GeForce GTX 580 vs. GeForce GTX 460 1GB SLI @ [H]

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GeForce GTX 580 vs. GeForce GTX 460 1GB SLI - We will pit the GeForce GTX 580 against GeForce GTX 460 1GB SLI to see if the less expensive GTX 460 1GB SLI alternative can compete in performance. Real gameplay evaluations tell you what canned benchmarks will not...once again.
 
Nice Review. Hard choice though, GTX 460SLI is cheaper but the GTX 580 has a better upgrade path which is very expensive.
On a 2560x1600(1440) monitor I'd go with the GTX 580(more memory) and on a 1080p monitor I'd go with GTX 460SLI.
 
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Great review!

Only thing is that after seeing some of the reviews with the res of 2560 x 1600 it makes me want one, lol.
 
The GTX 580 is a nice card, but if a person were on a 24 inch (192x1200) monitor or lower, this GTX 460's would be a beast of a setup. I just can't get over how well they scale.
 
I still think for the price, the 460s in SLI can't be beat. For $200 less, one level of AA isn't much of a sacrifice.

Thanks for posting such an informative review, canned benchmarks would never have shown the GTX 580s real-world supremacy.

EDIT: Hey Kyle, I just saw in your sig that your displays are in a portrait setup. How do you like that compared to landscape like what most people have done? I haven't seen either in RL, but it seemed to me like landscape is too wide for three monitors.
 
Great Article. High notes on what makes [H] reviews outstanding, game play evaluations.

I also remember you guys said you were working on a 68XX CFX review/comparison. What ever happened to that? It would have been great to include 68XX CFX numbers to the comparison.
 
Great Article. High notes on what makes [H] reviews outstanding, game play evaluations.

I also remember you guys said you were working on a 68XX CFX review/comparison. What ever happened to that? It would have been great to include 68XX CFX numbers to the comparison.

That is still being worked on, been put back at the moment for a new launch.
 
EDIT: Hey Kyle, I just saw in your sig that your displays are in a portrait setup. How do you like that compared to landscape like what most people have done? I haven't seen either in RL, but it seemed to me like landscape is too wide for three monitors.

I like the extra pixels vertically. I do a lot of document editing.....
 
I wonder if the GTX 560's will offer more than 1GB of RAM. I can't wait to see what they can do in SLI.
 
Since there are several deals that put the 470 at under $250AR, maybe a follow up article with 470SLI vs 580 is in order.
 
Good article, and pretty much reassures me that my choice in 460 SLI was the right one for me. I just wish nVidia would wise up and allow Surround support on a single card, cause the 580 definately has the juice to do it.
 
Nice Review. Hard choice though, GTX 460SLI is cheaper but the GTX 580 has a better upgrade path which is very expensive.
On a 2560x1600(1440) monitor I'd go with the GTX 580(more memory) and on a 1080p monitor I'd go with GTX 460SLI.

I think a single GTX460 is good enough for 1080p in most cases.
 
Good review!

-table fixed, thanks, Brent
 
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Excellent Review once again. I'd just have to mention that I went ahead and got a 580 at launch and my reasoning is that it will be MORE affordable later on to buy another 580 (Say when they hit $300) for that performance ranther than 2 460/470's now then whatever the current solution is at upgrade time.

Kyle, ever think about possibly reviewing Projectors for those of us with huge white walls in our gaming rooms? Maybe something that can handle the refresh rate/response times?
 
I wonder if the GTX 560's will offer more than 1GB of RAM. I can't wait to see what they can do in SLI.

For the market that the 560 will target, the reference model will surely have 1 GB only. But partners may decide to make models with 2 GBs.
 
Is kicking himself that he went with the HD 5850 instead of the GTX 460. Now he needs to get (2) GTX 460's, which still come out cheaper than 1 GTX 580. Still I only game at 1920x1200, my monitor isn't capable of any higher resolution and since its a 28", I don't plan on getting another monitor until it dies.

But at the same time I could probably get (3) cheap 24" monitors... ARGH, the decisions. Thanks Kyle, I really didn't need to see that comparison, now I'm all torn :)
 
Thanks for the review. Since you mentioned in your performance summary that the memory of the GTX 460 might be holding it back, have you considered testing one of the GTX 460's out there with 2GB of memory? I'm aware that the value proposition of a GTX 460 SLI system vs a single GTX 580 would be thrown out the window, but it would satisfy that curiosity of where the bottleneck lies.
 
One of my fav articles so far. Good to see that there were no SLI issues people always talk about.

Kyle, any chance of a article about these same cards and what CPUs do to performance?

Would love to see, Core2Duo, Core2Quad, i3,i5,i7, X2, X3,X4,X6.

There is so much FUD out there regarding CPU\GPU bottlenecking.
 
Thank you for this review. And I also agree with the last post, a cpu guide to match these card comparisons would be great. It seems there is no real definitive testing done to put the "bottleneck" arguments to rest. At least not that I've seen. :)
 
Good review. It's pretty much in line with what I was expecting.

I think a single GTX460 is good enough for 1080p in most cases.

It is, until you want to crank up the AA and other graphical options. Some might not care about that but I personally cannot stand to play games without being able to maximize most of graphical options within a game.
 
If you do get a 460 1gb card or SLI setup, I would highly recommend the DirectCU Asus cards. They are excellent overclockers due to the design of the heatsink. Sadly I purchased mine mid summer at a cost of about $240 each but I was able to get rid of two 5870's for $325 each. Still a very good upgrade. I've got mine running 880 / 2200 rock solid stable with auto fan. If I crank the fan up to 70% then I can run them at 900 / 2300 rock solid stable. BTW, this pair is for sale for $365 shipped w/ SLI bridge. These cards easily beat a 580 GTX.

8sdh1.jpg
 
This was my thought exactly after reading the GTX 580 reviews, that it was a good time to be a GTX 460 1GB owner so you can go SLI and get very similar performance, and that's my plan.

I'll be getting a second 460 when I upgrade very soon here and I've got 24" 19x12 monitors so I don't think the price/perf can be beat at that resolution.
 
Of all things vindictus actually causes my 1 gig Hawk to stutter maxed out settings at 1680x1050...

Might have to snag a second card.
 
nice review. but for myself I can't see the money being worth the difference. multi gpu really has come of age here I think
 
yes but how does an overclocked 460sli compare to an overclocked 580!??!?!?!?!
 
I'm not sure. I do know that the headroom on a 580 just isn't there. The thing is, the 460 1gig cards are clocked ate 675 / 1800. So you can see at, for me, 880 or 900 / 2200 / 2300 is massive 200mhz overclock or right around 25%. Honestly, I think someone could buy 2 x 460 1gig SLI cards now and still have a high end video performance a year from now.
 
Good article, and pretty much reassures me that my choice in 460 SLI was the right one for me. I just wish nVidia would wise up and allow Surround support on a single card, cause the 580 definately has the juice to do it.
It's a hardware limitation. The cards do not have the capability to output to 3 monitors at once, not that NVIDIA doesn't want to allow it.
 
Before the 580 popped, I was looking at 460 1GB SLI as it just cost-effectively blew everything out of the water. But I've always been a fan of big, single cards because they're more consistent with performance, and always have that option for a second card. The 580 definitely seems to fit that bill, just as my GTX 280 did (still getting great performance and AA levels out of it, but I'm working on a new build and have the capital to grab a new card atm, so... xD), just waiting on its stock situation to clear-up. Already was slightly unhappy w/the MSRP ($400 would have been awesome, but realistically $450 would have been the golden spot- I got my GTX 280 for ~$420 a month after launch), and the current situation isn't helping that. Of course, that issue probably won't get fixed until the 5970s hit (originally wasn't going to wait for those once I heard they were delayed, but it seems nVidia is intent on insisting I wait for them).

But anyway, biggest issue w/the GTX 460 is actually the lack of blower models. I've only seen eVGA and Zotac offer them, and I'm really unhappy with eVGA right now because of how they handled my (multiple) nForce 750i SLI FTW RMAs, and I'm not sure about Zotac tbh. Lack of widespread options is discomforting. Nonetheless, before the GTX 580 and HD 6870 it was an inconvenience I would have considered dealing with.
 
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It's a hardware limitation. The cards do not have the capability to output to 3 monitors at once, not that NVIDIA doesn't want to allow it.
AMD cards can do Eyefinity with a single card, so obviously the limitation isn't insurmountable. I think nVidia is purposely leaving in this limitation to push people to buy a 2nd card unnecessarily.
 
Im still just waiting for the 6900 series before I bite. The capability of running multiple monitors off a single card is huge for me but I HATE the stupid cursor problem AMD has with their cards when using multiple monitors.
 
AMD cards can do Eyefinity with a single card, so obviously the limitation isn't insurmountable. I think nVidia is purposely leaving in this limitation to push people to buy a 2nd card unnecessarily.
Different architectures, though. You'll have to wait (and hope) that a Fermi successor will address it.
 
Since there are several deals that put the 470 at under $250AR, maybe a follow up article with 470SLI vs 580 is in order.

I'm also interested in this. 470 SLI has come up several times in previous reviews due to the price decrease.

Is a 470 SLI comparison in the pipe still?
 
Great article! What I'd like to see next is a comparison between single and multiple screens. How much graphical detail / quality do you have to sacrifice to maintain playable framerates when going from one to three monitors?
 
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