• Galaxy GTX460 GC Edition

    Galaxy GTX460 GC Edition

    Roydon Cerejo, Jul 16, 2010 1300 hrs IST

    This Fermi-based mid-range graphics card is well worth your money

    Good performance, runs cool, efficient cooler design, 4+1 phase power, easy to use overclocking software, good overclocker, good pricing

    Power consumption on load is still a bit high

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Update: Here's the thing, the Galaxy card is only avilable from TAG outlets so chances are you wont find them in your local hardware store. We've got an update from Galaxy that the first batch of the GTX460 are all sold out and more will be coming early next month and yes, you will get the card at Rs.11,500. In the meantime you can go their website to find the closest branch to you.


 Nvidia really haven't hit the jackpot with Fermi when you look at it from a consumer standpoint. These new chips may have the brute strength against ATI when it comes to tessellation, but this is a feature we are yet to see implemented in actual games, apart from Metro 2033 of course. It will be sometime till we see the DX11 API used to its full potential. Now, in case you're wondering about the upcoming games making heavy use of this, remember that these games have been in development for many years now, way before DX11 was official. So the game engines aren't really designed from the ground up for the new API. Sure, you may be see a DX11 option in the game thrown in to cash in on the hype, but just like Dirt2, it'll probably be an eye candy that won't really make a huge difference.

So why am I going on and on about DX11 suddenly? Well, that's because DX11 isn't really relevant right now. Heck, I'm still maxing out games at full HD res on my trusty 9800GT so it just goes to show how quickly (or should I say slowly) games are progressing all thanks to developers going multi-platform these days. Coming back to the topic, Nvidia's Fermi line up is looking really strong and easily manages to keep up with long time red rulers, but at what cost? Buying a Fermi meant a power supply upgrade which shoots up your budget even further, not something the average Indian gamer can afford. Nvidia made an attempt to lure buyers with the GTX 465. But that was nothing but a stripped down GTX 470 giving you lower performance while still drawing a lot of power and running hot as hell; not a very sensible buy.




Nvidia needed a new core badly if they wanted to compete with the ATI's Evergreen lineup and the GTX 460 is exactly that. So how has Nvidia managed the impossible? Well let's break it down in simple terms. The GTX 460 is still fabricated on the 40nm process but the internal structure has been revised, leaving the new GF104 core with 1.95 billion transistors compared to 3 billion on all previous Fermi cards. This should bring down the power consumption by lowering the heat produced. The shader count has been reduced to 384 CUDA cores but due to yield issues the GTX 460 will come with 336 CUDA cores instead. This will be available in two memory variants, 768MB and 1GB, both GDDR5 memory.


For the first time these two variants will have more than just a memory difference. The 768MB version will have only 24 ROPs (full 32 on the 1GB) and a 192-bit memory bus (full 256-bit on the 1GB). The rest of the specification remains the same, which means this time around when you pay more for the 1GB version, not only are you getting a little more video RAM but also some much needed performance improvement as the 256-bit coupled with 1GB should really help when loading large textures at high resolutions. What is the performance difference and is it worth the extra dough? We'll have to find out.

We've managed to snag a Galaxy GTX 460 GC edition and a MSI Cyclone Edition, but we'll cover just the Galaxy card today and bring you guys a round up of sorts as we gather more samples of the card.

This is Galaxy's GC edition of the card just like the GTX 470 version we reviewed a while back. Read review here. This version comes with the same fan design, only that this time you can remove it completely. Other features include Galaxy's custom dual heat pipe cooler, 4+1 phase power supply and is compatible with their Xtreme Tuner HD software. It's really nice to see companies like Galaxy adding their own flavor and bringing something new to the table rather than just slapping a sticker on the reference card and charging a premium (you know who I'm talking about).


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Related Links
ZOTAC GTX 460 1GB
MSI N460GTX Cyclone 768D5
CES: Nvidia Unleashes GTX 295, GTX 285 GPUs
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Galaxy GTX460 GC Edition Fermi Galaxy GTX 460 GC review gtx460 gtx 460 nvidia fermi GF104 galaxy review gtx 460 review SLI geforce DX11



Discussion Board
(10) Comments
Yogendra
,New Delhi, on Feb 12, 2011 02:08 PM
I have the following config on my pc ASUS mother board M3N78-VM AMD PHENOM 64 QUAD CORE PROCESSOR 4GB RAM i'm able to run most of the games like F12010, Battlefield Battle Ground2 in high details but they are not super smooth! When i decrease the graphic detail it runs super smooth. So please advice me the cheapest graphic card compatible with my desktop a couple of options would be great. Budget strictly not exceeding 5k. Thank You
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dr.ravindranath
,siddipet, on Aug 12, 2010 09:21 AM
will it work for gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H mother board?
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Aman
,Mumbai, on Jul 18, 2010 11:20 AM
Mr. Roydon Cerejo can you give me the source of your street price as pricing for similar models is around 14-15K for almost all other brands.
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Jeremy
,Goa, on Jul 18, 2010 01:44 PM
Yeah, we think this pricing is just to sensationalize the sale of this product and not the real pricing. Please try to go into the market to confirm the pricing before you misinform your readers next time.
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S Mishra
,Bhilai, on Jul 17, 2010 09:04 PM
Will it work for P3 processor? If not suggest some other which will.
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S Mishra
,Bhilai, on Jul 17, 2010 09:03 PM
Will it work for P3 or P4 1.7ghz processor? If not suggest some other which will.
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Bob
,Mumbai, on Jul 17, 2010 08:06 PM
Hi, can anyone suggest me the right Graphic Card, I am NOT into Gaming but a Movie Buff and wish to connect my 32" HD LCD in my Bedroom and LCD Monitor. My PC is a 2.93 Mhz Core2 Duo 3MB L2 with 2 GB DDR2 RAM, Gigabyte Mother Board. Many Thanks in Advance.
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Arnav
,Jaipur, on Jul 17, 2010 11:17 AM
Will my Cooler Master Extreme Power 500Watt power supply be enough for this gtx460 768MB card?
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Tarun
,Mandi, on Jul 17, 2010 05:32 PM
Yeah it will be.. In fact, I've been running 4890 with Phenom II X4 processor on the same 500W PSU since last one year.. never had any headaches.. and, this card uses less power than 4890..
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Sundar
,Chennai, on Jul 16, 2010 06:05 PM
//But here's the best part, the MOP or the price you would actually pay over the counter is just Rs.11,500// what is MOP? so we can expect 11-12k street price means its a good deal really but im bit skeptical about the price.
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