Which GTX 460 1Gb is the best to get. Manufacturer / Price(£) / Chip Clock(MHz) / Memory Clock(MHz) / Shader Clock(MHz) / Additional Info EVGA.........../ £170 / 675 / 900 / 1350/ Palit............/ £180 / 700 / 950 / 1400 / Sonic EVGA.........../ £182 / 763 / 900 / 1526 / SuperClocked Gainward....../ £188 / 700 / 900 / 1400 / Golden Sample Gigabyte....../ £187 / 715 / 900 / 1430 / OC Zotac........../ £187 / 675 / 900 / 1350 / Sparkle......../ £188 / 700 / 900 / 1485 / MSI............/ £190 / 725 / 900 / 1350 / Palit............/ £196 / 800 / 1000 / 1600 / Sonic Platinum Gainward...../ £204 / 800 / 1000 /1600 / Golden Sample GLH
By looking at the prices i'm pretty sure he's getting the 1GB version, which is £175 on Scan. I'd say any reference version is fine as reviews have shown that the reference cooler does a great job of keeping tempertaures low & staying relatively quiet.
I don't mean a literal Nvidia reference design. I mean manufacturers that have just stuck with the reference cooler e.g. EVGA, Inno3D. Plus I wouldn't say it's worth getting a pre-overclocked version unless you really don't want it to overlcock it yourself as you can always get it to much higher levels yourself.
I'm prolly gonna get a Gainward....../ £188 / 700 / 900 / 1400 / Golden Sample and overclock it MSI don't cool the ram? same with palit + dodgy bios? Which puts me off.
I'd steer clear of the Gainward versions as well as Palit & Gainward are pretty much the same company (Palit owns Gainward & competes with itself? I don't really understand how it works). Sources: http://www.firingsquad.com/news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=7665 http://futuremark.yougamers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=131346
Thanks for the link, I haven't been looking around much, waiting to see how my comp handles Mafia 2 demo before I buy a new card. edit: does any 460 have ram cooling?
I was really impatient and bought the Palit GTX460 1GB because it was in stock! So far so good, much quieter than the old 8800GT and the larger fan is a lot less shrill when it does begin to spin up. Just like the reviews on Bit, it's idling 10degC above ambient and runs around 30degC below the old 8800GT. I'm not sure about the Palit bashing going on, referencing a five year old article seems a bit odd and the GPU is not going much above 70degC so far, so overclocking should not be a problem. As for the VRM heatsinks, here's a positive review for the Platinum card and it has no heatsinks... http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/palit_gtx460_sonic_platinum Read this and you can download the Palit BIOS upgrade by following the link in the article: http://www.guru3d.com/news/statement-palit-regarding-gtx-460-sonic-platinum/ The BIOS upgrade makes a big difference to the fan profile and quietens the card down more. I'm pretty sure that with the GPU at 74degC and fan at 60% it won't cause any offence and someone with an older card will be impressed with the lower noise profile and temperatures.
The stock design is fine as it blows some hot air out the case while others require you have good ventilation! The reference is quiet and maintains good temps. The loudest cards are EVGA and Zotac, both use turbine fans. KFA2 is also loud which isn't on your list. Depends if you want to use voltage tweak too. I think only MSI and Pailt support it from what ive read.
I would go with the gigabyte one as they come with heat-sink on their GPU for the memory ram while most the other brands gimped out on them.
