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Today we are concentrating on SLI performance – we have focused on several GTX460 cards in the past. With recent price drops a GTX460 SLI configuration is well within the financial means of a dedicated enthusiast gamer. We have seen these Gigabyte boards selling for £175 inc vat, a very reasonable price indeed.
Our system today is built around one of our fastest KitGuru test beds based on an overclocked Intel 6 core 970 processor. We will test today at 1080p, 1920×1200 and 2560×1600 when applicable. We don't like completely focusing on 2560×1600 because a very small percentage of gamers own one of these panels (under 1%).
Processor: Intel Core i7 970 CPU @4.33ghz (Validation here)
Cooling: Coolit Vantage
Memory: GSkill Trident 2000mhz DDR3 (6GB)
PSU: Corsair AX850
Motherboard: MSI X58A-GD65
Hard Drive: OCZ Agility 2 120GB
Case: Lian Li PC 8FIB
Monitors: LaCie 730 30 inch LED screen & Panasonic 600hz Viera TV
Comparison cards:
MSI Cyclone N460GTX 1GB
GTX465 Reference
GTX460 Reference
HD5850 Reference
HD5830 Reference
HD5870 CrossfireX
Catalyst 10.9
Forceware 260.52
Technical Equipment:
Keithley Integra unit
Thermal Diodes
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp
SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter (6-130dBa)
Software:
Fraps Pro
Unigine Heaven Benchmark 2.1
3DMark Vantage
Crysis
Resident Evil 5
Aliens V Predator
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Far Cry 2
All the latest bios updates and WHQL drivers are used during testing. We perform under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru test all games across five closely matched runs and average out the results to get an accurate median figure.
Our minimum frame rate game graphs have three main zones. These are sampled over a specific 30 interval period of time and then mapped into a chart. These are handy reference guides to detail worst case performance of the product being reviewed.
Over 30fps is the zone most people want at all times, this means perfectly smooth frame rates with no hitching.
Between 30fps and 25fps is the KitGuru ‘Playable’ zone, although some people might notice occasional stuttering in specific scenes.
Under 25fps is classed as the KitGuru ‘Danger Zone’ which means that the game experience will be less than impressive. Settings and/or resolution would need lowered to help smooth out the frame rate.
That is a fantastic board. SLi scaling is impressive, always has been.
Good all round boards, but I keep wondering if it is just too little to late. rumours on the net say ATIs next solutions are out in a months time.
I love the 460, only card from nvidia ive rated in 2 years. 450 not so much.
SLI performance is strong. these cards overclock liike crazy
ermm dont these seem a bit expensive compared to 460s at 145-150 ?
the cheaper models are normally 768mb versions though, not worth picking up
I still think the HD5850 is a better buy. its faster and with AMD you get better drivers and support.
5850 is priced higher + not always faster card, thus not the best buy… yet…
I agree with Jordan – HD5850 is quite a bit more expensive still.
Unless you get a HD5850 on a sale deal, its costing more. and if you manually OC these 460s you get HD5850 performance anyway. thats the whole selling point from nvidia.
Nvidia re panicing tho. they know ATis new cards are coming soon. its a reduced sale to sell as many cards as possible before everyone goes back to ATi.
everyone needs to stop calling them ATI 😉 that name is no more. unfortunately
lol yeah, i dont think anyone cares about the name change
AMD better pull their socks up some and get their new cards to market since the GTX 460’s in SLI are so close to 5870 in Crossfire for half the price