Today marks another milestone for NVIDIA's GPU: the official announcement and availability of the GeForce GTX 460 has just been made and answers the call of the vast majority of customers out there: give us something affordable and something even greater at the same time. The GeForce GTX 460 as NVIDIA says, hits the gamer's sweet spot, which is the US $199 price point. For a lot of us, that's just the news we've been waiting for. The card comes in 768MB and 1GB versions. We've got both cards here with us and just before we go right to the numbers, we'll take a look at how the 460 compares against the 465 and 470. There's no box to speak of so we'll get physical.
We've got the Galaxy GTX 465 still with us at the time when the 460s arrived, and we'll be comparing these two cards against one another since the GTX 465, despite having a modified case doesn't really differ too much against the reference design in terms of size and the interfaces provided. There's a big difference in terms of length for the two cards which would mean the GTX 460 is more fitting with smaller MicroATX casings. It's as thick as the others though, taking up a total of two slots.
Rear interfaces are just about the same if we compare the 460 against the 465, where we can find a mini HDMI port, and two DVI links in place.
At the top, we can see a limitation over here. There's only a single SLI connector for the GTX 460s where as there's 2 for the GTX 465 and GTX 470. Something to consider if you're looking into a 3D Vision Surround experience with 3-way SLI.
Now while power consumption has been reduced to 150 / 160 watts, the card still demands dual 6-pin power sources. NVIDIA recommends a minimum of 450 watt power supply to power this card. NVIDIA says this is more for overclocking purposes, making sure the card gets enough juice when it's ramped up.
A single fan solution wasn't a problem with the GTX 480, 470, and 465, and we're not surprised about the single fan solution here. The card's cooler is thicker than typical mid-range ones, we reckon. but then again, this isn't a card that squarely fits the mid-range bill.
Looking underneath the plastic body, we can see another set of finer heatsinks covering the outer areas of the main cooling block.
What may look like a shorter board may mean a cut out on the great GPU features we're banking on with the Fermi, the large block at the rear here should be enough proof that we're still getting the same chip goodness (just "weaker" by design).
Stay tuned - we should have a thorough review of the GTX 460 768MB and 1GB model very, very soon, and we've got some surprising results for you. How far does it trail against the GTX 465 on a head-to-head match? That's what we'll find out.