GTX 465 Superclocked @ HotHardware Zotac GeForce GTX 465 @ KitGuru Zotac GeForce GTX 465 @ TechPowerUp Zotac GeForce GTX 465 @ Tom’s Hardware [...]
May 31, 2010
#32
[...] KitGuru [...]
May 31, 2010
#33
Sam, NVIDIA recently had drivers which bricked cards. I don’t think AMD got to that level.
May 31, 2010
#34
@Vivian: My guess is that it will be almost the same from $ to £ to €
May 31, 2010
#35
[...] Kitguru (Zotac) | Hardware Canucks (eVGA) | Hardware Canucks (ASUS) | Hardware Heaven | Techpowerup | XBit Labs | Hot Hardware | PC Perspective (Galaxy) | Legit Reviews | Techarp [...]
May 31, 2010
#36
300 euros I hear.
May 31, 2010
#37
[...] Zotac GTX465 Review: Full-on, affordable Fermi?… Filed under: Graphics, Highlights Latest Previews [...]
May 31, 2010
#38
Good review – I wouldnt touch ATI cards with a bargepole. last card I had the drivers were absolutely shite
May 31, 2010
#39
The ATI drivers are really good now, I prefer them for watching movies on my tv for instance, the controls work so much better for vibrance, noise reduction and sharpness.
June 1, 2010
#40
[...] the market ahead of the retail launch of nVidia’s GTX 465 card. As you know, this card delivers decent performance at almost the right price. But can you buy [...]
June 1, 2010
#41
You probably just forgot to test power usage, but this card almost takes as much juice as the 470.
I bet NVIDIA is glad you forgot.
June 1, 2010
#42
I actually didn’t get time to start running power consumption tests however nvidia have rated the card at 200watts against the 470 at 215watts. 480 is 250 watts. Interestingly they say “TDP is a measure of maximum power draw over time in real world applications. It does not represent the maximum power draw in pathological cases such as Furmark.”
June 1, 2010
#43
@Zardon: How does one achieve the proper FurMark anyway ?
June 2, 2010
#44
[...] Right for Rehabilitation – X-bit labs techPowerUp :: ZOTAC GeForce GTX 465 Review :: Page 1 / 33 Zotac GTX 465 Review: Full-on, affordable Fermi? | KitGuru I didn't go past the Temperature, Noise and Power Consumption sections… Seriously a single page [...]