Gigabyte GTX 460 1GB, this one any good?

KillRoy X

Gawd
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Aug 15, 2004
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I've been hearing alot of bad things on Palit so I'm not jumping the gun with it. However I'm seeing the Gigabyte brand pop up and was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on it? The card has 2 fans but again doesn't look like it pulls any air out of the case (like MSI)

Looking to buy something today, so gathering the info before I hit "CLICK"
 
The only 460 design I've seen that actually ejects the hot air out of the case is from eVGA, those versions are labeled "External Exhaust." If you have good airflow, it should not be a problem.

I only saw the Gigabyte version for the first time this morning at the egg. Can't speak about the quality of it, but I did own a Gigabyte video card a few years back. No complaints, but I'm unaware of what kind of support they offer if you do have problems.
 
That's not true from what I've seen. The reference cooler design ejects air from the case too. Just see the pictures here:

http://www.hardocp.com/image.html?image=MTI3ODg5Njg2NjdLMGdWc3Z6VEtfMV8yMF9sLmpwZw==

Now, I bought the Sparkle 1GB card in-stock at Newegg right now because of:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814187113

1. reference cooler, which is known to be quiet and eject air out the back of the case
2. lifetime warranty.

I've never bought Sparkle, but I'm willing to give them a shot :D
 
The Gigabyte cooler with 2 fans and improved heatsink from what I have heard cools better, and since the fins are horizontal toward the outside of the case (and have a shroud) it's supposed to eject much of the air that way instead of dumping it all inside. The reference cooler does some eject air out of the case as well. Both are good, quiet designs. Here's a sound test link: http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/3405/galaxy_geforce_gtx_460_super_oc_1gb_video_card/index18.html

I went for a pair of the Gigabyte 1GB cards on newegg ultimately as they were in-stock and TigerDirect had no ETA on the noisy (per HardOCP and Tweaktown) Galaxy units. Palit was in-stock previously when I was looking but due to the huge warranty issues, uncertain warranty length/RMA location, and gimped-down heatsink + missing VRM heatsink on the actual shipping units despite sending better ones to reviewers, I passed on those.

Finally, the Gigabyte's heatsink doesn't take up the full 2 slots to the millimeter height-wise like many do... which will help thermals in SLI by allowing some airflow, I have a feeling.
 
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I just received my 1GB Gigabyte. Very unique design. There is a heatsink over something there in the back and at least some VRM are NOT covered by a heatsink BUT the airflow IS directed onto them by the heatsink design. In general Gigabyte is one of the most respected names when it comes to motherboards. I do not think they would want to tarnish it by offering an inferior product in such a closely related product. I think it would be a solid purchase.
 
I just ordered, so excited...its gonna replace my 8800gt, which i'm gonna use as a physX card. I know my cpu is under par, but i'm really really trying to hold out for the intel 6 core cpu's to come down to decent price, that and i'm a student on a students budget.

Anyways can you guys that have it give any more details? Like how much you can overclock it, or the idle/load temps (/w OC'd), or does software come /w it to OC it, or control the fans, and how does that work, 1 setting to rule them all, or each fan can be controlled invidividually, in which case, which one would be the faster/slower one? or just overall fuzzy warm feeling you got? ;)
 
I just ordered, so excited...its gonna replace my 8800gt, which i'm gonna use as a physX card. I know my cpu is under par, but i'm really really trying to hold out for the intel 6 core cpu's to come down to decent price, that and i'm a student on a students budget.

Anyways can you guys that have it give any more details? Like how much you can overclock it, or the idle/load temps (/w OC'd), or does software come /w it to OC it, or control the fans, and how does that work, 1 setting to rule them all, or each fan can be controlled invidividually, in which case, which one would be the faster/slower one? or just overall fuzzy warm feeling you got? ;)

Looking to do the same you did, except I have SLI 8800GTs OC'ed from evga and want to get SLI GTX 460s 1GB and use one of my 8800GTs as PhysX as I have an 8600GTS in there right now.

Check the [H]ard review for what they did for overclocking these gpus and I have read that MSI Afterburner is what everyone is using to overclocking these.

Is terms of the warm fuzzy feeling in my pants? I don't have them yet so nothing is stirring right now. :(
 
I just received my 1GB Gigabyte. Very unique design. There is a heatsink over something there in the back and at least some VRM are NOT covered by a heatsink BUT the airflow IS directed onto them by the heatsink design. In general Gigabyte is one of the most respected names when it comes to motherboards. I do not think they would want to tarnish it by offering an inferior product in such a closely related product. I think it would be a solid purchase.

Let us know how the noise is on them. I'm thinking of picking up a Gigabyte version but with no provision for after market cooling I'm worried about noise.
 
I'm hoping with the dual fan design that it has will come out as a winner when you really try to overclock it hard, wish they tried that on its tweaktown review, any other reviews? That was the first one i've seen, thx for the link btw!
 
That's the only one I've seen, but I did find this picture (and added a GTX 470 overclock for reference):

gtx460470compareoc.jpg


That's on the stock Gigabyte cooler, don't know if it's a max OC or not.
 
WOW! thats insane!!! now i'm really happy i ordered the gigabyte! Good lookin GoldenTiger!
 
Me too... that's not my overclock FYI, I just added in an eVGA 470 to the screenshot for comparison. I'll be posting my own oc results in SLI and probably single-card configuration (since I want to see how it compares at max-OC to what my GTX 470 did max OC), once my Gigabyte 1GB cards arrive (Wednesday per UPS tracking, hopefully earlier :( ).
 

That review says its quiet at load, which doesn't really bother me, but the idle looks quite loud, only the very loud cards are higher than the 59.5dB of the Gigabyte card. But if it doesn't get louder at load maybe you can alter the fan profile with MSI afterburner. Though that tweaktown review doesn't show idle temps, so its hard to say. The MSI Cyclone is both quieter and cooler, too bad I can't see any for sale.
 
Me too... that's not my overclock FYI, I just added in an eVGA 470 to the screenshot for comparison. I'll be posting my own oc results in SLI and probably single-card configuration (since I want to see how it compares at max-OC to what my GTX 470 did max OC), once my Gigabyte 1GB cards arrive (Wednesday per UPS tracking, hopefully earlier :( ).

It does look good
- interested to see if you get similar overclocks!

No availability in the UK yet - so will wait a few days before deciding...
- but it looks like the front-runner at the moment

BTW - the OC you're showing there - that's with a Core Voltage Up as well, isn't it?
- which will up the power a lot as well
- be interesting to see the Max OC without Voltage tweak

Another thing - the memory voltage is fixed, right?
 
samurai1999,

I sure hope I get similar overclocks :D. The core voltage on that is upped per the screenshot, yes. It probably ups the power needs a good bit too, but not to obscene levels. I've seen some people claiming (including one review) to get 870-920mhz without over-voltage. Memory voltage is not currently adjustable from within Afterburner, so yes, it is fixed.
 
That review says its quiet at load, which doesn't really bother me, but the idle looks quite loud, only the very loud cards are higher than the 59.5dB of the Gigabyte card. But if it doesn't get louder at load maybe you can alter the fan profile with MSI afterburner. Though that tweaktown review doesn't show idle temps, so its hard to say. The MSI Cyclone is both quieter and cooler, too bad I can't see any for sale.

I think tweak town's sound testing lab is not quite up to snuff. Look at the deltas between idle and load. From the idle measurements you can tell there is a ton of ambient noise in the environment they are measuring in.

Anyway from Golden's screenshot, I'm ordering two of these now. I hope Newegg isn't the only competition in town when it comes to these cards, because tax always kills it for me. Also just signed up an account at Overstock and got a 10% off coupon in my email, which applies immediately at checkout. No waiting 2 months for cashback...Problem is they don't carry 460s just yet.
 
I think tweak town's sound testing lab is not quite up to snuff. Look at the deltas between idle and load. From the idle measurements you can tell there is a ton of ambient noise in the environment they are measuring in.

I've heard some non-reference cooler designs on other cards which idled loud and barely got any louder at load, so I can believe their results.
 
We're going to find out soon, a bunch of us have this card on the way so expect a flood of user results this week sometime. Mine is due to arrive Wednesday or Thursday, for once Newegg didn't ship same day when I ordered on Friday. Bleh!
 
We're going to find out soon, a bunch of us have this card on the way so expect a flood of user results this week sometime. Mine is due to arrive Wednesday or Thursday, for once Newegg didn't ship same day when I ordered on Friday. Bleh!

Yikes, that's unfortunate :(. Mine shipped but since I chose the free shipping it was 3-day, so Wednesday is my shipment's due date. As you said... should be a flood of results this coming week :D.
 
I'm waiting eagerly to hear them! The shop I normally buy my computer parts from just got some of these Gigabyte cards in stock, if you guys say its quiet I might jump on it. Ideally it'd be nice if these cards were designed in a way you could put aftermarket cooling on them, but looking at the chip size and bolt spacings there doesn't look like any hope of that.
 
I'll let you know :). The rest of my fans are pretty quiet (all 120mm, medium/low CFM models that run gently), so I should be able to tell pretty easily.
 
Got mine friday, but i have the 768 version. Installed saturday, part of my new setup:

Core i7 860 @ 3.15
Gigabyte P55-UD3
4GB G.skill 1600 DDR3
Gigabyte GTX 460 768MB

Card runs very cool and quiet, even OCd (I used MSI's OC tool) and very stable, I got it up to 825 before I saw artifacting, others may have better luck. Most games saw a huge increase, CS:S did not, however, but that may just be poor 64 bit performance coding.

Does anyone know if its possible to remove the plastic casing and just leave the metal heatsink on the card?

My next step will be to remove the HSF and throw some Arctic Silver 5 on it.
 
Thanks for the feedback, Mrlgoe! I just wanted to ask, did you use the voltage adjustment in MSI Afterburner yet? If so, did it remain cool/quiet like the reviews have said, or did it become noticeably noisier?
 
Was exactly the same, temps maybe went up 1-2C idle and max 5 under load. Can't be heard at all, my comp is a foot and a half from my head and I can't hear a thing.

Voltage never changed, and the air coming out of the side vent is luke-warm, maybe even cold, so I am more than pleased. Puts out WAY less heat than my old 8800GTS, especially when idling, which is a welcomed change.

Oddly enough I couldn;t get the memory clock up to what the eVGA card was (3600?) I think mine bottled out at 2400-something, can check once I'm back in my house.

Overall, very pleased with this card, will most likely hold onto it for a year and a half, and perhaps SLI it to keep 1920x1080 gaming running smooth until I get a new computer in 4 years (as is my norm, it seems)

EDIT: Should say my fan speeds are between 40-70%
 
That's good to hear, I should have my card on Wednesday. I guess I'll have to get rid of the EVGA Precision tuning and get with the MSI Afterburner. And not a moment too soon, Stalker CoP is chuggin on my system. I don't expect to see a huge increase in FPS, but just a few frames + would be good.

I am not familiar with the voltage adjustment, is that something in the Afterburner you can tweak? I probably won't touch until I learn more.

On a side note I've noticed a few people saying they will use their old Gfx card as the physX card. How does that work? Is that something that can be controlled in the Nvidia CP?
 
You'll see a huge increase in performance.

Edit: Buy a new mobo and overclock that awesome 8400 for even more of an increase. You don't say specifically in your sig what 8400 it is, duo or quad, but not overclocking either is a crime.
 
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The 8400 is a duo, Wolfdale.

Why you think I have to buy a new mobo? I know I cant get the latest CPU's but the upgrade path isn't over, I still can do something.
 
Atleast for me, i think upgrading right now from my core2 to a quad core is a waste of money. This card will deffinitely tide things over until the 6cores come down in price and i can acually get something for my money. If i could do it without upgrading the mobo i would have done it already, but since i gotta upgrade the mobo to do it, i might aswell wait and just do the mobo/ram/cpu all at once to some of the latest hardware. Thats just my opinion, and what i'm gonna do, as is my cpu isnt the bottleneck in anything except for supreme commander, after i get the 460 that may change, but then atleast it'll make things better for the next year.

p.s. (my mobo is a hybrid north/south bridge so core2's are the extent of the upgrades sadly)
 
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Oddly enough I couldn;t get the memory clock up to what the eVGA card was (3600?) I think mine bottled out at 2400-something, can check once I'm back in my house.

3600 is 900x4
what you are seeing is 1200x2 so what you are effectively running at is 4800. As far as I know that is a great overclock.
 
Argh my shipping info just updated, they didn't ship it until Monday night, with a Thursday delivery date. Weaksauce supreme, that is about 6 days from order to delivery 4 business days in total... rare for Newegg. Blargh.
 
Argh my shipping info just updated, they didn't ship it until Monday night, with a Thursday delivery date. Weaksauce supreme, that is about 6 days from order to delivery 4 business days in total... rare for Newegg. Blargh.

Ordered on Monday morning and mine arrives Thursday as well.

The price changed from 234.99 to 229.99 the same day I ordered it, probably because the EVGA 1GB cards became available. I contacted NewEgg about the price change, and they gave me $10 back. $225 for 1GB GTX 460 OC isn't too bad at all. Although I'm kicking myself because if I had just been more patient, I could have gotten an EVGA card instead.
 
Yeah, I thought I'd give that a try as well, but they only gave me 5 dollars back. Not too bad though that they would even do that.
 
For those interested here's some good shots I found when searching the web for the gigabyte card:
http://forums.vr-zone.com/8325089-post24.html

Looks like it has sinks that cover most of the VRM's, but as said a little earlier in the thread it does NOT cover all of them (there's a few right behind the PCIe power connectors).
 
They really love caking on the TIM out of the factory, better safe than sorry I suppose. I'm really tempted to pick this card up, but I only just installed a Twin Turbo Pro on my 4870 and it seems like a waste to get rid of it now... to buy now or to wait until the next generation of cards? That is the tough question in life...

Do you guys think an 8800GTS 320mb would work well as a PhysX card next to a GTX460?
 
They really love caking on the TIM out of the factory, better safe than sorry I suppose. I'm really tempted to pick this card up, but I only just installed a Twin Turbo Pro on my 4870 and it seems like a waste to get rid of it now... to buy now or to wait until the next generation of cards? That is the tough question in life...

Do you guys think an 8800GTS 320mb would work well as a PhysX card next to a GTX460?

I think it would be fine as a physX card, the 8800gts gpu is gonna be doing all the work, your not gonna be having to load mass textures, just doing calculations, i say "yay"
 
Well, got the card tonight, installed, and ran Call of Pipyat. Wow, I heard I'd get some improvement but this is ridiculous.

Now, with that said I run at 1680x1050, but even at that rez my SLI 8800gt's were struggling with the game at high setttings. (dx10) 2x AA

I just played for about 5 minutes, and I don't know yet what frames I'm getting, but no more constant studdering. Not sure if the bottleneck was the memory on or what, but it's a huge bump. So now I'm going to turn on wet surfaces and a couple more I had to turn off.

I did notice that the Vsync isn't working when selected, not sure what's that about.

Only gripe and it's not really, is the 2 6 pins needed. I was going to hook up my 8800GT, but the additional 6 pin is tucked away neatly in my case and I didn't feel like messing with it.

So it's quiet as well. It's 2 fans, but they are more quiet than my 2 8800 GT's.

Ok, back to gaming. I'll update if needed.
 
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