Legit Video Card Reviews
MSI GeForce N460GTX Cyclone 1GD5 Overclocked Video Card Review
| Manufacturer: | Micro-Star International |
| Product: | N460GTX Cyclone 1GD5 OC |
| Date: | Wed, Aug 04, 2010 - 12:00 AM |
| Written By: | Nathan Kirsch - |
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The MSI N460GTX Cyclone Video Card
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 video card has proven itself to be one of the best bang for your buck video cards this summer and we have yet another one for you to take a closer look at. The GTX460 that we are looking at today is the MSI N460GTX Cyclone 1GD5 video card. This video card comes from the factory overclocked for an extra performance boost and also features MSI's much improved Cyclone GPU cooler. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 was designed by NVIDIA to run at 675MHz on the core, but MSI put a rather nice 50MHz overclock on this card as it was delivered to us with the 336 CUDA cores inside the GF100 'Fermi' core running at 725MHz. That puts the card right in the middle of the ASUS ENGTX460 Top as it came factory overclocked at 700MHz and the EVGA GeForce GTX 460 SuperClocked that came in at a rocking 763MHz on the core. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 is easy to overclock, but we'll talk more on that in the overclocking section. This is the sixth GeForce GTX 460 video card that we have tested, so if you need any background information on the GeForce GTX 460 be sure to take a look at any of our previous reviews:
- EVGA GeForce GTX 460 768MB SC SLI Video Card Review
- ASUS GeForce ENGTX460 TOP 768MB Video Card Review
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 768MB and 1GB Video Card Reviews
The MSI N460GTX Cyclone 1GD5 video card looks tough with the large beefy cooler on it and the black PCB. This fan design won't exhaust all the hot air from the inside of your case since the card doesn't have a fan shroud to direct the airflow to the exhaust bracket. The card measures 9.5" in length and stands at 5.0" tall (200.61x110.1x38mm).
Flipping the MSI GeForce GTX 460 video card over we don't find anything too interesting as it looks like it is using the NVIDIA reference design PCB.
The MSI GeForce GTX 460 graphics card does support SLI and has a single SLI bridge located along the top edge of the graphics card. The NVIDIA GTX 460 series supports two-way SLI configurations and can run NVIDIA Surround (2D) multi-panel gaming technologies. That means you can buy two of these and run games like Bad Company 2 at a resolution of 5760 x 1200 across three monitors for example.
The MSI N460GTX Cyclone 1GD5 graphics card has a pair of dual-link DVI-I outputs along with a mini-HDMI output header. MSI does not include a mini-HDMI adapter with their bundle, but they do include a DVI-to-HDMI adapter. Both the Dual-link DVI and HDMI outputs can be used to send high-definition video to an HDTV via single cable (including audio if running HDMI). A regular sized HDMI header was not used since it couldn't fit next to the pair of DVI outputs. MSI placed their name in the exhaust bracket, which looks like it would reduce airflow at the cost of product branding.
The MSI GeForce GTX 460 video card requires a 450 Watt or greater power supply with a minimum of 24 Amps on the +12 volt rail. It also requires that the power supply has two 6-pin PCI Express power connectors for proper connection. It should be noted that the NVIDIA minimum system power requirement is based on a PC configured with an Intel Core i7 3.2GHz CPU. If you want to run SLI we have been told that a 600 Watt or greater power supply is suggested by NVIDIA. NVIDIA refuses to give +12V requirements for SLI, which is strange since they give ratings for single card solutions.
Let's see what is under the heat sink and then take a look at the bundle.
Next Page - A Closer Look at the N460GTX Cyclone
| Review Index |
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Page 1 - The MSI N460GTX Cyclone Video Card
Page 2 - A Closer Look at the N460GTX Cyclone Page 3 - Retail Box and Bundle Page 4 - GeForce GTX 460 Test Settings Page 5 - Batman: Arkham Asylum Page 6 - Resident Evil 5 Page 7 - Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. Page 8 - 3DMark Vantage Page 9 - Unigine 'Heaven' DX11 Page 10 - S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat Page 11 - Aliens vs. Predator Page 12 - FurMark 1.8.2 Page 13 - Power Consumption Page 14 - Temperature Testing Page 15 - MSI GeForce GTX 460 1GB Overclocking Page 16 - Final Thoughts and Conclusions |
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