mmmm maya or zbrush. really, any sort of CAD or 3D modeling intensive software (especially combined with animation) - or are there more enterprise video cards for this?
Next month I have to have a new GPU for the wife. I was originally going to go with the GTX470. Then the 460, based on the GF104 showed up. Now I don't want to waste money on the GF100 based 470, unless there's a revision. But the revision, or conversion to GF104, won't be here for months. So then there's the 460, with 1GB of ram, which overclocked is very close to the 470's performance, but maintains a lower TDP. But there isn't a waterblock for the 460 yet. EK and AquaComputer have blocks coming, of course, but not until the end of August. Now there's a 2GB version. And more are going to show up. I like Gainward, always have. But their PCBs are often self-designed, requiring specialized non-reference waterblocks. I don't have the time to wait. Damn you, nVidia.
And ATI is out, as they are too long for the case, and I'm not replacing this new, expensive case on account of ATI's poor design strategy. Hell with you, ATI.
The whispering rumors are that Nvidia will release a fully unlocked GF104 core once it can sell through the majority of it's gtx470 stock. I think the end of August / beginning of September is the time frame they're aiming for. Depending on how they decide to clock a 384 shader GF104, it'll end up being about as fast to a little faster than the gtx470. It could be named anything from a gts470, to a gts475, or if it's fast enough a gtx475. So if you can hold out for just a little bit longer, this might be THE card to get.
There are cards called the 5770 and the 5830...Both are shorter or the same size as the 460....And if your case was as expensive as you claim, then it would at least be able accommodate a 5850....Poor design strategy my foot.
agree, the 5770 is not even in the same class and the 5830 just has too much stuff disabled to be competitive (it's not a very good card from a price/performance standpoint).
AMD better drop the prices on the 5850 or nvidia is going to clean up.
I loved the HD 5770, but I've got to say, if the GTX 460 had launched around the same time, I would have been more than happy to take the minor step up in price to get the higher performance. As for the HD 5830, that card never factored as an option and I can't understand why anyone would have considered buying it
No. Corsair HX620 with a little modding. A 300w PSU is pretty useless when you add a good overclocked CPU and GPU. And the 620 was just collecting dust.
I call BS! Who uses a mini-atx case and H20 cooling? Looking at the case you linked to, it has hardly any room for any video card let alone a H20 cooling solution. Even if you squeezed in a H20 cooling solution there is not enough venting in the case for the radiator unless you hacked up (drilled) your "new expensive case. "
Silly rabbit. Are you one of those people who can't quite wrap their head around external cooling? Stuck in the dark ages of LC?
Seriously though. After a while you reach a point where you get tired of stuffing radiators inside cases. I've stopped using tiny triples and quads. I've moved up to 120.9 rads. Currently a pair or Mo-Ra 2 Pros, and soon to be a Mo-Ra 3 180.4 dedicated to this project. I need space for a D5. That's it.
The goal is not portability, but rather a sophisticated and small desktop footprint. And it is Mini-ITX, not Mini-ATX.
I remember them and the golden sample series back in the day of the geforce 2; they were building better boards and selling them overclocked with a warranty. Nvidia was pissed iirc, now everyone does it and Nvidia gets pissed if you don't back up the warranty. They also had the Mexican wrestling masks as their thing back then because they were just that badass.
I can't remember which game it was, but about 4 months ago I was playing a game with my GTX 275 1792MB that was using 1272MB of video memory and I still had GPU headroom. So a more powerful graphics card could definitely use 2GB. I'm sort of disappointed that the 470 only goes to 1280MB and the 480 1536MB...they are so much more powerful than my card.
I am sure there are some games and applications that would benefit from the extra onboard RAM, but that RAM really isn't cheap and also has the nasty side-effect of seriously increasing power draw. Going from 1GB to 2GB of onboard RAM is going to raise the price of the card by at least 20%. Recent testing has shown performance on current video cards to be fairly linear with price. Would a 2GB card really provide 20% more frames on average? I would highly doubt it.
Large amounts of VRAM are a *must* for working in 3D applications, such as Autodesk products. If you're just gaming, stick with the lower RAM versions.
...and for those people who game and use those programs?
...and what about future games? Not everyone upgrades every year.
There's a real market for these things. Don't knock them, and don't assume that everyone doing professional work has thousands of dollars to spare for their PCs--especially if they couldn't get an academic deal on the software.
Wow, Gainward! My first upgrade card was a Gainward GF2 and it rocked in the day, they seemed to pretty much go away about 2 years later. Good to see them out there with a presence at least...not sure how 2GB is going to help much anything worth an extra $50 in the next year or two.
As far as gaming goes I see the only way I'd want this is if I was running 3 screens or more. For instance three 30-inch LCDs. Personally I'd rather have the 1GB version or just step up to the GTX470 for single monitor gaming. Just my opinion.
i've still got a 4870 and it's still rocking... don't know what this obsession is with having the best card for the price... yeah sure try get the best deal when you buy, else you would be an idiot, but the point is, these cards are made for gaming, just enjoy the games and only worry when it doesn't play the game at a reasonable frame rate.
also, whats up with the random memory sizes nvidia? just stick to 1GB, 2GB and so on.... why 768MB or 1280MB? oh and please start developing cards that are completely enclosed. the open PCB thing scares me... had too many cards lose circuit mounted resistors and caps as a result of cleaning.
Another thing, now that optical fibre is becoming viable as a system bus, just do away with plug in GPU's.... how about an enclosed GPU that fits into a 5.25 (DVD-RW drive bay) with an optical cable to the motherboard, and your 6pin/8pin power/molex. it can then even suck in air from the front of your chassis.
I agree completely. I have a single 4870 1GB and a 24 inch monitor. It handles everything I play smoothly. And I don't need Crysis at super incredulicious settings just so I can feel good.
DX11 is in its infancy. I'll probably wait for a year from now when both have their next two series out.
I'd like to know how anand managed to make badaboom encoding tests in their gtx 460 reviews cause badaboom isn't working right now with these gpus. Is there a trick or something ???? modded drivers ? It's really annoying to see everywhere reviewers make it work while the badaboom version provided with my gainward GTX 460 isn't even workin'. I tried the last badaboom version provided on their website. Same thing.
I have a 5970 right now with eyefinity at 5040x1050. There are a few games that when using AA are using up the 1gb video memory. Maybe 1.5 would be perfect. 460 with 2gb would be a very good card for multimonitor gaming.
I use OctaneRender which uses a gaming and Pro GPU for un-biased renderer. It uses only the GPU memory for the rendering process so it is critical to have enough on board memory. Right now it is based on CDA so it only runs on Nvidia cards. The 480 comes with 1.5 gb but these 460 with 2 gb are very attractive to me as I can use 2 for close to $100 more than one 480. Also, 2 of these 460 installed on the same machine will provide 670 total cores and this is more powerful than the 480. At the end of this year I will be upgrading my PC, basically buying a new system optimized for Maya and Octane. To me this initiatives are very good news.
I believe you mean based on CUDA not CDA. Anyways, my Quadro FX1500 doesn't work with OctaneRender so I'm definitely in need of an upgrade this month. I'm looking at the 1GB+ GTX 460's since I want try out The Foundry's Mari as well.
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36 Comments
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rupertmorris - Saturday, July 31, 2010 - link
For mudbox and Maya, this is perfect.vol7ron - Tuesday, August 3, 2010 - link
mmmm maya or zbrush. really, any sort of CAD or 3D modeling intensive software (especially combined with animation) - or are there more enterprise video cards for this?Javadevil - Thursday, August 5, 2010 - link
Great for rendering, Octane and IRAY !Earthmonger - Saturday, July 31, 2010 - link
Next month I have to have a new GPU for the wife. I was originally going to go with the GTX470. Then the 460, based on the GF104 showed up. Now I don't want to waste money on the GF100 based 470, unless there's a revision. But the revision, or conversion to GF104, won't be here for months. So then there's the 460, with 1GB of ram, which overclocked is very close to the 470's performance, but maintains a lower TDP. But there isn't a waterblock for the 460 yet. EK and AquaComputer have blocks coming, of course, but not until the end of August. Now there's a 2GB version. And more are going to show up. I like Gainward, always have. But their PCBs are often self-designed, requiring specialized non-reference waterblocks. I don't have the time to wait. Damn you, nVidia.And ATI is out, as they are too long for the case, and I'm not replacing this new, expensive case on account of ATI's poor design strategy. Hell with you, ATI.
tviceman - Saturday, July 31, 2010 - link
The whispering rumors are that Nvidia will release a fully unlocked GF104 core once it can sell through the majority of it's gtx470 stock. I think the end of August / beginning of September is the time frame they're aiming for. Depending on how they decide to clock a 384 shader GF104, it'll end up being about as fast to a little faster than the gtx470. It could be named anything from a gts470, to a gts475, or if it's fast enough a gtx475. So if you can hold out for just a little bit longer, this might be THE card to get.Eugenester - Saturday, July 31, 2010 - link
There are cards called the 5770 and the 5830...Both are shorter or the same size as the 460....And if your case was as expensive as you claim, then it would at least be able accommodate a 5850....Poor design strategy my foot.Earthmonger - Saturday, July 31, 2010 - link
The 5770 and the 5830 are both beneath the performance of the 460. They aren't even a worth a consideration.synaesthetic - Saturday, July 31, 2010 - link
agree, the 5770 is not even in the same class and the 5830 just has too much stuff disabled to be competitive (it's not a very good card from a price/performance standpoint).AMD better drop the prices on the 5850 or nvidia is going to clean up.
Quidam67 - Sunday, August 1, 2010 - link
I loved the HD 5770, but I've got to say, if the GTX 460 had launched around the same time, I would have been more than happy to take the minor step up in price to get the higher performance. As for the HD 5830, that card never factored as an option and I can't understand why anyone would have considered buying itcaoder - Sunday, August 1, 2010 - link
what high end case doesn't fit a extra large gfx card? jwEarthmonger - Monday, August 2, 2010 - link
I didn't say it was high-end, I said it was expensive. People putting words in my mouth. But anyway, the case is the Fractal Design Array R2.http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/pc-cases...
kwrzesien - Monday, August 2, 2010 - link
Interesting case. Are you using the included PSU with SATA-to-PCIE adapters?Earthmonger - Monday, August 2, 2010 - link
No. Corsair HX620 with a little modding. A 300w PSU is pretty useless when you add a good overclocked CPU and GPU. And the 620 was just collecting dust.formulav8 - Tuesday, August 3, 2010 - link
The 5830 has actually dropped below $200 the last I checked. So p/p should be pretty good.But it has other negatives besides the price. The biggest for me is the power consumption, heat, ect..
Although the 460 isn't a cucumber.
jfelano - Sunday, August 1, 2010 - link
Actually the 5830 is faster than the 1gb GTX460 in Crysis and AvsP.Not to mention $30 cheaper. Forget the 768mb GTX460, it's just poor.
jfelano - Sunday, August 1, 2010 - link
What kind of new, expensive case won't fit a HD5850/5830/5870? My $50 Antec 300 fits all of them.Bad Bimr - Monday, August 2, 2010 - link
I call BS! Who uses a mini-atx case and H20 cooling? Looking at the case you linked to, it has hardly any room for any video card let alone a H20 cooling solution. Even if you squeezed in a H20 cooling solution there is not enough venting in the case for the radiator unless you hacked up (drilled) your "new expensive case. "Earthmonger - Tuesday, August 3, 2010 - link
LMAOSilly rabbit. Are you one of those people who can't quite wrap their head around external cooling? Stuck in the dark ages of LC?
Seriously though. After a while you reach a point where you get tired of stuffing radiators inside cases. I've stopped using tiny triples and quads. I've moved up to 120.9 rads. Currently a pair or Mo-Ra 2 Pros, and soon to be a Mo-Ra 3 180.4 dedicated to this project. I need space for a D5. That's it.
The goal is not portability, but rather a sophisticated and small desktop footprint. And it is Mini-ITX, not Mini-ATX.
rika13 - Saturday, July 31, 2010 - link
I remember them and the golden sample series back in the day of the geforce 2; they were building better boards and selling them overclocked with a warranty. Nvidia was pissed iirc, now everyone does it and Nvidia gets pissed if you don't back up the warranty. They also had the Mexican wrestling masks as their thing back then because they were just that badass.beretta2013 - Saturday, July 31, 2010 - link
I can't remember which game it was, but about 4 months ago I was playing a game with my GTX 275 1792MB that was using 1272MB of video memory and I still had GPU headroom. So a more powerful graphics card could definitely use 2GB. I'm sort of disappointed that the 470 only goes to 1280MB and the 480 1536MB...they are so much more powerful than my card.mcnabney - Saturday, July 31, 2010 - link
I am sure there are some games and applications that would benefit from the extra onboard RAM, but that RAM really isn't cheap and also has the nasty side-effect of seriously increasing power draw. Going from 1GB to 2GB of onboard RAM is going to raise the price of the card by at least 20%. Recent testing has shown performance on current video cards to be fairly linear with price. Would a 2GB card really provide 20% more frames on average? I would highly doubt it.smookyolo - Saturday, July 31, 2010 - link
Large amounts of VRAM are a *must* for working in 3D applications, such as Autodesk products. If you're just gaming, stick with the lower RAM versions.mcnabney - Monday, August 2, 2010 - link
Autodesk workstations generally come with Quadros or FireGL cards. Not consumer-grade cards like this.Cerb - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link
...and for those people who game and use those programs?...and what about future games? Not everyone upgrades every year.
There's a real market for these things. Don't knock them, and don't assume that everyone doing professional work has thousands of dollars to spare for their PCs--especially if they couldn't get an academic deal on the software.
JETninja - Saturday, July 31, 2010 - link
Wow, Gainward! My first upgrade card was a Gainward GF2 and it rocked in the day, they seemed to pretty much go away about 2 years later. Good to see them out there with a presence at least...not sure how 2GB is going to help much anything worth an extra $50 in the next year or two.Skott - Saturday, July 31, 2010 - link
As far as gaming goes I see the only way I'd want this is if I was running 3 screens or more. For instance three 30-inch LCDs. Personally I'd rather have the 1GB version or just step up to the GTX470 for single monitor gaming. Just my opinion.gorgamin - Sunday, August 1, 2010 - link
i've still got a 4870 and it's still rocking... don't know what this obsession is with having the best card for the price... yeah sure try get the best deal when you buy, else you would be an idiot, but the point is, these cards are made for gaming, just enjoy the games and only worry when it doesn't play the game at a reasonable frame rate.gorgamin - Sunday, August 1, 2010 - link
also, whats up with the random memory sizes nvidia? just stick to 1GB, 2GB and so on.... why 768MB or 1280MB? oh and please start developing cards that are completely enclosed. the open PCB thing scares me... had too many cards lose circuit mounted resistors and caps as a result of cleaning.Another thing, now that optical fibre is becoming viable as a system bus, just do away with plug in GPU's.... how about an enclosed GPU that fits into a 5.25 (DVD-RW drive bay) with an optical cable to the motherboard, and your 6pin/8pin power/molex. it can then even suck in air from the front of your chassis.
Chaser - Monday, August 2, 2010 - link
I agree completely. I have a single 4870 1GB and a 24 inch monitor. It handles everything I play smoothly. And I don't need Crysis at super incredulicious settings just so I can feel good.DX11 is in its infancy. I'll probably wait for a year from now when both have their next two series out.
Acanthus - Sunday, August 1, 2010 - link
Grand Theft Auto 4, its expansions, Everquest 2, Supreme Commander and its expansions (not supreme commander 2)Marburg U - Sunday, August 1, 2010 - link
Useless but for sli.TareX - Sunday, August 1, 2010 - link
It's actually quite important for smooth 3D gaming of the new FPS titles at a decent framerate....Not to mention Maya and the like...
kallogan - Monday, August 2, 2010 - link
I'd like to know how anand managed to make badaboom encoding tests in their gtx 460 reviews cause badaboom isn't working right now with these gpus. Is there a trick or something ???? modded drivers ?
It's really annoying to see everywhere reviewers make it work while the badaboom version provided with my gainward GTX 460 isn't even workin'. I tried the last badaboom version provided on their website. Same thing.
stangflyer - Monday, August 2, 2010 - link
I have a 5970 right now with eyefinity at 5040x1050. There are a few games that when using AA are using up the 1gb video memory. Maybe 1.5 would be perfect. 460 with 2gb would be a very good card for multimonitor gaming.jecastejon - Monday, August 2, 2010 - link
I use OctaneRender which uses a gaming and Pro GPU for un-biased renderer. It uses only the GPU memory for the rendering process so it is critical to have enough on board memory. Right now it is based on CDA so it only runs on Nvidia cards. The 480 comes with 1.5 gb but these 460 with 2 gb are very attractive to me as I can use 2 for close to $100 more than one 480. Also, 2 of these 460 installed on the same machine will provide 670 total cores and this is more powerful than the 480. At the end of this year I will be upgrading my PC, basically buying a new system optimized for Maya and Octane. To me this initiatives are very good news.eVFX - Friday, August 6, 2010 - link
I believe you mean based on CUDA not CDA. Anyways, my Quadro FX1500 doesn't work with OctaneRender so I'm definitely in need of an upgrade this month. I'm looking at the 1GB+ GTX 460's since I want try out The Foundry's Mari as well.