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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Final Thoughts and Conclusions
The MSI N4600GTX Cyclone 1GD5 video card was found to be about 6% faster than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 1GB reference card. The MSI N4600GTX Cyclone 1GD5 features a 50MHz boost on the GPU core clock and that was enough to give it the performance boost needed to beat out the reference card in the performance tests that we ran. It was interesting that MSI didn't overclock the 1GB GDDR5 memory chips at all, as other companies are putting slight overclocks on the memory. It really doesn't matter, though, as we were able to overclock the MSI N4600GTX Cyclone 1GD5 video card all the way up to 915MHz on the core! This is a 240MHz overclock from NVIDIA's reference design and that is rather massive. When overclocked this high the MSI N4600GTX Cyclone 1GD5 is performing faster than a stock clocked GeForce GTX 470 and just behind the Radeon HD 5870 in benchmarks like 3DMark Vantage! The performance you get from a mainstream card like this is amazing to say the least.
The MSI 'Cyclone' GPU cooler was a nice touch as it did help reduce both heat and noise at a full load. At idle we really couldn't tell a difference in noise or the GPU temperature. Interestingly enough, the official MSI reviewers guide that was sent over to use didn't mention anything about idle temperature or noise performance with the 'Cyclone' cooler, but now we know why. It really only makes a notable difference when the video card is at full load. The MSI 'Military Class' components on this card looked like nothing more than some nifty marketing by MSI as the card is based on the NVIDIA reference design and uses the same general class of components from what we could tell.
When it comes to availability of GeForce GTX 460 video cards there is absolutely no shortage of them on the market right now. In fact, a quick look at Newegg shows that 26 different cards are available for you to pick from in this series. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 pricing starts at $189 and goes all the way up to $259 and Newegg is doing a promotion where you get a free Starcraft2 trial coupon with all of the cards. If you want a 1GB card like the one we reviewed here today, then pricing starts at $219 and goes to $259. The MSI N460GTX CYCLONE 1GD5/OC costs $234.99 shipped at Newegg.com or $238.99 shipped at Buy.com. This puts the MSI N460GTX Cyclone right in the middle of the pack for 1GB cards and we'd say the slight premium is worth it. You get a card with a very nice cooler on it and it overclocks perfectly with the MSI AfterBurner software utility.
All MSI video cards are warranted by a 3 year limited warranty. MSI informed us that you do not need to register the card to get the three year warranty, but they highly advise registering the video card as soon as you get it. They also said that you must pay the shipping and handling fees for the video card to reach them, but they will ship it back to you free of charge if it is under warranty. This is better than some other brands like Palit and Galaxy as they only offer one and two-year warranties, respectively.
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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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