Nvidia GeForce GTX 460: The Fermi We Were Waiting For

By Chris Angelini
published

Sneak Peek At SLI

We already have a comprehensive look at GeForce GTX 460 SLI performance planned for a future article. After all, we feel that there’s more to a pair of these cards than a handful of benchmark charts could convey. We gave AMD’s Radeon HD 4770s in CrossFire a similar treatment back in 2009, along with the GeForce GTX 275 in SLI a few days later.

For now, we’ll give you a sneak peek at performance using Nvidia’s reference GeForce GTX 460 and Zotac’s board, sporting the same clock rates.

There are some clear and present performance gains associated with SLI. This isn’t new, though. This is the same story we told back when I revisited the GeForce GTX 480 in single-, dual-, and triple-card configurations. What do those numbers work out to with regard to scaling?

That’s not quite a doubling of performance, but in many cases, we’re damn close. The only exception is DiRT 2, which we have seen scale better in the past. Perhaps, in this example, we’re suffering from the application of anti-aliasing (likely).

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. If it turns out that a pair of 460s outperform the 480, then you’re looking at $450 worth of hardware serving up more speed than a $500 card.

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