Sli gtx 460 768mb vs gtx 470

[carsoncb]

I was going to buy a graphics card for the new pc I'm going to make, here are the current parts I have picked out...

case: antec 900 two
cpu: i5-760
motherboard: asus sabertooth 55i LGA 1156
ram: 4gb 1600 7cas gskill eco
psu: corsair 750w 80 plus certified
harddrive: samsung spinpoint f3
cd/dvd drive: lite-on

I will also be adding my two seagate barracuda 1.5tb hard drives as my storage in addition to the samsung I'm getting.

I plan to mostly game with this pc at 1920*1080 and want to play at the highest settings.

I'm choosing either the evga gtx 460 768mb version in sli, or the evga gtx 470

If you could provide benchmarks that compare these two graphics card setups that would be very helpful!

Thanks for reading.

 

[jyjjy]

For SLI I would stick with the 1gb GTX 460s.

 

[carsoncb]

For SLI I would stick with the 1gb GTX 460s.

I'm looking for something more in the price range of $300 rather than $400
the gtx 470 is $300 and the gtx 460 768mb are $170 each

If I were to get the 1gb version of the 460 I would be paying $240 per card, making it around $450 in sli when rebates and other come into play

 

[jryan388]

You can find them for ~$200 after rebates
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125333&cm_re=460_1gb-_-14-125-333-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814187115&cm_re=460_1gb-_-14-187-115-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814134116&cm_re=460_1gb-_-14-134-116-_-Product

For one, paying $30 more per card is more than worth it price/performance wise, but also, SLI on cards with only 768MB memory could turn out bad. The 1GB cards are much less likely to be bottlenecked by running out of ram.

 

[carsoncb]

You can find them for ~$200 after rebates
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125333&cm_re=460_1gb-_-14-125-333-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814187115&cm_re=460_1gb-_-14-187-115-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814134116&cm_re=460_1gb-_-14-134-116-_-Product

For one, paying $30 more per card is more than worth it price/performance wise, but also, SLI on cards with only 768MB memory could turn out bad. The 1GB cards are much less likely to be bottlenecked by running out of ram.

The only one of those companies I trust is MSI.
How do the MSI vs the EVGA cards compare in heat and ability to overclock?
Would my 750w psu be able to handle oc of the cards with the cpu?

 

[17seconds]

The prices on the GTX460 768mb are coming down in about a week and a half, so wait just a little while longer. Two GTX460 in SLI will be better than one GTX470, and the GTX460 768mb vs 1gb will be just slightly slower.

Your recommended play is to wait until October 20th, and purchase two GTX460 768mb cards for SLI.

EVGA GTX460 768mb vs 1gb models
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-460-review/

GTX460 in SLI vs GTX470 and other models
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-460-sli-review/1

 

[amirp]

i do not agree with the above posts (at least not until resolution of 2560by1600)
here is a comparison chart , the cards from left to right are:
gtx460 1gb sli, gtx 460 768mb sli, gtx 470, gtx 480

=on&prod[4512]=on&prod[4504]=on&prod[4505]=on]http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2010-gaming-graphics-charts-high-quality/compare,2457.html?prod[4507]=on&prod[4512]=on&prod[4504]=on&prod[4505]=on

as you can see the 1gb sli is obviously faster BUT by a small margin.
For example the Total FPS of all games at 1920 by 1080 and 8x AA
the 1gb SLI gets 455 and the 768mb SLI gets 434. A difference of ~5%. Yet the price difference between them is about $400 vs about $340 = 18% increase (if you live in states in canada the 1gb is more exepensive)

Also if you look at the chart the 768mb sli does fairly well in beating both the 470 and it is pretty much on par or better than a 480.

here is another review: http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-460-sli-review/1
, even on battlefield bad company 2, 1920by1200 dx11 and 8xaa the 768mb sli beats out the gtx480, it also beats the 470 every time in all of the benchmarks and the 480 in all but the metro2033 one (where neither option is playable anyways because of the insane options they put the game on)

bottom line, there is not much evidence you need the higher frame buffer cards if you dont have the money, you certainly can max out games , just maybe not anti aliasing on very taxing games like metro2033, which you cannot max out at dx11 with this amount of hard ware anyways.

Also I have an EVGA gtx460 768mb, i bought it because in canada i got it for $180 where the cheapest 1gb was $240 at the time, and i only play at 1680by1050 so it is perfect. I have it overclocked to 920mhz and 4200mhz (only for metro) with a voltage increase and the temp never goes in 70s in a shitty mATX case with 1 fan lol.

edit: i see you're interested in overclocking, fyi i used msi afterburner and it was very easy to overclock, i highly recommend that program it is great. If you cannot enable voltage control do a google search and it will show how. The asus, msi, gigabyte and evga gtx460's are all great among other ones. A friend of mine has gigabyte and the cooler is very nice and quiet, the evga I have and it is very cool and quiet as long as you dont manually increase fan speed (on auto it never needs to go high enough that you hear it). The msi and asus cards i hear are the best though

The bonus you get with evga tho is their step up program, lifetime warranty, and free metro 2033

 

[carsoncb]

You were very helpful, thanks a lot!!!

I heard the msi has really quiet cooling, is MSI the easiest and most efficient overclocker?

If I were to choose MSI, which would be better for the 768mb version(cyclone or twin frozr)?

what exactly is the step-up program?

 

[amirp]

here is one with a roundup of a bunch of these cards: http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-460-review/

well i got the evga because it was at least 20 dollars cheaper than every other one AND it was delivered to my door for free in toronto... www.bewawa.com is an awesome little store, a guy drives around toronto delivering computer parts ... for free with pay on delivery lol.

they are all good but Evga has high quality customer service imo, with good enough bonuses. As long as you register the card online and are able to scan your receipt to their site, within a couple days you will have a free copy of metro2033, but it is an online download so make sure you have bandwidth for that.

I am not sure about the details, step up means you send them your old evga card and they will give you discount on a new gtx560 or some thing lol...

also make sure your motherboard has x8 x8 slots and not like on locked at x4 or something because some have that.

now going to sleep peace out... midterm exam tomorrow...biochemistry...

also select best answer when you are done so mods can close threads and all

 

[amirp]

they all have the same overclocking potential i guess, generally they will ALL reach at least 800, mine reaches 850mhz without voltage, and just for fun i put it to 920 with voltage , it can probably go higher but you wont need it.

also when SLI i dont suggest overclocking until you know they are stable and they arent overheating , etc. And probably not increasing the voltage is a good idea in SLI it increase heat output alot (about 10degrees for me i think)

It makes a pretty decent difference tho, my stock 460 at 725mhz did 40avg fps on a crysis benchmark but at 920 it did 48avg , a 20% increase. settings were 1680by1050, high, dx10 and 2xAA (I was comparing the some benchmark, the game is easily playable at very high and 4xAA for me and I only have one of these.)
plus i only have a q6600 cpu still....

 

[carsoncb]

I will either buy the EVGA or MSI ones in about a month, depending on whichever is cheaper, making EVGA the superior choice if a price tie comes about.
Again, thanks a lot!!!

 

[carsoncb]

Best answer selected by carsoncb.

 

[MrMeth]

The " step up program " is a program that Evga offers the customers that basically allows you to upgrade your card with in the first 3 months of owning it. Lets say you purchase GTX 450 from Evga for $130 and a month down the line a new game comes out that your GTX 450 cant handle and you want a 470 ($300) , well by using the Step up program , you can send in your 450 and EVGA will send you a 470 and credit you the $130 that you paid for your 450 towards your 470. The only thing they require you to do is send in proof of purchase of how much you paid for the card (450) and then send in the card. I have only owned 2 Nvidia cards (80% has been ati ) but both of them have been Evga , and i have used the "step up program" once but from the dealings I have had with there customers service I wouldn't hesitate to purchase another Evga card or product they really have great service.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey