eVGA GTX 460 768MB Superclocked Review

The eVGA GTX 460 Superclocked card is supplied in a well designed, understated box. There is little information on the front apart from the model number and onboard memory amount. It is worth pointing out that in a few weeks nVidia will be releasing a 1GB version of the board which is slightly more expensive and is paired with a 256 bit bus for higher memory bandwidth (115.2 GB/s). It will also have 32 ROP units, not 24 as on the model we are reviewing today. According to nVidia it will also consume  slightly more power (nVidia quote 160 watts compared to 150 watts). Both cards are SLI capable, but be aware that there is a single SLi connector – so you can't daisy-chain more cards for more performance.

The back of the box contains a lot of generalised information on the hardware in various languages.

After removing the outer shell we are presented with an unusual egg crate shaped protective box (yep – you guessed it – this is the unusual egg laying contraption we've been running a competition on!). On the back is the manual, a driver disc and a mini HDMI to HDMI converter cable which is an extremely useful product to include. The Geforce GTX460 features enhanced audio support over HDMI, including bitstreaming support for Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio.

The manual is a handy little reference guide for the product which details instructions on how to fit the card. The disc contains a driver which has already been superseeded by a new driver from nVidia.

The card is very plainly designed and the first thing that we noticed was just how small it was. The fan is an 11 blade design which apparently spins a lot slower than the versions on the higher end Fermi cards, we will analyse noise later. Two copper heatpipes are paired with an extruded aluminum core to draw heat from the processor.

We took a shot of the GTX 460 next to a HD5870 and a Sapphire HD5670 Ultimate Edition for comparison purposes. The GTX 480 for instance is 10.5 inches long and the GTX 460 is only 8.25 inches. It is quite a compact card.

We like the black PCB and above you can see the rear of the card as well as the cooler mounting backplate.

The GTX460 requires two 6 pin power cables and the maximum power consumption is said to be in the region of 150Watts. We will look at this in detail later.

The card has two dual link DVI ports as a mini HDMI out. As stated earlier there is a mini HDMI to HDMI converter cable supplied.

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