GTX 460 vs. 5850 Comparison?

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Ehren8879

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Have done my Google due diligence edit:)(debatable), but haven't found a proper comparison of the newly released 460 and the 5850. Thought they're not in same retail price bracket, how do they compare? Kinda like, what does and extra $40 net me, review.

Has anyone come across anything worth reading?
 
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however the reviews of overclocking are slim on the reviews. I'd say over clocked to 830 they are they same, or at least within 5%.
 
Yeah, it's always funny when people forget that overclocking works both ways. ;)
 
I got my 460 to 910mhz under the stock voltage caps. Any higher and I would get artifacts. Really I think stock comparisons are worthless, overclocked comparisons are far more important. Too bad OC'd comparison are hard to find.
 
I got one of mine 5850 to 1118/1250 with stock cooler .
That is 393 mhz more than stock , more than 50% . 5850 overclocks very good ,maybe even beter than gtx460. Every 5850 i owned could go past 1000mhz with minor voltage tewaks and still be cold and silent.
 
The problem is they're two very different architectures and don't respond to overclocking the same way. A 30% increase in frequency isn't going to net the same performance gains in either card, especially when considering different applications and settings. What resolution are you looking to play at, OP?
 
I know about architectures and nvidaias shader 1:2 ratio . But shader conut on gtx460 is lower than on gf100 so cards dont scale so good like for example mine gtx470 . It all depends on what game . Some games like shader count others higher clocks etc.
Btw you cant go wrong with both cards ,maybe wait for ATI to respond with prices. 5850 was 260$ and it could be again.
 
How about after the newest Nvidia drivers? Werent they supposed to increase 460 gtx performance?
 
As a long time fan of AMD, I dont think the slight performance boost is worth the $90. I suppose if I had the money to spare Id go for it but being an extreme budget gamer, I cant justify it. Now a $250 5850 would be a little different. Id be more tempted then.
 
Ehren8879 said:
Almost, yes. All, no
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Most of the 5850s that you can find at sub-$300 are of subpar build quality and won't overclock well. The reference ones usually go for more.

I'd roll with the 460 1GB. And then add another one and two more monitors once you can't resist. :cool:
 
Every 5850 I've had cost me less than $280 shipped. All were purchased brand new. Two of them were reference.
 
Wouldn't the 460 outperform in SLI? After all, SLI scales better than Crossfire...
 
why look at the 768MB?

The 1GB 460 has been going up in price. I guess you pay about $230. You could have a XFX HD585XZAFC Radeon HD 5850 for $250 ABCB. So for $20 difference they kind of fall in the same price bracket.
 
XFX HD585XZAFC is $295. 1gb 460's are $230. $65 difference. :)

And you can get CB off both of them. So that's irrelevant.

For me it would come down to performance, potential OC'd performance, and SLI vs Crossfire. Then see if the difference in price warrants spending more.
 
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Although i do agree ati brought a great product to the market, and I just think that they are just squeezing every penny out of hd 5850 and 5870. Partners are even worse they are banking on them too, I loved the stock cooler and now the aftermarket cards some of them don't even support voltage tweaking, ony the reference and msi, asus ones would.

It just plain sucks, a legit price point would be 250. The original retail price was supposed to be 259, wasn't it?
 
I noticed gtx 460 has two 6 pin connectors, if only one connected would this card still run?
 
I'm torn on this decision as well, planning to buy one or the other in the next 3 weeks or so.

I have the money for a 5850, but when the card isn't substantially more powerful than a 460 it's hard to justify the extra cost. On the flip side, the 460 isn't significantly more powerful than a 4870 or say a 285. At this point I feel like scoring a used xfx 5870 on craigslist is my best option (I narrowly missed one for 320!). Regardless, if a price cut happens I'll probably have a 5850 but if not I'll probably have the 768mb 460. I don't understand why everyone wants the 1gb version, I've read several reviews and gaming comparisons at different resolutions that show even at high res the 1gig version is < 5% more powerful.

I'm being pressured into making a decision soon since my 4870 is beginning to die. The wonderful oven trick has brought it back from the dead but who knows how long that'll last.
 
Crispy002 said:
. I don't understand why everyone wants the 1gb version, I've read several reviews and gaming comparisons at different resolutions that show even at high res the 1gig version is < 5% more powerful.
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Usually we go for more memory if possible to "future proof" our investments. :)
 
bumbeen said:
I got my 460 to 910mhz under the stock voltage caps. Any higher and I would get artifacts. Really I think stock comparisons are worthless, overclocked comparisons are far more important. Too bad OC'd comparison are hard to find.
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Because no two cards overclock the same, just because you get a good overclock doesn't mean the next guy will. Sure, both the 5850 and the 460 overclock well but there is no guarantee that the card you buy will overclock at all.
 
Crispy002 said:
I don't understand why everyone wants the 1gb version, I've read several reviews and gaming comparisons at different resolutions that show even at high res the 1gig version is < 5% more powerful.
Click to expand...

I used to have a 320mb 8800GTS, when you run out of video ram its really bloody annoying. At times you can have similar FPS but the game can be unplayable. GoW would get game breaking stutter, DIRT would get screwed up shadows, Crysis would start getting texture glitches, all whilst running at reasonable FPS.

After owning the 320mb 8800GTS I'd always recommend going for the higher ram version of a card (within reason of course, some manufacturers needlessly put heaps of ram on some cards and sometimes the higher ram version is stupidly overpriced, which is why I bought the 320mb version instead of the 640mb version).
 
cageymaru said:
XFX HD585XZAFC is $295. 1gb 460's are $230. $65 difference. :)

And you can get CB off both of them. So that's irrelevant.

For me it would come down to performance, potential OC'd performance, and SLI vs Crossfire. Then see if the difference in price warrants spending more.
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You can get the XFX with 15% CB at tigerdirect.com. Then you need to compare that to a reputable vendor like EVGA. The 1GB are not available at tigerdirect. In fact they are not available for less than $250 after BCB anywhere!
 
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bezant said:
Wouldn't the 460 outperform in SLI? After all, SLI scales better than Crossfire...
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On a single monitor? Probably not. The gap between the two would shrink, but SLI vs. CF scaling for single monitors is pretty close (~80% vs. ~70%).
 
bezant said:
Wouldn't the 460 outperform in SLI? After all, SLI scales better than Crossfire...
Click to expand...

Yes, and Fermi (GTX 460/465/470/480) architecture scales better with overclocking. The GTX 460 overclocks I have seen posted are ALL 850-875mhz+, personally I'm running 460 1GB 920mhz/4200mhz as a silent 24/7 overclock (low noise on the fan) and it performs within 5% of my what my GTX 470 @ 800core/3650mem did in 3dmark vantage extreme (and games). They're cheaper, faster than the 5850 overclock-to-overclock as far as I have seen, and run cool + have low fan noise... win-win. Go for the 460 1GB.

I had two in SLI but one of them turned out to be defective... ran like gangbusters though, can't wait to get the replacement!

kllrnohj said:
On a single monitor? Probably not. The gap between the two would shrink, but SLI vs. CF scaling for single monitors is pretty close (~80% vs. ~70%).
Click to expand...

More like 65-70% vs. around 85-90%, actually, for crossfire vs. SLI respectively. Go look at the reviews.
 
GoldenTiger said:
Yes, and Fermi (GTX 460/465/470/480) architecture scales better with overclocking. The GTX 460 overclocks I have seen posted are ALL 850-875mhz+, personally I'm running 460 1GB 920mhz/4200mhz as a silent 24/7 overclock (low noise on the fan) and it performs within 5% of my what my GTX 470 @ 800core/3650mem did in 3dmark vantage extreme (and games). They're cheaper, faster than the 5850 overclock-to-overclock as far as I have seen, and run cool + have low fan noise... win-win. Go for the 460 1GB.

I had two in SLI but one of them turned out to be defective... ran like gangbusters though, can't wait to get the replacement!



More like 65-70% vs. around 85-90%, actually, for crossfire vs. SLI respectively. Go look at the reviews.
Click to expand...
Wishful thinking at best. Actual reviews show quite the opposite. For example, here: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_460_SLI/25.html we see TechPowerUp's performance summary, showing GTX 460 SLI behind the 5970 by ~10% at lower resolutions and 20% at 2560x1600. You'll also remember that the 5970 is actually slower than 5850 CF due to the overhead of running through one PCIe slot (check for reference: http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-5970-review-test/15). All said in done, with the GTX 460, NVIDIA finally has a competitive solution to the 5xxx series, but a 5850 killer it isn't (if it was, I would have already gotten one). Also, you can argue "Fermi scales better with overclocking," and that's true, but only in some games/applications and all the overclocking in the world isn't going to make up a 20% deficit.
 
GoldenTiger said:
Yes, and Fermi (GTX 460/465/470/480) architecture scales better with overclocking. The GTX 460 overclocks I have seen posted are ALL 850-875mhz+, personally I'm running 460 1GB 920mhz/4200mhz as a silent 24/7 overclock (low noise on the fan) and it performs within 5% of my what my GTX 470 @ 800core/3650mem did in 3dmark vantage extreme (and games). They're cheaper, faster than the 5850 overclock-to-overclock as far as I have seen, and run cool + have low fan noise... win-win. Go for the 460 1GB.

I had two in SLI but one of them turned out to be defective... ran like gangbusters though, can't wait to get the replacement!



More like 65-70% vs. around 85-90%, actually, for crossfire vs. SLI respectively. Go look at the reviews.
Click to expand...

Mr. K6 said:
Wishful thinking at best. Actual reviews show quite the opposite. For example, here: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_460_SLI/25.html we see TechPowerUp's performance summary, showing GTX 460 SLI behind the 5970 by ~10% at lower resolutions and 20% at 2560x1600. You'll also remember that the 5970 is actually slower than 5850 CF due to the overhead of running through one PCIe slot (check for reference: http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-5970-review-test/15). All said in done, with the GTX 460, NVIDIA finally has a competitive solution to the 5xxx series, but a 5850 killer it isn't (if it was, I would have already gotten one). Also, you can argue "Fermi scales better with overclocking," and that's true, but only in some games/applications and all the overclocking in the world isn't going to make up a 20% deficit.
Click to expand...

as usual, golden tiger making comments without any fact to back them up, of course favoring NV, How exactly does the GTX series scale better with overclocking, why don't you link the #s from the [H] reviews to support your claim :p? they do overclocked / stock results from what I can see
 
NKD said:
Although i do agree ati brought a great product to the market, and I just think that they are just squeezing every penny out of hd 5850 and 5870. Partners are even worse they are banking on them too, I loved the stock cooler and now the aftermarket cards some of them don't even support voltage tweaking, ony the reference and msi, asus ones would.

It just plain sucks, a legit price point would be 250. The original retail price was supposed to be 259, wasn't it?
Click to expand...

They were $259, that is what I paid shipped. Of course, only if you purchased last September to late October. Sometimes the early adopters win :D
 
I ran 3dmark06 this morning with a 5850 at 800/4200, and a 768mb gtx 460 at 850/4000. I looked at framerates during the benchmarks. At one point, the 5850 was hitting 142 fps, the gtx 460 was at 139 fps. Overall they scored within 200 points of each other. I know nobody likes this bench, but it is all had time for. I dont know how they would compare at their max oc, as I never tried to find it with either card. Also, the temp of the gtx 460 went to 67C max. With fan on auto, fan went to 48% max. They seem pretty even, and I believe most everyone can hit these oc numbers easily. It prob depends more on which game you play. I just sold the 5850 for $250 shipped this morning on ebay.
 
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