Twelve flavors of GeForce GTX 460 now shipping from Newegg (update: official)

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 460 hasn't even been officially announced, much less reviewed, but that won't keep you from buying the company's latest Fermi-based graphics card anyhow. Over at Newegg, usual suspects ASUS, EVGA, Gigabyte, MSI and Palit have fielded twelve models in all, most with slightly different features, thought it seems the base configuration has 336 CUDA cores (down from 352) and a mere 768MB of GDDR5 memory. Interestingly enough, this silicon's actually rated faster than its older brother the $280 GTX 465 with 675MHz graphics and 1,350MHz processor speeds, and a 3.6GHz effective memory clock. All your frames are pushed through a decidedly narrower 192-bit memory interface, though, so we'd guess that for around $200, you won't be getting (much) more than you pay for. Let's just hope they run cool.

Update: The card's official, and it seems there's a 1GB, 256-bit version of the GTX 460, too. Hit the break for the full press release, filled with all the puffery a video game marketing team could want.

[Thanks, Polytonic]

Show full PR text

DX11 Done Right! NVIDIA Delivers Monster Tessellation Performance to the $199 Sweet Spot for Gamers

New GeForce GTX 460 Delivers up to 4x Performance Over Competing Processors, Real-Time PhysX, and Eye-Popping 3D

SANTA CLARA, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 07/11/2010 -- NVIDIA today announced the latest addition to its Fermi-class of graphics processing units (GPUs), the NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 460 -- which delivers a great DX11 gaming experience and is priced right at the market's $199 sweet spot.

Built from the ground up for DirectX 11 tessellation, GeForce GTX 460 GPUs deliver monster tessellation performance with up to 4x tessellation performance(i) over competing GPUs. The GTX 460 brings the ultimate next-generation DX11 gaming experience to a new price segment, enabling more gamers than ever to experience incredibly detailed characters, terrain and game environments with blazing fast performance and awesome visuals.

With full support for NVIDIA 3D Vision™ technology, the GeForce GTX 460 provides the graphics horsepower and video bandwidth needed to experience games and high definition Blu-ray movies in eye-popping stereoscopic 3D.

Here's what leading game developers have to say about the GeForce GTX 460:

"With the GeForce GTX 460, NVIDIA is really upping the ante with an amazingly fast DirectX 11 GPU available at a great, mainstream-friendly price. Its new hardware tessellation support will enable games to reach an entirely new caliber of graphics."
-- Epic Games / Tim Sweeney / Chairman, CEO and Technical Director

"NVIDIA platforms continue to be the Gold Standard at Id Software for quality, performance, and support."
-- Id Software / John Carmack / Technical Director

"We've got a great working relationship with the NVIDIA engineers. It has enabled us to add amazing new visual effects like native 3D, 3D Vision Surround, and PhysX/APEX support in Mafia II. With the new GeForce GTX 460, Empire Bay comes to life, immersing players like never before!"
--2K Games / Denby Grace / Senior Producer of Mafia II

"The Civilization V team is really excited about the high-end DirectX 11 performance at a mainstream price point that the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 delivers. The 460's support for DX11 features such as tessellation and compute shaders allow Civilization V to run faster while looking better than ever."
-- Firaxis Games / Dan Baker / Graphics Lead on Civilization V

"Great performance at a great price -- what's not to love? With full support for PhysX and 3D Vision, the GeForce GTX 460 is a great GPU to use for UDK development and UE3-based games."
-- Epic Games / Mark Rein / Vice President

"Capcom has worked closely with NVIDIA on a number of PC titles and GeForce GPUs have always helped us to deliver the very best experience to users. The GeForce GTX 460 is a great card and its blazing performance helps our titles to shine."
-- Capcom / Jun Takeuchi / General Manager of R&D Strategic Planning Department

"Kings and Castles will look spectacular on the GeForce GTX 460. Imagine how full-scale battles with hundreds of soldiers, dragons, and flying zeppelin battleships will look in fantastic 3D!"
-- Gas Powered Games / Chris Taylor / Founder & CEO

With 336 NVIDIA CUDA™ cores and 56 texture units, the GeForce GTX 460 comes in two flavors:

GTX 460 768MB, with a 192-bit memory interface at an estimated U.S. price of $199
GTX 460 1GB, with a 256-bit memory interface at an estimated US price of $229

The GeForce GTX 460 768MB version is available starting today from the world's leading add-in card partners, including ASL, ASUS, Colorful, ECS, EVGA, Gainward, Galaxy, Gigabyte, Innovision 3D, Jetway, KFA2, Leadtek, MSI, Palit, Point of View, PNY, Sparkle, Zotac and others. Wider availability of the GeForce GTX 460 1GB is expected by July 26, 2010. Consumers are encouraged to check their favorite retailer or e-tailer for availability.

[Mouniface Posted Jul 11th 2010 4:38PM]

Hi I'm a Mac he's a pc, what cha doing today pc?

[Broderbund Posted Jul 11th 2010 4:57PM]

@Mouniface
Oh nothing just upgrading to the latest graphics hardware without purchasing an entirely new system, you?

[Philip Han Posted Jul 11th 2010 5:06PM]

@Broderbund Enjoying life outside the house with a life or in the studio with my dual XEON's creating amazing stuff.

[manifest3r Posted Jul 11th 2010 5:31PM]

being hipster

[RhymeMaster Posted Jul 11th 2010 5:42PM]

@Philip Han
Do you understand how your sentence is a complete fail? Or maybe you are too busy "enjoying life outside the house with a life" that you forgot to have a point...

[Ipwnnubletz Posted Jul 11th 2010 6:32PM]

@Mouniface I'm only replying so my post will be at the top of the page.

[Jukah Posted Jul 11th 2010 6:33PM]

@Philip Han
I see you're also practicing your fiction writing skills.

[Mouniface Posted Jul 13th 2010 2:58AM]

@Ipwnnubletz
yeah i love doing that to

[doutorpiranha Posted Jul 11th 2010 4:38PM]

Still waiting on the Galaxy Dual 470 with native triplescreen gaming 3x DVI
Thats the only card im interested in.

[Sea Urchin Posted Jul 11th 2010 4:39PM]

Will the electricity bill increase by $100 a month with this bad boy inside your PC?

Look seriously, these graphics cards are getting bigger and bigger and bigger, i think the minimum power supply needed for this card is 600.

[xNamelessNeko Posted Jul 11th 2010 6:36PM]

@Sea Urchin
550 I think.

[huskie fluff Posted Jul 11th 2010 6:43PM]

@Sea Urchin only the nvidia cards do this. now if you went ati you would have a more efficient care, and it would cost less. did i mention they are just as/more powerfull then these fermi crap that nvidia is coming out with?. fermi is unoptomized, unready, and not even finished. nvidia should finish it before making these cards :/. and they should fix there drivers too.

[Jacinth Posted Jul 11th 2010 7:49PM]

@huskie fluff Fix THEIR drivers? My ati card crashes and I get bluescreen everyday. Also, I have the latest drivers from them.

[Joeyjoejoe Shabadoo Posted Jul 11th 2010 7:50PM]

@huskie fluff

I am an nVidia fanboy and I agree with husky fluff, nVidia has really dropped the ball on this line of cards, finding less and less reasons to stick with them.

Too hot, too much power, too expensive and ultimately the ATI cards are quicker. I cant believe I waited a year for them to release this crap.

[Zander Posted Jul 11th 2010 8:01PM]

@Sea Urchin

Actually, this is the GF104 part, not the GF100 core you find in the 465/470/480. Much more power efficient, smaller, and still has plenty of power. http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=fr&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.expreview.com%2F11276-1.html&sl=zh-CN&tl=en

This destroys a 5830 outright, and while the 5850 is faster, the 460 is close and at a far better price point.

Also, in case you're wondering why the GF100 was horrible on the power/heat front (and why the GF104 is better): http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=945

Regardless, ATi is still the king this go around for efficiency, and are poised to launch into thier next generation, While nvidia is still working on filling out the lineup for this one.

[Zavrion Posted Jul 11th 2010 8:25PM]

@Sea Urchin

For the love god, don't buy into the marketing hype around watts. The sum of the amperes on the +12v rails is where your power is actually coming from. It's not an exact science, but as long as the sum of the amperes on the +12v rail are greater or equal to 30 you're good to go. When you go above that magic number you're increasing the stability of the power flow to your components, not the output. If you open up any desktop shipped from any OEM you'll find that their PSUs don't exceed 350w and a sum of 24 to 29 amps. Because they can save a lot of money by not dunking an unnecessary amount of money into a component that will never be fully utilized. People like big numbers which is exactly why watts are more marketable than amps.

[Kurian Posted Jul 12th 2010 3:06AM]

@Zander
The 5850 OCs by 200MHz without a sweat and demolishes even the GTX470.

[Mouniface Posted Jul 11th 2010 4:41PM]

I'm a Mac he's a pc, what cha doing today pc?

[ALBGunner04 Posted Jul 11th 2010 8:09PM]

@Mouniface
I'm not double-posting, Mac.

[Cainhunpi Posted Jul 11th 2010 4:41PM]

As expensive as the 465? what is this all about?

[TomTom2010 Posted Jul 11th 2010 4:41PM]

Hope all 4xx series drop prices soon. Need to upgrade my graphics card, my 9800GT is showing its age.

[JeremyBenthem Posted Jul 11th 2010 4:49PM]

@TomTom2010
give it up, ATi won this generation, 58xx series are unbeatable

[TomTom2010 Posted Jul 11th 2010 4:59PM]

@JeremyBenthem
I know, it's just I want to use my 9800GT as a secondary dedicated card for Physx. nVidia doesn't allow you to mix an ATi with their card.

[archkron Posted Jul 11th 2010 5:22PM]

@TomTom2010

Just because nV don't allow you to, doesn't mean you can't. Do some digging.

[Indie Posted Jul 11th 2010 5:25PM]

@JeremyBenthem QFT there. The Fermi cards are highly a disappointment. nVidia is trying to catch up, but falling even further behind while they do so.

[walkingdogs Posted Jul 11th 2010 6:33PM]

@TomTom2010
http://www.ngohq.com/graphic-cards/17706-hybrid-physx-mod-v1-03-v1-04ff.html

Here's some assistance in your quest

[SarnGate Posted Jul 11th 2010 6:46PM]

@JeremyBenthem

Uh, no. Fermi performs far better if you actually bothered to do some research. ATi is for people who can't afford the premium price of Nvidia products.

Before you call me a fanboy, my last graphics card was a 5850.

[Indie Posted Jul 11th 2010 7:18PM]

@SarnGate You should do your research. The 470 performs closer to the 5850 than it does the 5870. (I don't know why you "upgraded" from the 5850 because you're not going to see much of a boost.) The 480 is closer to the 5870 than anything higher like the 5970 or the dual 5870 GPU that Engadget just posted about. Also take into account that the 5800 series has been out for over 6 months now and it's like I said, nVidia is falling further behind as they scramble trying to catch up. The 485 is still slated for a fall release, but by time that comes around, ATI will have announced their next series and quite possibly even surprised us with a release.

[SarnGate Posted Jul 11th 2010 7:36PM]

@Indie Where did i say i upgraded anything ? The 470 and 480 both outperform the 5850 and 5870 respectively, for the extra cash you get PhysX, more stable drivers, and better all around performance.

ATi is great if you want the best bang for your buck, but please don't get me started on the joke of a card which is the 5970, i mean for god's sake, it's drivers are so bad that many people had stability problems in 2D modes just sitting at the desktop.

For the price of one 5970 you can get a pair of 470's which will offer better performance and more stability, as well as PhysX and CUDA.

[RauBurger Posted Jul 12th 2010 2:14AM]

@SarnGate
Even if the 5970's drivers didn't suck, why are people comparing it to the 480? The 5970 is dual gpu while the 480 is a single gpu, apples and oranges here. From all the benchmarks I've read the 480 out performs it's ati counterpart (5870) in pretty much everything, esp DX11 benchmarks. Yes it is a more power hungry and hotter card, but then again you are buying the highest end single gpu card out there, I don't think that should be much of a worry.

[Indie Posted Jul 13th 2010 9:18PM]

@SarnGate I haven't had any driver issues with ATi. In fact, talking to most people, it appears the driver issues are flipping. I've heard many many more reports of nvidia drivers being crap these days. Which is also my personal experience as well. Oh and if you think the 470 outperforms that 5870, then you need to do more testing or research, as suggested in my last reply.

[applehateboy Posted Jul 11th 2010 4:42PM]

Hmm.. 12 only? Lol

[Von32 Posted Jul 11th 2010 4:44PM]

I'll just leave this here.

http://pw0nd.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/macvspc.jpg

[Ninjakid4 Posted Jul 11th 2010 4:46PM]

Only $200.
We need a review.
I think I will stick with a 5770 for $135 for now though.

[jackjumper85 Posted Jul 11th 2010 5:22PM]

@Ninjakid4 Thats what I got, best card ever.

[Sibuna Posted Jul 11th 2010 5:53PM]

@jackjumper85 Totally agree. I have it, too.

[TehSilentWolf Posted Jul 11th 2010 8:37PM]

@Sibuna

Same here, 5770 ftw!

[iDamien Posted Jul 11th 2010 11:09PM]

@Ninjakid4

Do what I did: pick up a second one, and crossfire those bad boys!

You now have cost-efficient, high-end, gaming solution that brings games like BC2 to it's knees (Can run a full 32 player server, with all the highest settings); not to mention, it has features that'll last for at least a couple years (DX11; Eyefinity; etc), plus it performs better than a 5850!

[scoobydooby11 Posted Jul 11th 2010 11:44PM]

@iDamien
Exactly what im about to do.. grabbin a second 5770 in a couple weeks. cant wait!
The 5770
is such a great gpu and ocs wicked since it runs so cool and quiet.
ive been with the green team for years but ati has some good products out right now

[Vigile Posted Jul 12th 2010 12:29AM]

@Ninjakid4 Ta da! http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=954

[Game_Ender Posted Jul 11th 2010 5:22PM]

Can someone tell me what happened to the iPad post?

http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/11/otterbox-shops-camera-hole-onto-ipad-case-presumably-for-fun-a

It shows up in the "on twitter" as well but the link goes to the homepage. Is this kind of coverup?

[archkron Posted Jul 11th 2010 5:24PM]

@Game_Ender

Definitely. Call the FBI.

[Indie Posted Jul 11th 2010 5:24PM]

@Game_Ender It was a stupid article and should have never been posted.

[richb93 Posted Jul 11th 2010 5:52PM]

The 4Chan Party Van is here!

[iHack13 Posted Jul 11th 2010 6:26PM]

@Game_Ender as Indefinite Implosion mentioned before, something that is very essential for an article went wrong....
The reader had to enlighten the writer , even though it's supposed to be the other way round..

[Sean Connery Posted Jul 11th 2010 7:48PM]

@Game_Ender

The editor made a mistake when posting that article, and rather than fixing the error, it was easier to "remove the evidence". I lost much respect for this editor, C. Zeigler.

[michaspi Posted Jul 14th 2010 9:31PM]

@Game_Ender:
Google cache: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:IYfIPKlZCN8J:www.engadget.com/2010/07/11/otterbox-shops-camera-hole-onto-ipad-case-presumably-for-fun-a/+http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/11/otterbox-shops-camera-hole-onto-ipad-case-presumably-for-fun-a&hl=en&client=firefox-a&gl=us&strip=0

[Cpsheehan Posted Jul 11th 2010 5:25PM]

You know whose graphics are really precise nowadays? The iPhone 4's graphics are. You know who hasn't updated their iPhone app to match the new resolution? Engadget hasn't. Kinda ironic, huh?

[VetteDude Posted Jul 11th 2010 5:41PM]

@Cpsheehan

Wow. Way to bring the iPhone into a totally unrelated post!

[archkron Posted Jul 11th 2010 5:44PM]

@Cpsheehan

I don't think you've used the word "precise" in the correct fashion.