Which 1gb 460?

B

brennok

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Nov 30, 2006
Messages
1,575
I am currently running a 8800gt and figured I would step up to the 1gb 460. For my birthday my family bought me the EVGA 01G-P3-1371-TR GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 from Amazon, but it doesn't ship for 3-4 weeks. Reading around it sounds like Gigabyte may be the way to go for a reference design cooler. It has the same wait so I am wondering if I am better off switching or if there is another model around $229 preferably I should go with from Amazon?

Looking at possibly the EVGA 1GB 01G-P3-1371-AR since it has lifetime warranty, but still not a reference cooler. I sometimes leave my PC on at night so I definitely want something quiet at idle.

System Specs
i7 860
4gb DDR3
Gigabyte P55-UD4P
Antec Trupower 750 blue.
 
Last edited:
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Actually it is $10 more. Since Amazon is out of stock it defaults to a third party seller. Amazon sells it for $229 with free shipping. I may just order it there unless someone recommends a better model. It seems like Newegg only has the dual fan Gigabyte at 1gb which isn't the reference board.
 
Don't forget, that model comes with a 2 year warranty, not lifetime.

Also, evga has a free bios update for their stock clock models. It ups the GPU speed to 720.
 
Didn't realize that, actually now looking at it most of the cards I look at even ones with what looks like reference cooling is only 2 years like this one.

It looks like this one has lifetime but still non-reference and supposedly noisy cooler.
 
It is noisy, but only above 50%. I run mine at 100% and it is very loud.

At stock, you can easily run it at very low fan speed to where it is not audible.
 
THe EVGA GTX 460 1gb EE has no noise issues on idle what-so-ever.. even under full load I can't hear the fan. I'm overclocking my card pretty hard now and the max the fan gets up to is 60% and the heat is 75c.

Go for the EE.
 
I just ended up ordering the EVGA 01G-P3-1371-AR. It has lifetime warranty, comes with Just Cause 2, and Metro 2033. I figure worst case if it is too loud I will just pick up something come Christmas time.

Thanks for the help everyone. I will definitely keep Sparkle in mind next time. I have never heard of them.
 
brennok said:
I just ended up ordering the EVGA 01G-P3-1371-AR. It has lifetime warranty, comes with Just Cause 2, and Metro 2033. I figure worst case if it is too loud I will just pick up something come Christmas time.

Thanks for the help everyone. I will definitely keep Sparkle in mind next time. I have never heard of them.
Click to expand...

Except that the cooler on that part is NOT the stock cooler. That is a blower-type cooler that people have complained is VERY loud.

See this thread for complaints about the EVGA blower cooler:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1534738

THIS is the reference cooler:

nvidiageforcegtx460graphicscar.jpg


As you can see, the cooler is an axial fan located in the center of the card. You should switch your order to the following EVGA card, which uses the reference cooler:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130570


If you value silence, then cancel your order while you still can, and either get the EVGA model I linked, or get this Gigabyte model. It shouldn't ship until tomorrow, so you still have time.
 
Last edited:
Yeah I realize that, but I figure I will see if I can handle the noise. If not I will return it and swap it for the Gigabyte version. It has the standard return policy so no restocking fee and my old 8800GT works fine so I am not dying for a card right now. Truth is if someone hadn't bought me one as a gift I would probably have held off till November or so when some games came out I was interested in playing.

I actually saw the reference card after I had pulled the trigger, but since they already charged the card I will just let it ship. If it was my account and my credit card, it would be easier, but since it is another persons I don't want to pester them. For all I know it may not bother me. My 8800GT sounds like a jet engine when I am gaming, but silent to me at idle.
 
defaultluser said:
Except that the cooler on that part is NOT the stock cooler. That is a blower-type cooler that people have complained is VERY loud.

See this thread for complaints about the EVGA blower cooler:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1534738

THIS is the reference cooler:

nvidiageforcegtx460graphicscar.jpg


As you can see, the cooler is an axial fan located in the center of the card. You should switch your order to the following EVGA card, which uses the reference cooler:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130570


If you value silence, then cancel your order while you still can, and either get the EVGA model I linked, or get this Gigabyte model. It shouldn't ship until tomorrow, so you still have time.
Click to expand...

What is the air flow of this card?
Is the fan blowing into the card or out of the card?
 
andrew911tt said:
What is the air flow of this card?
Is the fan blowing into the card or out of the card?
Click to expand...

It blows into the card. My early-model Sparkle came with the reference cooler (that SKU is not available anymore, and the new model doesn't have the same heatsink).

The reference fan does exhanust a little bit of air, but not the amount that the EVGA EE blower does. But unless you plan to SLI and overclock, the amount of heat generated by a GTX 460 is not enough to worry about whether the card exhausts a lot of air. My Sonata III case has minimal airflow (two 120mm fans at 800 RPM), but it still manages to keep the GTX 460 at 60C or less during load. The fan doesn't even ramp above 40% the whole time.

Right now, funny enough, your only source for reference fan 1GB models is EVGA. And as I linked above, people have seen similar noise and good performance from the Gigabyte dual-cooler model.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top