GTX480 Problem

[Blackwhite]

Well what about memory interface - does extra 64 bit on 1GB will make any difference?

Asus 768 is £129, Gigabyte 1GB is £159 - so £60 more for 2 cards if I'll go for 1 GB - is it worth it?

 

[alienware]

The differences are marginal mate. They really are very very small. When I said 10% faster I meant 10% faster at the absolute best.

The problem with the 1gb version (unless it dropped severely in price) is that at £200 it has a lot of competition. Ironically from the 470.

If you are going to spend £350+ on two cards then get SLI 470s and keep them at stock clocks.

The argument from reviewers and resellers is that 1gb may carry the card better into the future. I would agree to this if PC games were really being pushed hard now. They're not, mostly because they don't need to be. Gameplay comes above all else and companies just won't spend millions on a graphics engine. With a good graphics engine you can sell to shallow people. Case in point? best game this year is Fallout New Vegas. The game engine used is three or more years old.

If you care about Crysis 2 and gleefully rubbing yourself whilst making Youtube videos then yeah, go balls out. Otherwise just get a pair of 460s because the way things are going right now you'll be lucky to have them a year before you want something else. I bought a set of 5770s back in January with a solemn swear I would not change them for anything for at least two years. A week ago the 470 dropped to £173 shipped and I opened my wallet and parted with the cash.

Sorry to get all Captain Sensible on you likes, but I just can't see a reason to buy two 1gb 460s. If you were only getting one? oh hells to the yeah, but the performance in SLI is so whopping that it just won't make any difference mate.

Again, by the time the 768mb cards become outdated you will be absolutely sick of the sight of them

 

[Blackwhite]

Ok I'll take 2 x asus 768 then - they looks like good clockers.

Thanks for help.

 

[stevenwright6379]

Ok I'll take 2 x asus 768 then - they looks like good clockers.

Thanks for help.

DONT DO IT!

i have 2 of them in SLI and they are hot, loud and crap

get reference cooled ones

 

[tinytomlogan]

The 1gb isn't really faster per se. It's the exact same card with ever so slightly less memory. It will go a bit faster because of the extra memory but right now that isn't an issue. It will show minimal gains in gaming in SLI because of the way the 460 scales. Thus it's really tremendously difficult to actually advise some one to spend £50+ per card (so £100 in total) when we are talking about serious serious framerates on the 460 768 in SLI.

The 460 768 is a bargain. Possibly bargain of the year thus far (though the 470 is now closing in, as its flaws can be forgiven when it comes in cheaper than a 1gb 460, is FAR faster and has more memory) but sometimes a bargain card can become less of a bargain. What I'm saying is 256mb of GDDR ram ain't worth no £50.

I said this before but hey, worth saying again. By the time those 768mb SLI cards are out of date the 1gb will be woefully out of date also. Get the cheapest 460 768ers you can find with the default cooler with the fan in the middle. Who makes it doesn't count for squat unless you get the MSI with the twin frozr cooler on.

Again though there's no huge point to overclocking SLI 460 as they are so fast nothing you can throw at them can really make them break a sweat. Thus, the overclocks you do put on them may gain you another 10FPS but you won't notice it when we're talking about 80+. Most games are capped at 60 any way, so all that extra heat noise and power consumption is a waste.

Unless of course you use them to fold.

Alien thats actually wrong mate. The 1gb IS quicker its not just memory. It has a faster mem bus aswell as more Vram.

2x 768 = 27k vantage

2x 1GB = 29.5k vantage

Ive had them all so make sure you buy the cards that have the direct cooling like the 768 cards we reviewed in sli a few weeks back dude

Secondly 460's ace card IS the overclocking they arnt all that stock.

I think you need to go and re-read some of the reviews as that comment was way off anywhere near correct.

 

[alienware]

Hmm. That'll teach me not to pay attention.

I still stand by the £50 extra per card not being worth it though, especially given your review and the results of the 768 in SLI

OK. Asus GTX 460 top. £122.74.

3680mhz memory

700 mhz GPU

1400mhz shader clock

336 cores

Free Hawx 2 (is this any good? any one played it?)

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/768m...shader-clock-1400mhz-336-cores-2xdl-dvi-mhdmi

Gainward 460 GTX GS 1gb £149.77

3600mhz memory

700mhz GPU

336 cores

Free Hawx 2

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-...5-gpu-700mhz-336-cores-d-sub-2x-dl-dvi-i-hdmi

So no difference on that one, although given it's only £25 or so more. No mention of the shader clock oddly.

All of the others are stated as OC models. So basically stock to stock they are the same speeds unless you buy a fancy one that is pre overclocked yet costs more. Some of the 1gb versions around the £175 mark actually clock slower than the Asus card (675mhz).

Odd one this. It's almost like every single card you look at has totally different clocks in at least one part of the card. I guess it's just their way of trying to make their cards stand out.

Oddly Asus' 1gb model is actually clocked slower than their 768mb model @ 675mhz.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-...shader-clock-1350mhz-336-cores-2xdl-dvi-mhdmi

2x 768 = 27k vantage

2x 1GB = 29.5k vantage

Which is pretty microscopic. That's not even 10% faster and Vantage is going to be among the best showing for the SLI cards to show off with.

So aye, I guess if you cherry picked a certain model of card by a certain manu I would be factually incorrect, but I still stand by my advice on not spending more money. I mean let's be honest here Tom, pretty much every 460 with a decent cooler on it will hit the same clocks as all the others, so you may aswell completely ignore the stated out of the box specs.

 

[Blackwhite]

EVGA 1Gb - is this have reference cooler?

How about MSI Cyclone, are they quiet?

 

[alienware]

The good one is the one with the fan in the middle. Stay away from the rear blowers they're a bit pants.

 

[Blackwhite]

Ok thanks all for help.

I bought 2 x 460 EVGA 768 MB Super Clocked - why? - I like black PCB, reference cooler with the fan in the middle, good clockers, good price tho.

I like quiet, and I believe that these carsds will last for 1 year at least.

 

[alienware]

The superclock are good if you don't want to overclock them yourself. They do look nice too

 

[Blackwhite]

Of course I will overclock them , 800 MHz at least

 

[stevenwright6379]

Ok thanks all for help.

I bought 2 x 460 EVGA 768 MB Super Clocked - why? - I like black PCB, reference cooler with the fan in the middle, good clockers, good price tho.

I like quiet, and I believe that these carsds will last for 1 year at least.

good boy

have a cookie

 

[Blackwhite]

Thank Mr. Strawberry for advise, I thought taht asus is cool & quiet in SLI too.

 

[stevenwright6379]

if you could see what i have done to my case to make the cool and quiet(ish) you would be in shock

 

[AMDFTW]

i am using the asus direct CU and its been fine.

there quiet compared to the refrence cooled (centre fan)

there cooler aswell i saw 19c idle yesterday

evga i think use a diff heatsink on the cards but the fan is the same,you will get 800 eeeeeaaaassssy mate

 

[stevenwright6379]

but are yours in SLI?

 

[AMDFTW]

no

but obviosley they got hot as there is no room for the centre fan

obviosly they will pull more power as there is 2 of them

and there not crap evryone knowes there not crap ile agree there not the best but they certanly aint crap man

loud? well yes they would be more heatx2+higher fanx2=more noise

 

[stevenwright6379]

the cooler is a crap design

it was designed for ATI/AMD cards not NVidia

it has less copper than the generic coolers

reference

ASUS card

also note the non-reference PCB making third party cooling impossible

and i am not even going to go into the included "overclock" the card has

 

[Blackwhite]

I recon is it worth it to put some heatsink on the VRM's?

 

[stevenwright6379]

doubt it

if they got hot it would be on there already

unless you are looking for some very high OCs