An EVGA GTX 460 SC review using a mid-grade system

[ragejg]

Yes, there are benefits to writing graphics card reviews with zero CPU limitation. I know what they are, you know what they are, etc...

However, for the performance segment I don't think it's the best thing to do. This market demographic (for the most part) does not have i7 systems running at 3.9 ghz with 12 GB RAM. IMO when they look a review for a video card that's in their market segment they should see what the card can do in something that's like their system.

My reviews over the years have reflected this opinion.

I thought I would let you guys know that I published a GTX 465 review for NV News on release day. I used a mid-range AMD setup, and the compare cards were a GTX 465 and an HD 5830. The review is located at:

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=152967

Yes, it's a forum link. For right now, NV News reviews are being published through vbulletin. That certainly does not make it an "unofficial" review though. Just as other review partners do, I had a Webex meeting/presentation with Bryan Del Rizzo of NVIDIA, and was able to utilize an NVIDIA-written review guide as well as some other review partner-only info. NV News has been in the review game for a long time, and though we've slowed down a bit, we still cover major releases like this one (I/we also reviewed a GTX 465).

Is this review as good as those by the Big Boys? No. But it does IMO convey some interesting points, and addresses some of the wishes and wants of the performance segment via some information that I collected from various hardware forums by doing some informal pre-release surveys. It is also unique for its use of a real mid-range system. To be honest this review ended up being the most exciting I have done for NV News. I've been reviewing for them since 2003, and honestly I've never had a better bang-for-the-buck video card in my system (FX 5900 XT and Geforce 6800 Vanilla were close but didn't match the completeness and value of the GTX 460).

Anyway, I hope that you enjoy the review. PM me or reach me at NV News, [H], PC Perspective, Rage3D, Beyond3D, Guru3D, techpowerup, Xtremesystems, elitebastards or here if you have any questions.

 

[ragejg]

I guess I'll bump this in case it drifted too quickly to the background. Maybe nobody gives a hoot about this review here, I dunno. If so, that's ok, I just worked pretty hard on it and was thinking that some here might dig a review from this viewpoint.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

Interesting review. Good information on the card itself, but IMO, needs more benchmarks...especially Crysis benchmarks, SLi scaling, and comparisons with more cards such as the 5850...

MOAR CRYSIS benchmarks

 

[ragejg]

Interesting review. Good information on the card itself, but IMO, needs more benchmarks...especially Crysis benchmarks, SLi scaling, and comparisons with more cards such as the 5850...

MOAR CRYSIS benchmarks

Sure, that would have been nice, but I only had 4 days to work on the review.

It's not an SLi review, so I wouldn't be adding anything regarding that.

... And having three cards is a fair amount, especially when I'm not a reviewer for Tom's or Anand. I don't really have a need to compare something like 5850 to those cards anyway, it's a performance segment, ~$199-~$250 video card review.

And as far as Crysis is concerned.... that's a ncie game, but it's fairly old now, and has been over-benchmarked for a while. Other games actually demonstrate various Dx9 and Dx10 features better than Crysis does.

Between Far Cry 2, RE5, Lost Planet and Dark Void I had Dx10 covered pretty decently.

And Metro 2033 is basically the new standard game for benchmarking (kinda replacing Crysis/Crysis Wars) because of its masterful use of tessellation in Dx11. Bad Company 2 and DIRT 2 round out the DX11 stuff, one featuring more tessellation and the other featuring DX11 soft shadows.

I would have added HAWX to the list (as I did on my 465 review published June 1) but the game crashed with teh NV cards for some reason; I'm looking into it still.


...


I actually have a new section to add to the review that's going to make it quite a bit more interesting, so stay tuned.

 

[ragejg]

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=2286741#post2286741

After getting some flak at some other hardware communities, I have decided to re-run the HD 5830 benchmarks to create a more apples-to-apples comparison with regards to texture filtering and optimizations. Apparently you can't turn off NV's driver-level optimizations, and when I did the review I turned Catalyst AI off of the ATI card.

I'm re-running the ATI benchmarks with Catalyst AI on Advanced, with the texture filtering set the same as NV's: @ Quality, not High Quality.

I will amend the review when I have all the data in. Early results show the HD 5830 catching up to the NV cards in pretty much everything except applications using tessellation.

 

[ragejg]

Ok I can't edit my posts here? Nice. :|

Anyway, correction: I'm going to run the tests with Catalyst AI set to Standard, not Advanced.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

And as far as Crysis is concerned.... that's a ncie game, but it's fairly old now, and has been over-benchmarked for a while. Other games actually demonstrate various Dx9 and Dx10 features better than Crysis does.
Between Far Cry 2, RE5, Lost Planet and Dark Void I had Dx10 covered pretty decently.
And Metro 2033 is basically the new standard game for benchmarking (kinda replacing Crysis/Crysis Wars) because of its masterful use of tessellation in Dx11. Bad Company 2 and DIRT 2 round out the DX11 stuff, one featuring more tessellation and the other featuring DX11 soft shadows.

Crysis may be old, but it's still the best looking game on the market.
As for Metro2033 as a new standard - it's only a standard for dx11 features, but not in terms of graphical eyecandy. Metro2033 may be DX11, but it looks as good as Crysis at maybe high with DX9. Crysis at very high with DX10 still looks better, while user modded Crysis with ultra high gfx blows any competition away hands down.

Yep, but interesting review, and I will await your updates.