GTX 460 | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Mon, 06 Sep 2010 12:40:52 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png GTX 460 | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 GTX460 drops another $10 – nVidia prepares to lose millions https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/faith/gtx460-drops-another-10-nvidia-prepares-to-lose-millions/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/faith/gtx460-drops-another-10-nvidia-prepares-to-lose-millions/#comments Mon, 06 Sep 2010 09:39:20 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=15579 If the stories flowing out of the Far East were not so juicy, we'd have given up on covering nVidia price moves a LONG time ago. But the juice is there, it makes KitGuru all excited and then we start typing. Damn the addiction, when you just can't get enough. It is saucy stuff. Prepare …

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If the stories flowing out of the Far East were not so juicy, we'd have given up on covering nVidia price moves a LONG time ago. But the juice is there, it makes KitGuru all excited and then we start typing. Damn the addiction, when you just can't get enough. It is saucy stuff. Prepare to salivate.

Our sources are hot and spicy and rarely wrong. GTX460 down by $30 in a week!

Initial stories about the new GTX460 price drop, reported exclusively on KitGuru, now appear to have missed the mark. We'd heard that Jay Puri and Jen Hsun Huang were looking to drop the price of the fastest selling Fermi card ever, by $20.

Nope.

We're now hearing that the boys in charge don't think $20 will be enough to stem the tide of the Rise of the Radeons in the DX11 space. Santa Clara SkyNet is looking to declare total war and has increase the price drop by a whopping 50%.

What the hell is going to happen with the GTS450 price when it launches at the start of next week – moments after the hugely popular GTX460 drops $30?

OK. We're a curious mixture of excited and bemused. Time to calm down and look at what this kind of price move means for nVidia.

With the GTX460 in full flow, sales have been good. One look at the Steam Powered Status Survey tells you that the GTX is moving fast through the channel. KitGuru understands that massive orders for GTX460 were placed over the past 3 weeks, but nVidia's biggest and most loyal customers.

When you move the price significantly, you need to price protect your friends. At $30 a card, for a huge number of recent orders, that's a lot of money. If there were 67,000 GTX460 cards in the global channel, then that price protection would hit Two Million Dollars. That's a hell of a marketing budget, in anyone's language.

Is it reasonable to assume there were 67,000 cards in the channel that needed protecting? Good question. We honestly don't know.  Let's play with some numbers and see.  The American market is probably around 15% of the global demand for graphics, with EMEAI is around 55% and Asia-Pacific makes up the remaining 30%.  55% into EMEAI would mean just under 37,000 cards. If you take the UK, Germany, France, Middle East & Africa, India, Nordics, Benelux, Central Europe, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe to be ‘one slice each', then you have 37,000 divided by 10 which is [reaches for calculator – Ed] 3,700 cards per zone. Over a 2-3 week period.

It might not be right but, to KitGuru, it sounds as though it might be in the right ballpark.

At the next quarterly results meeting, there are sure to be questions asked about why nVidia offset millions of dollars to price protect a drop on its most popular card.

KitGuru says: One thing is for certain, ahead of the Northern Islands launches (whenever that might happen), AMD will be coming under some pressure to finally change the pricing it's had for the Radeon 5000 series. Finally. Which is good for everyone. Right?   Cue Two Tribes theme music.

Comments below please!

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nVidia drops the price of GTX460 another $20 https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/faith/nvidia-drops-the-price-of-gtx460-another-20/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/faith/nvidia-drops-the-price-of-gtx460-another-20/#comments Sat, 04 Sep 2010 17:27:39 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=15396 If KitGuru had known that nVidia would be announcing weekly price cuts, we would have hired an intern to write these stories. The GTX460 is easily the most popular of the Fermi cards released so far, so why another price cut?  KitGuru empties the bins around nVidia's HQ in Theale, looking for an answer. This …

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If KitGuru had known that nVidia would be announcing weekly price cuts, we would have hired an intern to write these stories. The GTX460 is easily the most popular of the Fermi cards released so far, so why another price cut?  KitGuru empties the bins around nVidia's HQ in Theale, looking for an answer.

This time last year, nVidia's sales force were overheard telling customers that it was time for AMD employees to update their CVs, because ‘Fermi is coming'. While that career advice might have been a little premature, Fermi is now starting to prove its worth and it's beginning to provide a viable alternative to the AMD Radeon HD 5000 series in the DX11 space. But are the new, affordable, Fermi products coming to market too slowly?

Over the last 2 weeks, we have seen Black-Ops marketing taken to new levels by both AMD and nVidia.

Normally, new graphics drivers are carefully scanned to ensure that no unreleased product names are contained in the code. nVidia's latest driver showed that it's finally ready to launch the 420 etc products that KitGuru publicised back in May. In the same month, AMD went one step further by ‘driver announcing' that it has a complete new generation of cards ready to go – the Northern Islands refresh to the 5000 series.

nVidia shareholders won't mind Jay Puri relaxing with some karaoke, as long as he does not start to sing the blues

Right now, Jen Hsun Huang (CEO) and Jay Puri (VP Sales) must be utterly conflicted. Looking at the massive Steam Power Stats Survey, nVidia is sitting on 59% of the overall graphics market space. Now that's a figure any company would be proud of.

At the same time, nVidia positions itself as a technology leader, which means it wants to be doing best in the newer markets. As August drew to a close, the independent Steam Powered DX11 statistics read 87% Radeon and 13% GeForce. With these publicly available numbers to chew on, how did we think nVidia's head honchos would react?

Looking closely at the Steam Powered data, the majority of the people buying DX11 are those with existing DX9 cards. To us, this means a gamer who's upgrading to a complete, next generation rig, which they will hang onto for a good while. That's a lot of sales revenue gone and no easy chance to re-sell into the same user for a couple of years. nVidia is ambitious and wants a bigger slice of that DX11 pie.

One thing that looks set to help is the launch of the GTS450 product, which we predicted would be in stores on 14th September (Flags of our Predictions – back at the start of July). That prediction is still looking safe.

So will the new launch be enough for Jen Hsun and Jay?  Not Likely. What else might they do to try and gain parity in the DX11 market?

Something surprising? You bet!

When we just heard from our Far East nVidia sources that another $20 price cut has been made to the GTX460. KitGuru was shocked.

Cutting the price of the GTX470 seemed an obvious move, because it was simply not competitive against the HD 5850 at launch. The same is true for the high-end GTX480 price cuts.

But with the apparently popular GTX460 already down around the £145 mark (with sales tax), in the UK and USA, the landing spot for pricing on the GTS450 product has become very small. Think ‘Eagle landing on moon' small.

KitGuru originally predicted that the GTS450 cards would be in the £99 to £129 range – depending on clock speed and memory. If the GTX460 drops to £130 or less in the next week or so, then we have to say the £129 upper limit for the GTS450 is looking unlikely. It's too close. No one would pay £129 for a GTS450 when they can have a GTX460 for the same money.

Another $20 off the already reduced GTX460 will make it competitive, but what fate the GTS450?

Normally, a graphics company would want the biggest sensible price gap between each product and, certainly, when a new product is launching the last thing you do is drop a much faster product down in price, to sit right next to it. Interesting times!

KitGuru says: We really don't understand this price cut. Sure, it represents great value to KitGuru readers who were interested in the GTX460, but were looking for a bit more value. It also makes GTX460 SLi very attractive, but the GTS450 is also supposed to be followed by a slightly quicker GTS455 (GTX460 fall out part). If that happens, where can it possibly slide into this product stack? We are really asking.

Intelligent explanations welcome below, we stand ready to be educated on the intricacies of product placement.

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Zotac GTX460 AMP! Edition Review https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/zotac-gtx460-amp-edition-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/zotac-gtx460-amp-edition-review/#comments Tue, 17 Aug 2010 13:59:14 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=12728 nVidia's GTX460 is without a doubt the strongest card in their current lineup, the pricing is right and the performance has surprised more than a few naysayers. Even though the reference performance is excellent this hasn't stopped manufacturers from releasing their own modded boards and KitGuru recently reviewed the MSI N460GTX Cyclone which earned our …

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nVidia's GTX460 is without a doubt the strongest card in their current lineup, the pricing is right and the performance has surprised more than a few naysayers. Even though the reference performance is excellent this hasn't stopped manufacturers from releasing their own modded boards and KitGuru recently reviewed the MSI N460GTX Cyclone which earned our top award.

Today we are looking at the latest card from Zotac, the GTX460! AMP Edition which ships with a mighty overclock on both core and memory. The reference clock speeds of 675/3600mhz are enhanced to a whopping 810/4000mhz. This particular card is on a 256 bit memory interface with 1GB of GDDR5.

The significant overclock will surely help performance reach new levels when we get around to testing later. Zotac also informed us before going to press that the cost is only going to be $20 more, which we would guess will mean in the UK a retail asking price around the £210 inc vat point.

Zotac offer a 5 year warranty in Europe and the Middle East with the USA getting a Lifetime warranty as standard … all you need to do is register on the website within 2 weeks of purchase and keep the original receipt.

The AMP! Edition also ships with a free game – Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sand, so the deal looks to be very sweet indeed.

The post Zotac GTX460 AMP! Edition Review first appeared on KitGuru.]]> https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/zotac-gtx460-amp-edition-review/feed/ 31 Powercolor HD5770 Vortex 1GB Review https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/powercolor-hd5770-vortex-1gb-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/powercolor-hd5770-vortex-1gb-review/#comments Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:52:41 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=9731 If you have been following the news and reviews lately you will have assuredly seen mention of nVidia's stellar new ‘mass market' Fermi card the GTX460 – KitGuru reviewed the overclocked eVGA version and it walked away with very high praise indeed. While it is capable of delivering a fantastic gaming experience it only costs …

The post Powercolor HD5770 Vortex 1GB Review first appeared on KitGuru.]]> If you have been following the news and reviews lately you will have assuredly seen mention of nVidia's stellar new ‘mass market' Fermi card the GTX460 – KitGuru reviewed the overclocked eVGA version and it walked away with very high praise indeed. While it is capable of delivering a fantastic gaming experience it only costs around £175 and the upside of this is that ATI have been forced to reduce some of their own prices to help keep the market competitive.

This means that if you are in the market for a new graphics card and can't stretch to the GTX460 asking price then the card on review today might very well tickle your tastebuds. With the reference HD5770 on offer now for £130, there has never been a more affordable time to get into DX11 gaming.

The PowerColor Vortex is an overclocked HD5770 boasting higher core and memory speeds, with an interesting new high performance cooler which aims to not only lower temperatures but to reduce noise. It is also home to the world's first ‘movable fan' system – yes the fan can be moved in or out on a profile of around a centimeter. This serves to adjust the motion of airflow and should lead to operational temperature drops when compared with the reference solution.

“PowerColor offers an attractive option which features a brand-new cooling technology with additional factory overclocking,” said Ted Chen, CEO of TUL Corporation. “We never compromise – so here's the solution which can bring the ultimate gaming performance in a better cooling environment!”

The specifications of the video card are as one may expect from a customized solution. The graphics processing unit (GPU), for instance, operates at a clock speed of 900MHz (reference is 850mhz) and the 1GB of GDDR5 VRAM is set at 4,900 MHz effective (reference is 4.8ghz). The interface is still on a 128 bus. Furthermore, the model features 800 Stream processors and connects to video output devices via dual-DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs. Obviously, DirectX 11 and all of ATI's proprietary technologies are fully supported.

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GTX460 SLi overclocked, mated and put in context https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/faith/gtx460-sli-overclocked-mated-and-put-in-context/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/faith/gtx460-sli-overclocked-mated-and-put-in-context/#comments Mon, 12 Jul 2010 05:05:06 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=7421 Has the time finally come for multi-GPU solutions?  nVidia stakes its claim again with the GTX460 – although the lack of true scalability (to 3 or 4-way SLi) tells us something very important about this market. At the end of this special article is a single graph that will tell you all you need to …

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Has the time finally come for multi-GPU solutions?  nVidia stakes its claim again with the GTX460 – although the lack of true scalability (to 3 or 4-way SLi) tells us something very important about this market.

At the end of this special article is a single graph that will tell you all you need to know, but we'd recommend you spend a couple of minutes going through the KitGuru logic first – it's useful background that all you Gurus out there should really want to know.

We're dirty buggers and well up for the idea of a bit of hot, naked, card-on-card action

.
While Zardon populates his results spreadsheet the way rabbits populate the fields around Watership Down, we've decided to take a much more relaxed and informal approach to testing the way this new solution from nVidia will scale with time. We're checking for one thing only. Does GTX460 present you with an intelligent way to choose Fermi now and in the future?

"And I will strike down upon thee, with great vengeance and furious anger, those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my overclocked GTX460 SLi vengeance upon thee"

KitGuru loves the whole SLi/CrossFire uber-hype. The hype as opposed to the actual technology.

The technology is fine, but a poor second to the energy used in engineering these solutions or the money that customers spend in creating willy-waving systems from the resulting cards.

That’s how we used to see it, but is that view too simplistic?  Has the market and technology evolved into a more useful state?

Also, will the future of multi-GPU solutions be the same for both nVidia and AMD – or Intel for that matter?

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eVGA GTX 460 768MB Superclocked Review https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/evga-gtx-460-768mb-superclocked-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/evga-gtx-460-768mb-superclocked-review/#comments Mon, 12 Jul 2010 05:03:36 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=7395 GTX460 is ‘Fermi done right' That's what nVidia wants us to believe after a tough year. On Wednesday 30th September 2009, Jen Hsun Huang stood on a global stage with a ‘Fermi card' in his hand and the watching world was treated to a series of demonstrations. Subsequently, we were told by nVidia that while the …

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GTX460 is ‘Fermi done right' That's what nVidia wants us to believe after a tough year. On Wednesday 30th September 2009, Jen Hsun Huang stood on a global stage with a ‘Fermi card' in his hand and the watching world was treated to a series of demonstrations. Subsequently, we were told by nVidia that while the card itself was a mock-up, the demos had been generated on Fermi. Given that the vast majority of users will never spend more than £200 on a card, nVidia has been desperately looking forward to launching a competitive Fermi product into the ‘affordable price space'. KitGuru pulls out the spanner and oscilloscope to see if GTX460 delivers.

If the card shown last September HAD been production silicon, where would nVidia be now?

Today we see the release of the GTX 460, the baby brother in the Fermi series. nVidia says that it consumes less power, generates less heat and has been priced to tackle the HD5830. They are targeting the only card in the 5 series range which (KitGuru feels) is underpowered and overpriced. From the results we've seen in the KitGuru Labs, nVidia can afford to be a bit more confident than that. Quite a bit more.

The GTX 460 is going to hit the UK market at £175 inc vat, a very sweet spot indeed for gamers who still want a viable partner for their swanky 24 inch screen, without having spending a small fortune. We will be having a look at performance from this reference card.

Today however KitGuru is going to be focusing on the eVGA GTX 460 Superclocked Edition which is being released at around £195 inc vat and comes with a hefty overclock on the core (88mhz) and 50mhz (200mhz effective) on the memory.

Here is the current lineup from nVidia with the eVGA Superclocked card included in the mix.

Model Geforce GTX 460 768MB eVGA GTX 460 Superclocked 768MB Geforce GTX 465 Geforce GTX 470 Geforce GTX 480
Graphics Processing Clusters 2 2 3 4 4
Streaming Multiprocessors 7 7 11 14 15
CUDA Cores 336 336 352 448 480
Texture Units 56 56 44 56 50
ROP Units 24 24 32 40 48
Graphics Clock (Fixed Function Units) 675mhz 763mhz 607mhz 607mhz 700mhz
Processor Clock (CUDA Cores) 1350mhz 1526mhz 1215mhz 1215mhz 1401mhz
Memory Clock (Clock Rate/Data Rate) 900mhz/3600mhz 950mhz/3800mhz 802mhz/3206mhz 837mhz/3348 mhz 924 mhz/3696mhz
Total Video Memory 768MB 768MB 1024MB 1280MB 1536MB
Memory Interface 192-bit 192-bit 256-bit 320-bit 384-bit
Total Memory Bandwidth 86.4GB/s 91.2GB/s 102.6 GB/s 133.9 GB/s 177.4 GB/s
Texture Filtering Rate (Bilinear) 37.8 Gigatexels/sec 37.8 Gigatexels/sec 26.7 Gigatexels/sec 34.0 GigaTexels/sec 42.0 GigaTexels/sec
Fabrication process 40nm 40nm 40nm 40nm 40nm
Connectors 2x Dual Link DVI-I1x Mini HDMI 2x Dual Link DVI-I1x Mini HDMI 2x Dual Link DVI-I1x Mini HDMI 2x Dual Link DVI-I1x Mini HDMI 2x Dual Link DVI-I1x Mini HDMI
Form Factor Dual Slot Dual Slot Dual Slot Dual Slot Dual Slot
Power Connectors 2x6pin 2x6pin 2x6pin 2x6pin 1x6pin, 1x8pin
Recommended Power Supply 450 watts 450 watts 550 watts 550 watts 650 watts
Thermal Design Power 150 watts 150 watts 200 watts 215 watts 250 watts
Thermal Threshold 104c 104c 105c 105c 105c
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