Which is the best GTX460 to buy?

[pl3cky]

just wondering which card i should get guys, currently got my eye on a quite cheap zotac gtx460, is this okay?

 

[vitornob]

Yep, zotac is a nice videocard maker. Surely there's other brands, quieter and/or faster, it all depends in availability

 

[C0rehound]

I had this Gigabyte GTX 460 before my HD6950's and really liked it. Great cooling, quiet, and ran like a champ.

In fact it's currently up for sale on my local Craigslist.

 

[pl3cky]

are the cyclones anygood?

 

[nforce4max]

Cyclones are ok if your case has plenty of fans but they dump all the heat in the case. No power vrm cooling at all. The absolute best gtx 460 isn't even sold in the us and never seen it on eBay nor newegg. Gigabyte is crap, their fans are weak and brittle. Worse still they easy pop apart and are held to the face plate with simple glue that even a little baby can pull apart. The cooler is light weight and easily damaged. The vram is allowed to get hot as some of the modules don't even get any airflow at all. It is one of the few cards out there that does have power vrm cooling but since the fans are so weak it doesn't matter much at all while under full load. The push pins used are very weak so the block cooling the power vrm doesn't work as it is intended.

I would pass this card up if you are looking into getting something to last or not a modder like my self. I own one and can tell you sure they perform well but they are not for the average user. I ditched it to a spare comp and got three gtx 280 instead.

 

[C0rehound]

Cyclones are ok if your case has plenty of fans but they dump all the heat in the case. No power vrm cooling at all. The absolute best gtx 460 isn't even sold in the us and never seen it on eBay nor newegg. Gigabyte is crap, their fans are weak and brittle. Worse still they easy pop apart and are held to the face plate with simple glue that even a little baby can pull apart. The cooler is light weight and easily damaged. The vram is allowed to get hot as some of the modules don't even get any airflow at all. It is one of the few cards out there that does have power vrm cooling but since the fans are so weak it doesn't matter much at all while under full load. The push pins used are very weak so the block cooling the power vrm doesn't work as it is intended.

I would pass this card up if you are looking into getting something to last or not a modder like my self. I own one and can tell you sure they perform well but they are not for the average user. I ditched it to a spare comp and got three gtx 280 instead.

We must be talking about different Gigabyte boards. I was very impressed with mine.

 

[cats_Paw]

Depends if you are plaining to stick with it for a while or not, if you want to watercool or get a custom fan to it, etc.

 

[nforce4max]

I own the Gigabyte gtx 460 oc edition not the soc but at least mine worked unlike their gtx 560ti soc that was stock clocked at 1ghz that they had to recall. The big difference between ati and nvidia cards from the hardware standpoint is power consumption.

 

[cps1974]

Gigabyte GTX 460 1GB Super Overclock ftw imho, very quite cooling and able to OC, if needed all the way to 930/1860/1100 (4400), fans rarely go higher than the default 40% (near silent). I ran mine at 880/1760/1050 (4200) and got almost 60fps running BC2 online (1920x1080, 32xCSAA, 16xAF, HBAO disabled)

the price has held on these monsters for the last year or so, if you dont have a 460 already I think the 560 is well worth looking at, maybe costs 10/20 USD more, and you can pick up a 560ti for 50/60 USD more than the cost of 460

food for thought

chaz


edit: ive checked the newegg website, 75 USD between the best rated GTX 460 (EVGA) and the best rated GTX 560 ti (also EVGA). the best rated GTX 560 sit inbetween those 2 GPU but much closer to the 460 price (btw the best rated 560 are EVGA, ASUS and MSi), ratings as per newegg customers