Amazing SLI Scaling: Do Two GeForce GTX 460s Beat One GTX 480?

By Thomas Soderstrom
published

The GeForce GTX 460 has already proven itself an excellent value as a single card, but can two of them offer superior performance at similar cost to Nvidia’s flagship GTX 480? Let's just say that there's a good reason to buy an SLI-compatible motherboard.

Performance Analysis

It’s not always easy to keep track of which card wins and loses in individual benchmarks, or by how much. While today’s performance numbers were far more consistent than those of most graphics reviews, we thought there might be a few readers who could still use a breakdown of average performance.

At 1680x1050, the GeForce GTX 460 SLI configuration outpaces the GTX 480 by a wide enough margin that it wins even with anti-aliasing enabled.

1920x1080 results give the GeForce GTX 480 its second beating, yet even the single GeForce GTX 460 produces adequate frame rates, on average.

If you can afford a 2560x1600 display, you’ll want nothing less than a GeForce GTX 460 SLI configuration. The average doesn’t show how it stumbled in a few benchmarks, but it absolutely slams the single-card GeForce GTX 480. Of course, we have a pair of GeForce GTX 480s to show off in this quarter's System Builder Marathon, and that is a performance segment unto itself.

Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
118 Comments Comment from the forums
  • welshmousepk
    I had given up on Nvidia this gen, but somehow they have pulled off the impossible.

    I'm seriously considering picking up two of these...
    Reply
  • Lmeow
    Wow. GTX 460 SLIs smoked the GTX 480 the whole way through... (you'd really think it'd be the other way - seeing as those GTX 480s don't exactly run 'cool' :D) without breaking a sweat.

    The only reason to get a GTX 480 now is if your motherboard doesn't have dual PCI-E x16 slots/support SLI or you want to SLI GTX 480s later on.

    Good job nVidia - real comeback.
    Reply
  • lutel
    To buy or not to buy GTX 460 - that is the question which will be easier if you give decent review of GTX 460 boards, with one 5850 focused on noise (take a look at silentpcreview methodology) and overclocability.
    Reply
  • scrumworks
    welshmousepkI had given up on Nvidia this gen, but somehow they have pulled off the impossible. I'm seriously considering picking up two of these...
    Or you can wait couple of months for Southern Islands that makes everything nvidia has look dated.
    Reply
  • "With an MSRP of $250 and a Web price around $230, the GeForce GTX 460 was already known to be a great mid-priced performer"

    Is that Canadian pricing I see, because in America GTX 460s go for $199!.

    For $250 you get a GTX 460 factory overclocked from 675 mhz to 800MHZ! and with 1GB of ram, not 768mb! 2 of which are 90% as fast as a Ati 5970, for $200 less!
    Reply
  • Maziar
    Great review.
    I am amazed by the 90% performance boost over a single GTX 460.
    Although it has more power consumption than 1 GTX 480,but its a great cost-effective option for those who can't afford the 480 but need similar(or better) performance
    Reply
  • andrewcutter
    scrumworksOr you can wait couple of months for Southern Islands that makes everything nvidia has look dated.to wait is a continous exercise you can only look at now at the time of buying...:D
    Reply
  • hardcore_gamer
    great article..gotta love toms :D
    Reply
  • andrewcutter
    I might be mistaken but is this sparkle card a bit more power hungry. the power requirement seems to be a bit high for 460.:(
    Reply
  • dragonfang18
    But you lose the power to upgrade... At least I can still save up for another 480 down the road when I need an upgrade.
    Reply