Verdict and Conclusion
I can now understand the significance of “cherry-picking” GPUs. It’s truely amazing what these so called cherry-picked GPUs can do. During our tests, the Gigabyte’s Geforce GTX 460 SOC produced excellent score in all our benchmarks. It easily beat the Gigabyte’s other model the Geforce GTX 460 OC, and most definitely outperformed the Geforce GTX 465 by a mile! In fact, looking at the scores, I’d say it’s one of fastest Geforce GTX 460 we’ve tested in our labs, however it still falls behind the recently launched Geforce GTX 570, which is expected. But you have to remember, while the peformance of the Geforce GTX 570 is very good, it will cost you USD $350. However, the Gigabyte’s Geforce GTX 460 SOC is likely to cost around $220-250, which is attractively affordable.
What makes this card extremely appealing is the fact that it includes Gigabyte’s innovative Ultra Durable VGA. It includes the infamous 2oz Copper PCB, Japanese solid capacitors, 1st Tier memeory, Ferrite Core Chokes and Low RDS (on) Mosfets. And there’s more, t the WindForce x2 cooling solution offers unrivalled cooling performance upto 19% cooler than standard reference design heatsinks. It consists of a large in-house designed heatsink with 4 copper heatpipes, and twin fans with anti-turbulence fins. All of this makes the card extremely stable and power efficient, while offering performance far beyond your standard Geforce GTX 460.
Although the Gigabyte Geforce GTX 460 SOC is aimed at the extreme enthusiast who’s into overclocking, it is at the end of the day just an overclocked Geforce GTX 460, so there’s no support for 3-way SLI (only 2-way SLI). But you do get all of Nvidia’s innovative 3D/graphic technologies, inlcuding CUDA, PhysX, OpenGL 4.0, as well as DX11, HDMI 1.4, HD movie playback and Nvidia’s 3D Vision.
The other thing which I thought was very nice is the included OC Guru software, which Gigabyte have included. It allow you to adjust a range of options including GPU and memory voltages, GPU and memory frequencies, fans speeds, power saving and OSD. There are upto 5 different profiles which you can save your settings, which is pretty handy.
For the extreme enthusiast who’s loves voltage modding, there’s an interesting and unique feature found on the PCB. There are voltage read points which are located near the top of the card, and gives the hardcore overclockers the ultimate benching experience at overclocking competitions. Now that’s extreme!
After so research, we managed to get a price on the Gigabyte Geforce GTX 460 SOC. Costing around USD $220 (GBP 175), it’s fairly attractive, although slightly expensive for a Geforce GTX 460, but mind you … you are getting a Super OverClock version. Still, even at this price the Gigabyte Geforce GTX 460 SOC is a great performer and is easily the fastest Geforce GTX 460 out there, beating the GTX 465 hands down.
Final words. Armed with an overclocked GPU @ 815Mhz, the Gigabyte Geforce GTX 460 SOC is no doubt one of the fastest GTX 460’s out there. What’s more, it comes with all of Gigabyte’s innovative Ultra Durable VGA features, along with the WindForce x2 cooling solution. If it’s performance and features you’re after at a price that’s fairly attractive, then it’s definitely worth considering.
SCORE
9/10
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