The ASUS ENGTX465 is a card that looks like it has been scaled to fit right into a specific performance target. This target is right between the HD 5850 and HD 5830 from ATI. When it comes to a comparison between the GTX 465 and the HD 5850, the green offering is behind in most categories. but does at times step up the performance when the game or benchmark plays to its strengths. A fine example of this is the Unigine 2.0 benchmark in which the tessellation performance of the GF100 architecture carries the 465 ahead of the 5850. Overclocking this card helps narrow the performance gap between it and the HD 5850 in many of the games tested, not enough to beat it at every test, but to at least make it interesting.

ASUS has thought of the enthusiast community with the ENGTX465 by including its Smart Doctor software to allow the end user to reach the highest possible overclock they can by using all of the tools that are available. The phrase on the box shouts loudly that you can go up to 50% faster by using the voltage tweaking options. I did not get to 50%, but at 33%, I was close. This 33% increase is a bump of 214MHz on the 352 CUDA cores. Not shabby by any stretch. The memory on the other hand did not benefit from any voltage tweaking and was a bit stingier when it came time to push the clock speeds, only garnering a 17.5% increase or 141MHz. Both of these clock speed increases help drive performance higher. This means just about every game in the benchmark suite is playable with high end settings. Of course Crysis and Metro 2033 are notable exceptions at 2560×1600. However the pricing and market that this card is targeting most people will be running at 1920×1200.

The packaging of the ENGTX465 from ASUS looks much like that which housed the ENGTX285 TOP card I looked at a while back,with a medieval knight perched upon a large stallion on a stormy night. The green background of course subliminally lets you know this is an Nvidia-based card. The front panel highlights some of the features of this card such as the 1GB of GDDR5 memory, Direct X 11 support, Nvidia PhysX capabilities and that this card is ready for overclocking via Voltage Tweak technology. The rear panel lists the features of this card, recommended system requirements and the inclusion of several Nvidia specific applications, Design Garage and the Supersonic Sled demo.

Our previous reviews showed how nicely the latest Fermi GTX 460s perform compared to the higher end GTX 470 and top of the line GTX 480. While the charted performance on the GTX 460 did lack compared to the GTX 480 (this was due to a lower amount of stream processors on the GTX 460), the real-life performance in today’s latest games was still quite pleasing. In some instances, the stock GTX 460 did have a bit higher performance over the GTX 470, and Palit has now introduced an even faster version of the mainstream GTX 460: the Palit GTX 460 Sonic Platinum 1GB GDDR5.

The Palit GTX 460 Sonic Platinum comes with 336 Stream Processors, along with a 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 memory. The stock GTX 460 also had these specifications, but the performance increase the Sonic Platinum has actually comes from the core speed and memory speed improvement. The Palit GTX 460 Sonic Platinum runs at a core speed of 800MHz, a shader clock speed of 1600MHz, and a memory frequency of 2000MHz. That’s a 125MHz increase over the standard 675MHz core speed, a 250MHz increase on the shader clock speed, and a 200MHz increase on the Memory frequency from 1800MHz. Palit also redesigned the layout of the GTX 460 (including the cooler), to make sure that the GTX 460 Sonic Platinum runs optimally.

Due to the GPU architecture this change in memory size not only affects the actual memory but also other performance relevant figures. The reduction of memory size is achieved by installing less memory chips on the card which reduces the bus width of the GPU from 256-bit to 192-bit on the 768 MB version. Since the ROPs are coupled to the memory interface this also results in less ROP units. Combined all those changes reduce the fillrates and memory performance of the card by 25%.

Palit’s GeForce GTX 460 Sonic Platinum Edition is one of the highest-clocked GeForce GTX 460 variants available at this time. It also comes with 1 GB of GDDR5 memory. Combined this makes the fastest out of the box configuration for a GTX 460 that you could think of. But Palit has not stopped at performance settings. They are also using a custom cooler and PCB which promise better thermals at a reasonable price point.

Today NVIDIA introduces the latest member of their DirectX 11 lineup. Their new GeForce GTX 460 is based on the all new 40 nm GF104 GPU which is based on the Fermi architecture introduced earlier this year. The GTX 460 is positioned at the lower end of the mid-range performance segment around the $200 price bracket. NVIDIA offers two variants of the GeForce GTX 460, one with 768 MB of GDDR5 memory and one with 1 GB. Due to the GPU architecture this change in memory size not only affects the actual memory but also other performance relevant figures.

The reduction of memory size is achieved by installing less memory chips on the card which reduces the bus width of the GPU from 256-bit to 192-bit on the 768 MB version. Since the ROPs are coupled to the memory interface this also results in less ROP units. Combined all those changes reduce the fillrates and memory performance of the card by 25%. One important aspect of this review is how much of a difference this can make in real life.

Clearly Nvidia is keen to change this sequence of events, and the GeForce GTX 460 looks like the card to do just that. While the GTX 465 was in reality a hugely cut-down GTX 480 (based on the full GF100 Fermi design) the GTX 460 is built from scratch to be a mid-range, high-performance GPU. The new GPU is codenamed GF104, and is the first example of one of the design aims of the Fermi architecture – modularity. As the Fermi architecture is a rather odd one, let’s have a refresh of how it’s laid out.

VIDIA’s latest member of their DirectX 11 lineup is the GeForce GTX 460. It is based on the all new 40 nm GF104 GPU which is based on the Fermi architecture introduced earlier this year. The GTX 460 is positioned at the lower end of the mid-range performance segment around the $200 price bracket. NVIDIA offers two variants of the GeForce GTX 460, one with 768 MB of GDDR5 memory and one with 1 GB. Due to the GPU architecture this change in memory size not only affects the actual memory but also other performance relevant figures.

The reduction of memory size is achieved by installing less memory chips  on the card which reduces the bus width of the GPU from 256-bit to 192-bit on the 768 MB version. Since the ROPs are coupled to the memory interface this also results in less ROP units. Combined all those changes reduce the fillrates and memory performance of the card by 25%.

The card that we are looking at today is the ASUS ENGTX460 DirectCU TOP/2DI/768MD5 video card! What makes this card special is the fact that it uses a custom designed PCB and GPU cooler, plus it comes factory overclocked for an extra performance boost. The ENGTX460 Top has been sorted to ensure the card can operate flawlessly at above 700MHz and that is critical for those that want to be ensured their card can overclock. To help overclockers even more ASUS uses a DirectCU GPU cooler that has two 8mm flattened copper heat-pipes that make direct contact with the GPU that helps improve cooling by 20% when compared to the NVIDIA reference design. If that isn’t enough, ASUS also includes their SmartDoctor utility with VoltageTweak. This means you can bump up the GPU core voltage in just a few mouse clicks if needed.

When it comes to accessories, you are going to be getting a 2 x 4pin molex to PCI-E power adapter, a DVI to D-Sub dongle, DVI to HDMI dongle, a CD wallet, as well as the installation documentation. There were no drivers CD included in the package. This is because by the time that you purchase the card and get it to your doorstep, there will usually be updated versions of the drivers that you will have to download anyways.