ECS GeForce GTX 460 1GB Black Video Card Review

All testing was done on a fresh install of Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
with all the latest updates installed. All benchmarks were completed on
the desktop with no other software programs running, aside from Steam for the games. The GSKILL Ripjaws DDR3 1600MHz was run at 1488MHz with CL7-8-7-21 timings, the Western Digital Caviar Black hard drive held all benchmarks and games. The Phenom II X4 955 was running at 3906MHz with 1.5v VCore; 1953MHz HT Link; and 2790MHz CPU-NB in a Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H ATX motherboard running BIOS version F7c. The NVIDIA GPU was running ForceWare 258.96 WHQL drivers with the ATI GPUs running on Catalyst 10.8 WHQL drivers. If you notice the green strip of electrical tape on the UD3H, I have scratched one motherboard from inserting graphics cards multiple times- so preventative measures were taken.

AMD Test Platform
Component	Brand/Model	Live Pricing
Processor	AMD Phenom II X4 955 @3.9GHz	Click Here
Motherboard	Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H	Click Here
Memory	(2x2GB) G.SKILL Ripjaws DDR3 1600	Click Here
Video Cards	See Below	Click Here
Hard Drive	Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB	Click Here
Cooling	Corsair H50 Hydro Series	Click Here
Power Supply	Corsair TX750w	Click Here
Operating System	Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit	Click Here
Chassis	Thermaltake Armor A90	Click Here

The ECS GeForce GTX 460 1GB Black has some serious thermal throttling going on; it goes from 765 MHz core speed down the 405 MHz for a sub-throttle, then all the way down to just 50.6 MHz after sitting idle! Memory goes from 925 MHz to 900 MHz then way down to 67.5 MHz. Finally, the shaders go from 1530 MHz to 810 MHz and to 101 MHz at idle state.