• Best DX11 Card Under 15K

    Best DX11 Card Under 15K

    Roydon Cerejo, Aug 05, 2010 1305 hrs IST

    GTX 460 or HD5850? We overclock them to find out which gives you the best deal

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DX11 is being hyped and promoted very aggressively by both ATI and Nvidia and is touted to be the next big thing in gaming evolution. Now with the launch of Nvidia's new Fermi cards, there's a mad rush to run out and buy the best possible card one can afford. But what people don't realize is that there aren't many DX11 titles out yet that are worth playing (Metro 2033 is more of a benchmark, as it was designed to destroy and punish graphics cards) and we aren't really sure about the upcoming ones as well. There will probably be some DX11 elements thrown in to make the game look good, but I seriously doubt it'll make a drastic difference, at least for a while.



In any case there is an entire DX11 range available right from 2K all the way to 30K and above, so there isn't any reason why you shouldn't buy a DX11 card now, especially since most of the DX10 cards have be replaced.

Today we'll be looking at the sub-15K category since it's currently the hot segment with some new launches and price cuts. The GTX 460 just happened to be the card Nvidia were waiting to save them from embarrassment. The new card performs on par - and many a times better - with the HD5850 and has stronger DX11 performance while costing less. In the 10K to 15K bracket, there's only one card worth buying now and that's the GTX 460. Another thing we noticed was that since the different cards have different coolers, their overclocking potential varies and it's when these cards are overclocked that they really shine.

So, in today's little roundup we will bring you the overclocking performance of all these cards in a variety of games to see which one stands out. We've also thrown in the HD5850 and the HD5830 since these cards fall in this segment. Apart from the performance, the power drawn and temperatures will also be a deciding factor, and of course the price.

All the games were tested at full HD resolutions since that's the only reason for going in for a card like this.  

The Contenders

Here's a quick rundown of the graphics card we'll be testing along with their specifications and price. All the cards were tested once overclocked to their potential for an even playing ground.




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Related Links
Nvidia Fermi: The Good, The Bad and The Scary
AMD HD 6870 and HD 6850 official...well almost
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Discussion Board
(8) Comments
SamRock
,Bangalore, on Aug 06, 2010 05:12 PM
Guys!! Will you please test latest games like Battlefield Bad Company 2, Modern Warfare 2 and alike which many been playing in recent times! You been testing the same set of games from God knows when!! And come on Battlefied BC2 has better graphics and physics than Crysis and we definitelty want to know how these cards can handle the game. Ya, we wanna read about cards priced below 10K too. Thanks
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chris27
,mumbai, on Aug 07, 2010 02:10 AM
I agree with u but Crysis Warhead is a better game & Dirt 2 is still a fresh game to test directx 11, if u must know.
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Bheem
,Bangalore, on Aug 05, 2010 11:43 PM
Roydon, Please review graphic cards below 5k or around that price point as these are the ones which most of us can afford.........! Thinking of it, at the price these graphic cards are, one could be buying a complete system...I know there is a niche market for these cards, but if you could do a review of some good graphic cards which are in the budget range it would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
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Roydon
,Mumbai, on Aug 06, 2010 11:07 AM
duly noted. I totally agree with you that 15K is not a small amount but ever since the GTX460 was launched there was a lot of confusion as to which card made the best buy and since this is Nvidia's proper card after a long time that was actually worth buying, we decided to do this little roundup. 5K seems to be the magic number most people are willing to shell out for a GC so I'll keep that in mind in the future. :)
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priyank parker
,mumbai, on Aug 06, 2010 09:00 AM
in the review of zotac gtx 460, the same cards show different benchmarks under the other software with the msi gtx 460 doing better than this zotac gtx 460 so which one should i go for????????????????
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Roydon
,Mumbai, on Aug 06, 2010 11:03 AM
Hi Priyank, the score that you see here are after the cards were overclocked and not running on their stock speeds, that's why the scores are different. Between the MSI and the ZOTAC, I'd say go for the ZOTAC since they are both priced very similarly and the ZOTAC gives you a bit more memory bandwidth. Remember though if you're not going to overclock this card then it wont be as fast as the MSI, so take your pick.
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chris27
,mumbai, on Aug 05, 2010 09:40 PM
In what way these are under 15k? of course I have seen these prices but these are nowhere cheap. With aam people would buy much cheaper somewhere Rs 5000, so please do another review which is cheap & also give a place to buy for next time.
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subho
,kolkata, on Aug 05, 2010 05:09 PM
why dont u test the games at there highest setting.far cry2 has a ultra high preset.while dirt 2 has a ultra high preset.At what res u tested farcry2.
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