2012-12-21-116

[Rumour] Geforce GTX 460 Specifications, Benchmarks

Heise.de confirm the already rumoured GTX 460 specs, as well as someinsight into its performance. As previouslyrumoured, the GTX 460 will be released in two variants - GTX 460192-bit 768MB and GTX 460 256-bit 1GB. Both variants will otherwise beidentical - featuring 336 SP, clocked at 675/1350/1800. Due to the 1GBvariants wider memory interface, it will have a higher memory bandwidth,despite the same speed memory.

Interestingly, the GTX 460 willhave 56 TMU, which is the same as the 448SP GTX 470. A texture fillratebottleneck had been suspected for GF100, so this enhancement would be ofno surprise.

Heise suggest that the performance of the GTX 460 768MB will be roughly on par with the GTX 465 - an impressive achievement indeed. The Vantage Extreme score was 6000. The GTX 460 seems set to be an incredible overclocker - with tests pushing the GTX 460 up to 900 MHz with a voltage boost. At this speed, it clocks up X8000 Vantage points, outperforming even the GTX 475.

The GTX 460 768 MB will be priced at $230, with the 1GB version at $250. The GTX 460 768 MB looks set to outperform the HD 5830, with the 1GB version closing the gap a little to the HD 5850.

The GTX 460 seems to be easily Nvidia's best card in a long, long time. It will surely end up being the new leader in the $200-$250 segment, if the rumours are to be believed.

Of course, AMD are unlikely to be worried. The HD 5850 should still sail past the GTX 460. We might, finally, see the HD 5850 drop back to its original MSRP of $259. The HD 5830, however, looks to be comprehensively beaten, and must drop to around $200.

The GTX 465 looks set to be one of the shortest lived GPUs ever. A $279 price point made it a poor product on release, and now, the same performance level at $230 will put its existence in serious doubt.

There's undoubtedly going to be a feeling of "too little, too late", and we would expect AMD to continue leading the price/performance/watt metrics, but the GTX 460 is exactly the product which Nvidia needed at this time to put them back in the hunt. Of course, AMD could go for the kill with Southern Islands, but for now, there is finally competition in the mainstream/performance market.

The GTX 460 is set for a wide release on July 14th.

Reference: Heise.de