MSI N460GTX HAWK – Multiplied Overclocking Potential with Triple Over Voltage

Triple Over Voltage

MSI N460GTX supports the Triple Over Voltage feature, which enables users to adjust the amount of voltage supplied to the GPU core, memory, and PLL (aux). This would come in handy during overclocking sessions. You can access this feature from the MSI Afterburner 2.0 software, pictured above.

Overclocking

We were a bit curious about N460 GTX Hawk’s overclocking potential, so we tried to push the envelope a bit further. However, to see how far it could go without thorough modification, we left the voltage settings at their factory-default value during our overclocking runs. Under this condition, we still managed to reach a fairly good 875 MHz core frequency (1750 MHz shader clock) and 4200 MHz effective memory speed. It is an overcloking friendly card alright.

Our OC team is currently attempting to get some more “serious” results from the N460GTX Hawk. You can expect to learn their findings pretty soon at JagatReview.com!

Test Platform

Moving on to performance testing, we brought in a reference GeForce GTX 460 1 GB, a GeForce GTX 465, and a Radeon HD 5830 for comparison purposes. We also overclocked the N460GTX HAWK up to the aforementioned frequency settings and run the benchmarks again to see if we could squeeze some more performance out of it. Below is the complete list of our test platform hardwares:

Processor: Intel Core i7 930 @4 GHz (200×20)

Motherboard: Gigabyte X58A-UD3R

Graphics card: MSI N460GTX HAWK, NVIDIA GTX 460 1GB, NVIDIA GTX 465, ATI HD 5830

Memory: 3×1GB Kingston KHX16000D3T1K3/3GX

Harddisk: Western Digital Caviar Black 500 GB (32 MB Cache)

Power Supply: Enermax Revolution 85+ 1050 Watt

Heatsink: Gelid Tranquilo

Monitor: Philips 221E

Input: Genius (Keyboard and Mouse)

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit

Driver: NVIDIA Forceware 258.96. ATI Catalyst 10.5