Digital Alliance GTX 460 768MB: New Chip, Custom Cooling

Barely a few months after NVIDIA launched its GeForce GTX 465 series of GPU, the GTX 460 soon followed. Although it is actually based on the same Fermi architecture, the GTX 460 comes with a different codename. Previous Fermi GPUs are codenamed GF100, while the codename reserved for this particular GPU is “GF104”. Judging from the numbers in their names, it seems like NVIDIA brings along several fixes in the GF104. The GeForce GTX 460 itself comes in two variants, easily distinguishable from the amount on-board memories on each variant: the 768 MB version, and the 1 GB model.

The GeForce GTX 460 is aimed directly at the mainstream market segment, which happens to be the one of the most important battleground for GPU manufacturers since it contributes a rather large amount of sales. Usually, users in this segment are lured toward graphics cards with better (more balanced) price-performance ratio. A 768 MB version of the GeForce GTX 460 sells for around US$ 199, while its beefier sibling, the 1 GB variant, is priced at around US$ 229. A local brand, Digital Alliance (DA), happens to supply us with both their 768 MB and 1 GB GeForce GTX 460 graphics card samples. Eager to see how the GTX 460 performs, we immediately took them out of their boxes and plug them on one of our test rigs. This first article specifically focuses on the 768 Mb version.

Digital Alliance GTX 460 768 MB

Specification

	Digital Alliance GTX 460	NVIDIA GTX 460 768 MB, Reference Specs
Fabrication Process	40 nm	40 nm
Transistors	1.95 billion	1.95 billion
Die Size	320 mm²	320 mm²
Core Clock	675 MHz	675 MHz
Stream Processors	336	336
Shader Clock	1350 MHz	1350 MHz
Texture Units	56	56
ROPs	24	24
Memory Type	GDDR5	GDDR5
Memory Size	768 MB	768 MB
Memory Clock (effective)	3600 MHz	3600 MHz
Memory Interface	192-bit	192-bit
DirectX Version	11	11
Shader Model	5	5
Power Connectors	2x 6-pin	2x 6-pin
Bus Support	PCIe 2.1 x16	PCIe 2.1 x16

Digital Alliance GTX 460 768 follows NVIDIA’s reference specification. It requires at least a 450 watt power supply.