| PNY GeForce GTX 460 OC XLR8 Video Card |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Video Cards | |
| Written by Olin Coles | |
| Wednesday, 01 September 2010 | |
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PNY GTX460-OC XLR8 Video Card ReviewNVIDIA's GeForce GTX 460 graphics solution has convincingly dominated the mid-range price point, and its GF104 Fermi architecture threatens several competing high-performance products. Our benchmark tests have concluded that both the 768MB and 1GB version can offer great gaming performance, along with outstanding overclocking headroom. Combined into a SLI set, two stock-speed GeForce GTX 460's compete with the Radeon HD 5870 in terms of frame rate performance. In this article, Benchmark Reviews takes the highly overclocked PNY 'XLR8 Black Box' video card (model VCGGTX4601XPB-OC) and compares it against a field of DirectX-11 graphics solutions. If you're shopping for a powerful middle-market video card, this externally-exhausting 1GB GeForce GTX 460 product could be the perfect fit. NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 460 1GB-GDDR5 graphics card empowers DirectX-11 video games to deliver unmatched geometric realism at the $200 price point. Based on the same Fermi architecture that powers their high-end GeForce GTX 480 model, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 delivers mid-range performance for gamers on a budget. The PNY GeForce GTX 460 OC 'XLR8 Black Box' comes armed with NVIDIA's GF104 Fermi graphics processor, and packs seven Streaming Multiprocessors for a total of 336 CUDA Cores and 56 Texture Units. NVIDIA's 1GB GTX 460 price tag ($220) fits in nicely between the $200 Radeon HD 5830 and $250 GeForce GTX 465, but could deliver even more performance for the value. On the following pages, Benchmark Reviews demonstrates how well a factory-overclocked GeForce GTX 460 performs against these other DirectX-11 video card products. PC video games are still the best way to experience realistic effects and immerse yourself in the battle. Gaming consoles do their part, but only high-precision video cards offer the sharp clarity and definition needed to enjoy detailed graphics. Given a heavy overclock at the PNY factory, this particular GeForce GTX 460 delivers a healthy helping of graphical power at an affordable price. The PNY GeForce GTX 460 XLR8 Black Box model arrives with a 765MHz GPU and 925MHz GDDR5 vRAM, leaving plenty of additional headroom for overclockers to drive out hidden FPS performance with their favorite hardware-tweaking utility. Benchmark Reviews will test the PNY GeForce GTX 460 XLR8 Black Box edition against some of the best video cards within the price segment by using several of the most demanding PC video game titles and benchmark software available: Aliens vs Predator, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, BattleForge, Crysis Warhead, Far Cry 2, Resident Evil 5, and Metro 2033.
PNY GeForce GTX 460 Overclocked XLR8 Black BoxIt used to be that PC video games such as Crysis and Far Cry 2 were as demanding as you could get, but that was all back before DirectX-11 brought tessellation and to the forefront of graphics. DX11 now adds heavy particle and turbulence effects to video games, and titles such as Metro 2033 demand the most powerful graphics processing available. NVIDIA's GF100 GPU is their first graphics processor to support DirectX-11 features such as tessellation and DirectCompute, and the GeForce GTX-460 offers an excellent combination of performance and value for games and professional applications alike. At the center of every new technology is purpose, and NVIDIA has designed their Fermi GF104 GPU with an end-goal of redefining the video game experience through significant graphics processor innovations. Disruptive technology often changes the way users interact with computers, and the GeForce GTX-460 family of video cards are complex tools built to arrive at one simple destination: immersive entertainment, especially when paired with NVIDIA GeForce 3D Vision. The experience is further improved with NVIDIA System Tools software, which includes NVIDIA Performance Group for GPU overclocking and NVIDIA System Monitor which displays real-time temperatures. These tools help gamers and overclockers get the most out of their investment. For reference, Benchmark Reviews has already tested the stock-speed 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX-460 in both single-card and SLI.
Manufacturer: PNY Technologies, Inc. Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by PNY.
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Comments
How do they compare in performance and noise?
In terms of noise, there's almost none... as in no audible sound. Even with the fan turned to 100% power, the PNY cooler is extremely quiet.
Also, PNY has a RMA graphics card promotion specifically for BFG customers. Send in your BFG card, whether it works or not, and you'll receive a 25 percent discount on select PNY video cards. They'll also throw-in "Just Cause 2" from Square Enix by way of an online download redemption code. So those of you left holding the bag with BFG cards that malfunctioned, can get a better deal than the rest of us with PNY, and a free game. Visit PNY.com or call PNY directly at 1-888-316-1193. The promotion runs until October 31, 2010.
The GTX 460 Hawk review will be posted soon.
You're right though, I haven't been making mention of the sound levels. I'll update my articles to make note of this. Thanks.
In Metro 2033, the two results are 1920x1200 and 1680x1050. I've since replaced the chart with an updated image.
People mention noise a lot with cards, I don't mind noise, i want the fan speed. Any help would be appreciated.
Yeah. EVGA and Gigabyte have released BIOS for their respective cards. Their BIOS allow the cards to go to "maximum" speed (theirs is stuck at 70% before the update)while PNY hasn't. Initially my card would stay about 68C before. Even while the card was overclocked. But for a couple of days now, even with my same overclock settings, the card will get to 80C and crash the game out. I purchased the card the Friday after Thanksgiving. So I got them recently.
Note, when not overclocked the temps get about 70C under a full load.
So the moral of the story is don't purchase these cards to replace your 9800GTs in SLI unless you are sure you have enough connectors from your existing PS, or unless you are replacining your PS as well.