Here I am today with a special light review on a product I highly recommend you go out and buy, that is if you want to play StarCraft II how it was meant to be played - at max settings.  Of course, some of you are already playing at that level.  Just when you thought SC2 couldn't look any better, NVIDIA comes out of left field with a heavy hitter line of graphics cards: the GeForce 4 series.  Today, we're specifically going to take a look at the low-end model of that family.  I present to you the GTX 460..



So what makes this card so great, you ask?

It's really damn cheap for the amount of power it packs.

The card comes in two flavors.  It comes in at around $200, depending on which manufacturer you buy from (I recommend EVGA), for the 768mb version.  For an extra $30 you can find the 1gb version, which I also recommend buying.  Both cards are tuned to GDDR5, obviously.

$200 is cheap? You're crazy, Kris!

No, you're crazy. $200 is cheap considering it's a worthwhile investment that will ensure that your computer will handle any game thrown at it for at least the next 5 years.  I tried Crysis Warhead, Metro 2033, and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on the card - both played the game flawlessly at the highest settings (and at the aforementioned resolution). The fact that it plays them great is testament to it's value.  Furthermore, like any new line of cards, the high-end models will set you back about $400-500.  As a gamer enthusiast, not a hardware enthusiast, you really really - and I can't stress that enough - don't need to go for the higher models, unless of course you're rich.

Power, power, power (the specifications)..

* 336 CUDA cores
* Graphics clock @ 675mhz
* Processor clock @ 1350mhz
* Texture fill rate capable of 37.8 billion per second

Here's where the line starts to divide between the 768mb and 1gb models..

* 192-bit memory interface width for the 768mb
* 86.4 memory bandwidth (at gigabytes per second) for the 768mb
* 256-bit memory interface width for the 1gb
* 115.2 memory bandwidth (gb/s) for the 1gb

Plus, it (both models) has support for SLI, 3D Vision, PureVideo (HD), PhysX, CUDA, and most importantly DirectX 11 (it's even Windows 7 certified)!

Now, how exactly does the card make SC2 look better than it's max settings? It's quite simple actually: anti-aliasing.  For those not well-versed in technobabble, anti-aliasing (AA for all-intentional purposes from here in out) reduces those jagged/pixelated lines you see in your games.  It basically smooths it out and tricks the eye.  SC2 does not support AA by default, which is evident by the lack of the option in the game's settings.  However, NVIDIA's Control Panel program, which comes with all of their cards, allows you to override your games' settings.  In this case, we were able to enforce AA onto SC2.  Some say that the attention to detail that AA provides is negligible; I agree, but it's still a sight to behold.  Lastly, AA has been known to stress cards and slow down games, but the GTX 460 handles it well (ran it at AAx4) without any noticeable lag in my league matches.  NVIDIA's software can run games at higher AA settings (x2 all the way up to x32, last I checked), and of course the higher you go the more beautiful the game becomes, but at a cost of performance.

From what I've read elsewhere, the card handles overclocking extremely well (enough to go head-to-head with it's older brother, the GTX 470). So if that's your preference then having this card in your arsenal of hardware will surely compliment it well.  I'm no stranger to doing so (overclocking), but I didn't feel any need to push the card that far since it already runs SC2 flawlessly.  Anyhow, onto the nitty-gritty.

To give the card as accurate a review as possible I tested it on a fresh setup that would hopefully reduce the chances of bottle-necking the card as much as possible.  The card was ran on an AMD quad-core processor at 2.90ghz (yes, I know NVIDIA products work better with Intel), with 6gb of RAM, on a typical 7200 RPM hard drive, and set at a resolution of 1680x1050.  Here's what it looks like in the demo..



And here are the results of my testing..

In this 2v2 replay, on ultra settings, the FPS average came out to 54; 27 at the minimum and 64 at max.  What's more impressive is, with AAx4 and AFx8 enabled, the average FPS was still high.  The average came out to be 51; again, that's with AA/AF toggled on.  The numbers are nice and all, but let's take a video break and a quick look at the difference between low and ultra settings in general..

Low: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVDFZtrhmkA
Ultra: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35-W7HjGoKU

I could dive deeper into the card's capabilities, such as running at higher resolutions or in SLI mode, but having that kind of hardware is far beyond what SC2 needs.  And, again, I've wrote this review to help the average SC2 enthusiast upgrade their computer in way that will both benefit their wallet and their gaming experience.  Let me just say this though, the GTX 460 is far superior in performance when compared to ATI's Radeon HD 5850, and gives the competitor's 5870 a run for it's money (which is a lot, in case you were wondering).

As for the difference between ultra and ultra with AAx4/AFx8, take a look at these screenshots.  The first is plain ultra.  Click the images to view in full..




By the way, the card runs at great temperatures, too (sat comfortably around 65-75 degrees Celsius).

The verdict: this card is a "must-buy" for any SC2 fan out there; it's easily the king of the mid-range budget cards of this year, and yesteryear.

As you can see by now, NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 460, is a no-brainer purchase for all your SC2 gaming (and future gaming) needs.  It's light on your wallet, yet powerful enough to compare to the higher-end models in it's family.  Not that you needed anymore reason to buy this card now, but the card was named the "$200 king" on AnandTech, received a "recommended buy" tag on Tom's Hardware, and has excellent reviews on Newegg.

What are you waiting for? Get this card ..now!

Oh, and stay tuned to our news because we're going to be holding a contest, sponsored by NVIDIA themselves, where we'll give away one of these cards to the winner. :)



Tags: geforce, gtx, 460, gtx460, nvidia, graphics, card, ultra