Nvidia GeForce GTX 465 1 GB Review: Zotac Puts Fermi On A Diet

Introduction

GeForce GTX 480, Nvidia’s flagship, is already a bit of a derivative GPU. Its 480 CUDA cores represent almost 94% of the GF100’s full capacity, and the 448-core GeForce GTX 470 is almost 88% of GF100 running at full force (GF100 being a 512-core GPU, of course).

Today, Nvidia is both launching and making available a third card based on the 3+ billion-transistor GF100 GPU. Equipped with 352 CUDA cores, that’s a little more than two-thirds of the chip’s compute resources turned on. Using those numbers alone, we can actually get pretty close to determining how the GeForce GTX 465 performs, too. It turns out that if you average our benchmarks scores at 19x0x1200 for both cards with anti-aliasing turned on, the GeForce GTX 465 is about 66% as fast as the GTX 480.

But CUDA cores aren’t the only resources that get cut in this California budget crisis-style haircut. The GeForce GTX 465 also sits down to the table with 44 texture units and four ROP partitions capable of outputting thirty-two 32-bit integer pixels per clock. The card’s memory interface drops as well, from 320-bits on the GeForce GTX 470 to 256-bits here, hosting 1GB of GDDR5 memory.

New Kid On The Block

The GeForce GTX 465 is the high school freshman of the discrete graphics market, trying to figure out where it fits in. Nvidia is slapping a $279 recommended price tag on the card, suggesting that, in the face of $290 and $300 Radeon HD 5850s, this card is a potent performer with a strategically-lower price to draw in enthusiasts.

But we already know that the GeForce GTX 470 does battle with the Radeon HD 5850, definitely offering better performance for an extra $50 or $60. Crap. We haven’t even started in with benchmarks and this is already looking like an awkward movie moment.To be fair, Nvidia maintains that the GeForce GTX 470 hits a price/performance sweet spot in the 400-series lineup. The GeForce GTX 465 isn't intended to challenge that.

So where does the GeForce GTX 465 fit in? Is it designed to do battle with the Radeon HD 5830—a card that didn’t get us particularly hot and bothered back when it launched in February? Although the Radeon HD 5830 doesn’t offer significantly more performance than an older Radeon HD 4890, at least it’s available for $220 or so.

According to Nvidia, the GeForce GTX 465 slots right in between the Radeon HD 5850 and 5830. But with a price tag that creeps right up into the 5850’s business, the new card’s performance needs to be much closer to the GeForce GTX 470 than a first glance at specifications suggests it’ll fall.

Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini is an Editor Emeritus at Tom's Hardware US. He edits hardware reviews and covers high-profile CPU and GPU launches.
  • Annisman
    Dang, it looks like Nvidia has almost no real answers for the AMD/ATI lineup of cards. However, if this card can drop in price a little it may be competitive because of some of it's Nvidia-only features. I mean, it runs cooler and uses a fair amount less power than the 470 and 480, maybe this will become the Phsyx card to get ? Espescially if they could manage a single slot version and drop the price. Anyways, no competition is bad for everyone and I hope Nvidia can get their act together asap.
    Reply
  • fatkid35
    i'll stick to my crossfire'd 5770s. same money and same power consumption.
    Reply
  • tacoslave
    fatkid35i'll stick to my crossfire'd 5770s. same money and same power consumption.Or a 5870 same thing less problems but thats just me. oh and that thing got pwnd by a 5830 and thats not saying much.
    Reply
  • welshmousepk
    wow, the pricing of this thing is all wrong. given how well the the 480 and 470 sit in the market, this just seems like a pointless card.
    Reply
  • liquidsnake718
    How many times do I have to say that this is nothing but a marketing gimmick for defective GTX480's and possibly 470's as well. Like the 5830 which was a cut/gimped/ or limited 5850
    Reply
  • liquidsnake718
    sorry 5870 on the above comment
    Reply
  • bombat1994
    make it 60 cheaper and you might have a good card but i would buy a 5850 over this thing everyday of the weel
    Reply
  • dco
    retail is messed up they charge you for a brand not the product by comparison. Whats worse is that people will buy it.
    Reply
  • rohitbaran
    The GTX4xx line is definitely not the way it is to be played and this latest crappy piece of hardware further proved it. Hot and expensive but poor on performance. The more cards they launch, the clearer ATI's victory becomes.
    Reply
  • km4m
    Fail, fail, fail...suitable words for Nvidia at this moment.
    Reply