Conclusion
Conclusion
We were expecting big things from two 768MB GTX 460s and we weren’t disappointed in the least. This $400 (or less considering we have already seen these cards retailing for under $180) solution thoroughly dominates the $350 GTX 470, bests a GTX 480 in almost every benchmark and often outguns two HD 5830s. Meanwhile, the increased clock speeds of the EVGA Superclocked cards really brought things to a whole new level in terms of high-level performance.
When looking at the EVGA GTX 460 Superclocked on its own, the framerate increases it brings to the table are welcome to say the least. Without resorting to water cooling, most of NVIDIA’s board partners seem to be struggling to release GTX 400-series cards that sport anything above a cursory overclock. The new GF104 core on the other hand should allow EVGA and their competitors to finally begin pushing clock speeds without having to worry about extreme amounts of heat and high power consumption. We finally have a 400-series Superclocked edition that actually shows us some meaningful performance increases and that in itself is worthy of praise. With these results under its name, EVGA’s upcoming SSC and FTW products will surely fly considering our own mind-boggling overclocks.
Even though SLI scaling in nearly every test is awe inspiring, there are times when the smaller framebuffer these 768MB cards offer comes into play and performance ends up taking a massive hit. We’re sure a few of these situations can be chalked up to driver issues but there were still some real downturns in higher resolution gaming. This becomes abundantly clear when higher levels of AA are used. So much so that even though it consumes more power, the HD 5830 Crossfire solution proved itself to be a more consistent solution across ALL resolution settings than a pair of GTX 460 768MB cards. When we get around to testing two 1GB SKUs the story will likely be different but from where we’re standing, 768MB leads to some significant bottlenecks. Luckily, almost none of these bottlenecks will affect gamers who want to play at any sane resolution.
If you have an SLI capable motherboard, we highly recommend you take a close look at a pair of GTX 460 768MB cards. At or below 1920 x 1200 they have the capability to completely trounce a GTX 480 while boasting similar power consumption numbers and a much lower price. Considering this card’s best performance is targeted at the 22” and 24” monitor users, the GTX 460 768MB in SLI is positioned spot on for its intended market. If you are gaming at 2560 x 1600 or above though, you will definitely want to look elsewhere.
On its own the EVGA Superclocked is a great product that gives a nice bump in actual gameplay framerates and using a pair of them will result in simply jaw dropping capabilities without a massive investment. As such, this setup receives our Dam Good Value award.
Pros:
- Absolutely rocking performance
- Good power consumption numbers
- Very quiet
- Excellent multi card scaling (most of the time)
- Overclocks like greased lightning
- Lifetime Warranty
- Includes Just Cause 2 for a limited time at some retailers
Cons:
- Loses spectacularly to the HD 5830 at high res + high AA
- Some lingering driver issues with SLI
