Destiny lies in the hands of the GTX460 from Nvidia. Not long ago, ATI has finally gained more market share in terms of dedicated graphics solution to the gamers in comparison to Nvidia by a few percent. Nvidia is not sitting still this time. With a strong GTX460 lineup from Nvidia, I’m sure that it is only a matter of time Nvidia will gain back their market shares, unless ATI fix their drivers issues that has been bugging and annoying all ATI users out there. Drivers are really important and Nvidia has done their work on them, giving stable and reliable drivers for their lineup of cards. Not forgetting ATI 6XXX series of graphics card which will soon be released in the last quarter of the year.
Generic information of Graphic Card Manufacturer wars aside, today, I’ll be looking at the Leadtek Winfast GTX460 which is not much of a difference of a Nvidia reference card. In fact, it is one, but with some minor differences which is not going to affect your performance on the GTX460. Leadtek sad opted to directly use the reference design of the GTX460 from Nvidia unlike Palit which custom designed the PCB the whole card generally shorter and the PCI-E 6 pins to be found on the top of the card instead. Leadtek like all other generic reference GTX460 has their 2 PCI-E 6pin connects found on the back of the card, providing better cable management for the whole system unit and thus improving general airflow in the system.
The only difference between the reference card and the Leadtek Winfast GTX460 is the sticker on top of it. The original card had a black sticker which EVGA adopted, but Leadtek made it to have some sort of blue black design which makes the generally look better and standout from the rest. However, those really don’t make a difference at all to gamers like me.
When looking at reference cards provided from different vendors, we have to put into considerations in the warranty that each distributor provides. Reference cards from Nvidia have no difference at all other than the brand that they carry. Taking warranty as a consideration, for example like Singapore, Ban Leong provides a 2 year warranty for the Leadtek Winfast GTX 460, while Corbell provides a 3 year warranty for the MSI GTX460. Corbell service centre is at Ang Mo Kio while Ban Leong is at Ubi. However, MSI is slightly more expensive than Leadtek’s. You’ll need to weigh your priorities between price and warranty to ultimately make a decision from the different brands.
One key main factor into my decision to get the GTX460 is unbeatable price. At around SGD$100 less than the ATI 5830 but performing 4 time better than the GTX5830,(Nvidia’s claim)( GeForce GTX 460 has 4 times faster FPS versus Radeon HD 5830 in Microsoft DirectX 11 SDK subd11 tessellation test with maximum tessellation level set.)there isn’t really any reasons for me not to lay my hands on this card. Amazing price. Mainstream Fermi for the win.
Other than that, we have a standard feature packed graphics card from Nvidia, consisting of the following technologies.
DX11 Done Right
Treat your eyes to incredible visual details without sacrificing frame rates. With up to 4x¹ the geometry processing power over competing GPUs, you get incredibly detailed characters, terrain and game environments with blazing fast performance.
© 2009 THQ Inc. Metro 2033 is based on a book by Dmitry Glukhovskiy. THQ and the THQ logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of THQ Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Enter a New Dimension
Breakthrough the boundaries of your screen. Games, Blu-ray movies, videos and photos enter a new dimension to delight your senses with 3D Vision technology.
Just Cause 2 image captured on NVIDIA GPU. Provided by Square Enix
Bang For Your Buck
Get the perfect blend of power, performance, and price, without sacrificing your gaming experience. Blow away your enemies in full DirectX 11 graphics with NVIDIA PhysX® effects so realistic that you’ll have to remind yourself it’s just a game. Repeat: It’s just a game.
Mafia II image captured on NVIDIA GPU. Provided by 2K Games.
Tailor made to hit the gamers’ sweet spot, NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 460 delivers revolutionary levels of price/performance. With up to 4x the DirectX 11 tessellation performance of the competition*, GeForce GTX 460 packs highly detailed visuals into your games - without sacrificing high frame rates. And with NVIDIA® 3D Vision™, PhysX®, and CUDA™ technologies, GeForce GTX 460 powers all the incredibly realistic effects that your games can throw its way.
¹ GeForce GTX 460 has 4 times faster FPS versus Radeon HD 5830 in Microsoft DirectX 11 SDK subd11 tessellation test with maximum tessellation level set.
- Microsoft® DirectX® 11 Support
DirectX 11 GPU with Shader Model 5.0 support designed for ultra high performance in the new API’s key graphics feature, GPU-accelerated tessellation. - NVIDIA PhysX® Technology
Full support for NVIDIA PhysX technology, enabling a totally new class of physical gaming interaction for a more dynamic and realistic experience with GeForce. - NVIDIA® 3D Vision™ Ready*
GeForce GPU support for NVIDIA 3D Vision, bringing a fully immersive stereoscopic 3D experience to the PC. A combination of high-tech wireless glasses and advanced software, 3D Vision transforms hundreds of PC games into full stereoscopic 3D. In addition, you can watch 3D movies and 3D digital photographs in eye popping, crystal-clear quality. - NVIDIA® 3D Vision™ Surround Ready**
Expand your games across three displays in full stereoscopic 3D for the ultimate “inside the game” experience with the power of NVIDIA 3D Vision and SLI technologies. NVIDIA® Surround™ also supports triple screen gaming with non-stereo displays. - NVIDIA CUDA™ Technology
CUDA technology unlocks the power of the GPU’s processor cores to accelerate the most demanding tasks such as video transcoding, physics simulation, ray tracing, and more, delivering incredible performance improvements over traditional CPUs. - NVIDIA SLI® Technology***
Industry leading NVIDIA SLI technology offers amazing performance scaling for the world’s premier gaming solution. - 32x Anti-aliasing Technology
Lightning fast, high-quality anti-aliasing at up to 32x sample rates obliterates jagged edges. - NVIDIA® PureVideo® HD Technology****
The combination of high-definition video decode acceleration and post-processing that delivers unprecedented picture clarity, smooth video, accurate color, and precise image scaling for movies and video. - PCI Express 2.0 Support
Not forgetting hardware specification, just as a reference for the different comparisons to the other Nvidia graphic cards.
GPU Engine Specs:
| CUDA Cores | 336 |
| Graphics Clock (MHz) | 675 MHz |
| Processor Clock (MHz) | 1350 MHz |
| Texture Fill Rate (billion/sec) | 37.8 |
Memory Specs:
| Graphics card version | GTX 460 1GB | GTX 460 768MB GDDR5 |
| Memory Clock | 1800 | 1800 |
| Standard Memory Config | 1 GB GDDR5 | 768MB GDDR5 |
| Memory Interface Width | 256-bit | 192-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec) | 115.2 | 86.4 |
Feature Support:
| NVIDIA SLI®-ready* | 2-Way |
| NVIDIA 3D Vision Ready | YES |
| NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround Ready*** | YES |
| NVIDIA PureVideo® Technology** | HD |
| NVIDIA PhysX™-ready | YES |
| NVIDIA CUDA™ Technology | YES |
| Microsoft DirectX | 11 |
| OpenGL | 4.0 |
| Bus Support | PCI-E 2.0 x 16 |
| Certified for Windows 7 | YES |
Display Support:
| Maximum Digital Resolution | 2560x1600 |
| Maximum VGA Resolution | 2048x1536 |
| Standard Display Connectors | Two Dual Link DVI Mini HDMI |
| Multi Monitor | YES |
| HDCP | YES |
| HDMI | YES |
| Audio Input for HDMI | Internal |
Standard Graphics Card Dimensions:
| Height | 4.376 inches (111 mm) |
| Length | 8.25 inches (210 mm) |
| Width | Dual-slot |
Thermal and Power Specs:
| Maximum GPU Temperature (in C) | 104 C |
| Maximum Graphics Card Power (W) | 160 W |
| Minimum Recommended System Power (W) | 450 W |
| Supplementary Power Connectors | 6-pin & 6-pin |
- * A GeForce GTX 460 GPU must be paired with another GeForce GTX 460 GPU (graphics card manufacturer can be different). SLI requires sufficient system cooling and a compatible power supply. Visit www.slizone.com for more information and a listing of SLI-Certified components.
- ** Supported video software is required to experience certain features. Visit www.nvidia.com for more details.
- *** NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround requires two or more graphics cards in NVIDIA SLI configuration, 3D Vision glasses and three matching 3D Vision-Ready displays. See www.nvidia.com/surround for more information.
- ** Supported video software is required to experience certain features. Visit www.nvidia.com for more details.
- *** NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround requires two or more graphics cards in NVIDIA SLI configuration, 3D Vision glasses and three matching 3D Vision-Ready displays. See www.nvidia.com/surround for more information.
Not forgetting the price point of the GTX460. Priced aggressively against the ATi graphics card, its certainly a “kill steal” to ATI. In fact, I had to spend much of my time to finally find the GTX460 after 5 to 6 shops there. Moreover, I got the last card that was on the shelves. You can now imagine how great the GTX460 are selling, even hotter than hot cakes. While most of the graphics cards left in abundance are the ATI 5770 and 5750, as well as low end ATI cards. Many 5850 and 5870 was found on the shops as well. I guess ATI really have to do something now before these graphics card rust on the shelves!
