Nvidia GeForce GTX 460: The Fermi We Were Waiting For

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Benchmark Results: DiRT 2 (DX11)

DiRT 2 gives us another example of an app that behaves differently with anti-aliasing on and off. With the feature disabled, we can comfortably play this racing game up through 2560x1600 on all of these cards, for the most part. The GeForce GTX 460 1 GB and 768 MB trail the GeForce GTX 470 at 1680x1050 and 1920x1080, and are only bested by AMD’s Radeon HD 5850 at 2560x1600. Most notable here is that both cards beat the GeForce GTX 465 flat-out.

Turn on anti-aliasing, though, and the two new Nvidia cards fall in between AMD’s Radeon HD 5850 and 5830. Additionally, the GeForce GTX 465 is able to pass the 768 MB card, though the 1 GB GeForce GTX 460 still ends up on top.

See where the GeForce GTX 460 768 MB falls off at 2560x1600? Again, the board is coming up short with its frame buffer. What is actually a playable setting on the 1 GB card turns into something else entirely at 768 MB.

Chris Angelini
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.
151 Comments Comment from the forums
  • sabot00
    Finally, the price wars from the 4000/GTX 200 ages are back!
    Reply
  • Tamz_msc
    At last, Nvidia has impressed me(to a certain extent).But where's power consumption in SLI?
    Reply
  • Tamz_msc
    Oops!Sorry for the double post.
    Reply
  • thedreadfather
    Tamz_mscAt last, Nvidia has impressed me(to a certain extent).But where's power consumption in SLI?Did you even read the whole article?
    Page 5 "Sneak Peek at SLI"
    "Again, this is just a teaser. We’ll be following up with a full exploration of these cards in SLI, comparing them to a GeForce GTX 480."

    Great review as always, Chris.
    Reply
  • cangelini
    thedreadfatherDid you even read the whole article? Page 5 "Sneak Peek at SLI" "Again, this is just a teaser. We’ll be following up with a full exploration of these cards in SLI, comparing them to a GeForce GTX 480."Great review as always, Chris.
    Much thanks, sir!
    Reply
  • thejerk
    Nice review, Chris. Best I've read here in a while.
    Reply
  • guid_aaa000001
    I have never waited for this... It's not "we", it must be "some people".

    Note: That is if you consider "me" in that "we".
    Reply
  • cangelini
    guid_aaa000001I have never waited for this... It's not "we", it must be "some people".Note: That is if you consider "me" in that "we".
    We, as in Tom's Hardware ;-)
    Reply
  • lashton
    the 5830 i think is a better card, hell you can get a 5770 super-clock it and thats the same speed as a GTX460 for a fraction of the price!
    Reply
  • Tamz_msc
    thedreadfatherDid you even read the whole article? Page 5 "Sneak Peek at SLI" "Again, this is just a teaser. We’ll be following up with a full exploration of these cards in SLI, comparing them to a GeForce GTX 480."Great review as always, Chris.Might have overlooked that line, but I'm wondering how the 460 would perform when overclocked.
    Reply