Graphics GTX 460 Appreciation Society - Plus VGA Cooling Thread!

I've been playing with heaven bench marks today and overclocked SLI 460's will batter ther GTX 570 I got 41 fps min and 167 max. The GTX 570 gives 21 fps min and 126 fps max.

Thats quite a big gap!

I'm guessing with out the over clocking standard SLI 460's would be slightly better than the 570. I might have to run it to find out.

 

I'm going to have to wire my spare Enermax Galaxy 850W PSU into my system whilst the Corsair AX850 goes to the PSU RMA boneyard! Then compare results with the heaven benchmark. Curious if the AX850 really was holding back my overclock seeing as it was on the road to failure during my attempts!

 

Been having another play with heaven maxed out on all settings I'm getting about a 30% drop in FPS.

On normal settings and and factory spec on the GPUs I'm getting 21 min and 141 max still better than the 570.

On maxed out setting at stock, I'm getting 15 FPS min and 91 max

 

Rough and ready guide to my GTX 460 BIOS flash!

First since my particular system has SLI, I disconnect the bottom GTX 460 and pulled it from the system so we're just working with one card at a time. Use GPU-Z and next to the line that reads BIOS Version you'll notice a little chip icon with a green arrow. This allows you to save your current graphics card BIOS to a file, do this just to preserve the BIOS your card shipped with. Now download the new F3 BIOS from Gigabyte, available here. Now for the hard part! Follow this guide to make a bootable USB stick...

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles//overclocking/vidcard/34/5

Next download NVFlash 5.95.0.1...

http://downloads.guru3d.com/NVFlash-5.95.0.1-download-2590.html

Unzip this NVFlash archive and place the files on the bootable USB stick. Now also unzip the Gigabyte BIOS and rename the file to something simpler such as newbios.rom so it's easier for the next stage. Time for the fun part. Shut down your computer disconnect any HDD or SSD to simplify things and then boot the computer, hopefully it'll recognise the bootable USB stick. Just type nvflash to start the program and display a list of commands. Try nvflash --version to display information on your graphics card. Also nvflash --save oldbios.bin will save the current graphics card BIOS to the USB stick. I did this for both cards even though I already captured it through GPU-Z. To flash the BIOS simply use the command nvflash newbios.rom assuming you renamed it according to my instructions. When prompted hit y and it'll flash the card. Then shut down the computer, that's it!

Repeat the process for the second card substituting it in place of the primary card.

 

Have you checked to make sure they're not underclocking themselves under load?

 

That FPS drop is about what I was expecting with Heaven maxed out. I was thinking 25% so running the tests and getting 30% is about right.

If you take it in to context, over clocked SLI 460's give over 100% improvement over the standard card. Thats good going no matter how you look at it.

Shows just how good they are. When I get round to it I'm going run the test again with a 3rd one weired in as a Phys X card to see if that helps.

 

Completely forgot to do this last night, I will try and remember to do it tonight.

 

Just realised I've already done this. Did it when I first bought the cards lol.

 

I thought you only did the 100% fan unlock BIOS back then?

 

My other gtx 460 SOC is on its way i went for the exact same model despite paying a premium and having to order it from the USA...i shall have my pc and the card arriving over the next week or two, then i have to rebuild my rig and flash the cards...tempted to run one card first for bench marking and then add the second on sli to compare when it all arrives...this model is at 815mhz standard, i want to raise it up to 900mhz to see how they go.

 

Did Gigabyte release a new BIOS for the SOC edition?

 

The Bios version number is the same as the one listed on the Gigabyte site (Version:70.04.13.00.01) so I assume I have done it :s

It was released in September of last year too.

 

Dont think so, i am guessing i cannot use the same bios update then?

 

I would recommend giving Gigabyte a bell. They have been quite helpful in the past whenever I've raised a technical issue with them. Also sent me a 100% fan unlock BIOS last year before the F3 BIOS was released.

 

I have to say I'm very jealous of your temps Blogins (and others). I'm getting amazing performance from 460 SLI (been benching it all afternoon) but the temps are ridiculous because the cards are just far too close together.

I wonder if it'd be worth the hassle getting a board which has a little more distance between PCIe slots. Contrary to what people say, the Sonic cooler is not bad at all - 75C furmark load with the fan at 75% is nothing to sniff at; in SLI, the top card goes to 95C and the bottom sits at about 70.

I have a faulty Foxconn Bloodrage upstairs with perfect PCIe slot spacing... I wonder if I could revive it to conduct a few tests...

 

Took lots of experimentation with various fans to get the temperatures that good in my rig! Also if we're talking about the Palit Sonic, it is pants for cooling. They did do a Platinum version that actually has proper heatpipes but the simple Sonic edition is just an aluminium block that doesn't cool adequately in comparison to other GTX 460 cards. I would question what benefits could be reaped given it is a Sonic card.

If it can be accommodated a PCI-Express Riser/Cable would help separate the cards.

 

Yeah the Sonic cooler isn't the best, but it's adequate for the lower card. I looked into getting a riser or cable for the slot, but for the moment I have another possible solution: I have a spare Thermalright HR03-GT which I have decided to try out as it will fit to the top card if I put it "upside down" with the cooling fins behind the card. This should drastically lower the load temp of the top card.

The bottom card is absolutely fine, and maybe later on I can get a cooler for it too. It's freeeeezing inside just now... bottom card is 26C, top card 53C LOL, which proves that there simply isn't enough space for fresh air to get into the fan.

The cards are stable at 800MHz with 987mV doing Furmark at 2560x1600, and depending on temps I'll see how much further I can push them because stock vGPU for these Palit cards is actually 1012mV. Cheers for the suggestions.

 

OK you beast I'm competing with you now

Fitted the HR03GT to the top card and not only has it worked, it totally smokes the lower card too LOL. Idle temp has dropped 20C and is now at 40C with two monitors (30" and 20"), load temp has dropped nearly 30C to just over 70C... and, best of all, this is with two silent 60mm fans from the old OCZ XTC memory cooler. Very tempted to get a Second HR03GT for the lower card and see if I can use the same fans on it for supreme silent cooling!

Will have to post some pics up later.

 

Thermalright do know how to do coolers. I ordered up two myself recently to quieten and cool my old EVGA 680i Motherboard. A Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme for my E8500 Processor and a Thermalright HR-05 IFX for the Northbridge. Got a small VGA cooler for the Southbridge which'll be more than enough.

Need pictures to see this mod in action! It's not a bad card in itself just the cooling profile that's shocking.

 

Yeah. The biggest difficulty for me now is general case airflow - it's a complete mess because of the SLI setup. If the GPU exhaust was directed out the back or top of the case, that would be great... as it is, the lower card is pushing up, and the upper card is pushing down, so there's a warm air sandwich going on.

If I leave the case side panel off, running Furmark for 10 mins @ full res, 1000mV, 800MHz core, min speed on HR03 fans and 70% on lower card results in exactly the same max temp for both cards: 81C. The next challenge is to achieve this with the side panel ON!

Still figuring out what fans to put where, but I do have a 92mm silent fan blowing on the VRM.