GTX 460 (factory OCed @ 815/1630) vs HD 6870 (stock speed)

[Rhezuss]

Hey! Since the launch of the 6800 series, nVidia have released some GTX 460s aggresively OCed.

I was soon to upgrade my HD 5770 to a HD 6870 but saw some benchs with the GTX 460 FTW (from eVGA, OCed @ 850/1700 instead of the stock speed at 675/1350). The 460 FTW look really nice compared to the 6800s and even to the GTX 470, for less bucks.

I say the Gigabyte Super Overclock Series GTX 460 with the Windforce fan clocked @ 815/1630, which is really closed to the FTW edition...and only cost 225CAD instead of 270CAD for the eVGA FTW edition.

The Gigabyte Super Overclock Series GTX 460 (225CAD) - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produc...cm_re=gigabyte_gtx_460-_-14-125-345-_-Product
The Gigabyte HD 6870 (245CAD) - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125347&Tpk=gigabyte%206870

From reviews, the HD 6800s have more advanced features, demands less power to operate and runs cooler..or are on par with the 460s.

What about IQ?

I'm at a loss right now heheh...but it feels good having this much choice at good prices.

What would you suggest?

BTW: I could sell my 5770 for half the price of the 6870 to a friend if all goes well.

 

[Madcatatlas]

Well, the 850MHZ FTW edition 460 couldnt handle the Hd6870 at stock. So its a pretty easy choice if you ask me

Id honestly go for the 6870 if it was released the same day as the 460 Oc version i have. I can OC mine stable to 850 and it provides me with very nice gameplay in the games i play at 1080"

Im still waiting for Ryan Smith to give us a review on the features the 6xxx series brings with it. He did say he was going to, didnt he?

Ryan, what say you!?

 

[Rhezuss]

Well, the 850MHZ FTW edition 460 couldnt handle the Hd6870 at stock. So its a pretty easy choice if you ask me

Id honestly go for the 6870 if it was released the same day as the 460 Oc version i have. I can OC mine stable to 850 and it provides me with very nice gameplay in the games i play at 1080"

Im still waiting for Ryan Smith to give us a review on the features the 6xxx series brings with it. He did say he was going to, didnt he?

Ryan, what say you!?

Damn, good point.
Ryan?

 

[toyota]

Well, the 850MHZ FTW edition 460 couldnt handle the Hd6870 at stock. So its a pretty easy choice if you ask me

Id honestly go for the 6870 if it was released the same day as the 460 Oc version i have. I can OC mine stable to 850 and it provides me with very nice gameplay in the games i play at 1080"

Im still waiting for Ryan Smith to give us a review on the features the 6xxx series brings with it. He did say he was going to, didnt he?

Ryan, what say you!?

depends on what review that you look at. techreport had the gtx460 ftw beating the 6870 overall. heck even at 725mhz the gtx460 was beating 6870 in Metro2033 for their review.

techpowerup had the 6870 only being 15% faster than a stock gtx460 so the 25% faster FTW card would have easily beat the 6870 in their review.

 

[Madcatatlas]

My bad, correction. I was ofcourse basing that on Anandtechs review. But i stand corrected. The FTW overclocked edition is an average of 5% faster than the HD6870.
It is however, an top of the line, overclocked version and EVGA seems to be providing only 2 years limited warranty on it?. Would it be presumptous to say this is because they cant guarentee it will stay alive past those 2 years? Gives me chills since i think of the G80 ordeal../brr

 

[Rhezuss]

Well the 6870 seems even more appealing after more reading.

Concerning brands, ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, XFX, etc...all the same quality?

 

[MrK6]

From reviews, the HD 6800s have more advanced features, demands less power to operate and runs cooler..or are on par with the 460s.

What about IQ?

I'm at a loss right now heheh...but it feels good having this much choice at good prices.

What would you suggest?

BTW: I could sell my 5770 for half the price of the 6870 to a friend if all goes well.

For $20CAD, it would seem silly to to buy a lesser part unless you needed any NVIDIA specific features. Grab a 6870, and then overclock that if you want more performance.

As far as IQ goes, there's really no difference. You could make the argument that the 68xx parts offer the best AF out there, but I don't know how easy it is to see that in actual games. I think morphological AA is pretty interesting, and is might be a great addition to a lot of the console port/deferred rendering games that used to lack AA options.

Well the 6870 seems even more appealing after more reading.

Concerning brands, ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, XFX, etc...all the same quality?

ASUS is supposedly offering the best reference heatsink: http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1036331837&postcount=6 . Their build quality seems to be top notch, I'll be considering them for my 6970.

 

[Arkadrel]

the 5xxx series had texture filtering problems, 4xx cards have better Image quality in that.

However the 6xxx series they fixed the texture filtering, and now have better image quality in this reguard than the 4xx cards give.

ASUS is supposedly offering the best reference heatsink: http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1036331837&postcount=6 . Their build quality seems to be top notch, I'll be considering them for my 6970.

+1 interwebs.

"..they added a full aluminum cover over the heatsink to dissipate heat."

Then showing a thermal picture taken of a ref. design and one from asus with 14 degree differnce in temps at load. That sold me... asus is the way to go.


also I think a 6870 is a better buy than a 460 OC.
You can overclock the 6870 too... while the 460@ 850mhz is at its limit.

 

[Rifter]

If i had to buy a video card today for $250 i would buy a 6870.

That said if i wanted to save $75 and have very close to 6870 performance I would snag a 1GB stock speed 460 for around $175 and OC it yourself, this will yield you close to 6870 performance for less money.

I would not pay $225 for a OC'ed 460.

This is coming from a owner of a GTX 460 that's OC'ed to 900Mhz.

 

[toyota]

Well the 6870 seems even more appealing after more reading.

Concerning brands, ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, XFX, etc...all the same quality?

why? for 40-60 bucks cheaper you can buy the gtx460 oc it and get the same level of performance.

 

[Arkadrel]

@Toyota,

the 460 OC FTW @850mhz costs 239.99$ on newegg.
Most 6870s cost 239.99$ on newegg.

so same price... If you OC the 6870, you ll have it beat out the EGVA 460 FTW in performance.


"..I would snag a 1GB stock speed 460 for around $175 and OC it yourself, this will yield you close to 6870 performance for less money."

you can grab a 6850 for the same... and those guys can OC from 775mhz->920 on stock volt.
A 6850@920 mhz and the 6850 offers pretty sick value.

 

[toyota]

@Toyota,

the 460 OC FTW @850mhz costs 239.99$ on newegg.
Most 6870s cost 239.99$ on newegg.

so same price... If you OC the 6870, you ll have it beat out the EGVA 460 FTW in performance.

I said get a gtx460 which go for $180-$200 and overclock it. they pretty much all do 825 mhz + with no voltage adjustment. I said nothing about the FTW model. the 6870 has about 5-6% headroom without messing with voltage.

 

[Rifter]

I said get a gtx460 which go for $180-$200 and overclock it. they pretty much all do 825 mhz + with no voltage adjustment. I said nothing about the FTW model. the 6870 has about 5-6% headroom without messing with voltage.

yeah i pretty much said the same thing, I have seen the lesser brand 1GB's going for as little as $175 after rebates now, the 460's are seeing price cuts again now and probably will see some soon when ATI's high end card hit the market.

 

[RussianSensation]

also I think a 6870 is a better buy than a 460 OC.
You can overclock the 6870 too... while the 460@ 850mhz is at its limit.

Do you have evidence to support this viewpoint?

The fact is GTX460s overlcock to 900-930mhz (that's their air cooling limit). So your estimation is WAY off. Also, we already know that HD6870 is about 7% slower than a stock HD5870 while a 900mhz GTX460 is a good deal faster than the HD5870. So again your comment that HD6870 is better is not correct.

Also @ 900mhz, HD6850 is only as fast as a stock HD6870. So in this case, again, it's no better than the stock GTX460 which you can also overclock. The bottom line is, the $200 price level is completely tied this generation from a performance perspective - the differentiation is in the features.

For $20CAD, it would seem silly to to buy a lesser part unless you needed any NVIDIA specific features.

810mhz GTX460 for $20 less and a stock HD6870 are nearly evenly matched. $20 is 10% higher than the price of the Gigabyte GTX460 but the performance difference between them is about 5% in favour of the HD6870 since an 850mhz GTX460 is actually faster by a hair. Therefore, $20 doesn't buy you 10% more performance. The added benefit of the HD6870 is the lower power consumption.

Performance wise, it's completely a toss up. HD6870 is better due to lower power consumption but the tradeoff is a much louder fan noise at load than MSI, Gigabyte and EVGA GTX460 boards.

 

[Axon]

I've got my vanilla EVGA GTX 460 @ 900 mhz. Doesn't even really seem to make it sweat. It does idle at 39 instead of 32, however.

 

[RussianSensation]

I've got my vanilla EVGA GTX 460 @ 900 mhz. Doesn't even really seem to make it sweat. It does idle at 39 instead of 32, however.

Exactly. :thumbsup:

 

[Rhezuss]

Well for speed, features, power consumption and heat it's the 6870. It's more nextgen than the GTX460 and offers more.

As it is, i'm pretty convinced about the 6870!

EDIT: What about HIS?

 

[notty22]

Actually if you look at the heat numbers, the gtx 460 run cooler. Imo, I think the heat spreaders Nvidia uses on their chips help accomplish this.
Even the FTW model returned cooler numbers under load than 6870.
As far as nextgen, Nvidia has physX and a more real word 3d implemtation, meaning people have it working.

 

[Skurge]

Do you have evidence to support this viewpoint?

The fact is GTX460s overlcock to 900-930mhz (that's their air cooling limit). So your estimation is WAY off. Also, we already know that HD6870 is about 7% slower than a stock HD5870 while a 900mhz GTX460 is a good deal faster than the HD5870. So again your comment that HD6870 is better is not correct.

Also @ 900mhz, HD6850 is only as fast as a stock HD6870. So in this case, again, it's no better than the stock GTX460 which you can also overclock. The bottom line is, the $200 price level is completely tied this generation from a performance perspective - the differentiation is in the features.



810mhz GTX460 for $20 less and a stock HD6870 are nearly evenly matched. $20 is 10% higher than the price of the Gigabyte GTX460 but the performance difference between them is about 5% in favour of the HD6870 since an 850mhz GTX460 is actually faster by a hair. Therefore, $20 doesn't buy you 10% more performance. The added benefit of the HD6870 is the lower power consumption.

Performance wise, it's completely a toss up. HD6870 is better due to lower power consumption but the tradeoff is a much louder fan noise at load than MSI, Gigabyte and EVGA GTX460 boards.

a 6870 has been overclocked to 1200mhz on air as well. I just thought I would mention that FWIW.

 

[GaiaHunter]

Actually if you look at the heat numbers, the gtx 460 run cooler. Imo, I think the heat spreaders Nvidia uses on their chips help accomplish this.
Even the FTW model returned cooler numbers under load than 6870.

What does the temperature of the GPU core matter for?

 

[Madcatatlas]

I've got my vanilla EVGA GTX 460 @ 900 mhz. Doesn't even really seem to make it sweat. It does idle at 39 instead of 32, however.

At what voltage?

 

[toyota]

a 6870 has been overclocked to 1200mhz on air as well. I just thought I would mention that FWIW.

that was NOT a normal setup either. it was a massive cooler, lots of voltage and at 5 C.

 

[Skurge]

that was NOT a normal setup either. it was a massive cooler, lots of voltage and at 5 C.

I know. There is headroom, we just need better cooling. I'm sure it will do 1Ghz all day with something like a vaporX cooler.

 

[Madcatatlas]

I know. There is headroom, we just need better cooling. I'm sure it will do 1Ghz all day with something like a vaporX cooler.

Idd. The card has been out for a whole 2 weeks and already toyota knows its OC potential. Makes you wonder.


as a sidetrack, im now running my card at 876mhz core stable at 1.05v (stable in kombustor aswell)

 

[3DVagabond]

So, the original question was 6870 or 460@850. Between those 2 I'd take the 6870. It can still be O/C for more performance if needed, choice of brands (which the Asus would be my choice too), lower power usage, etc... The 460 will be at, or near, it's O/C limits.

As far as a stock 460 and O/C yourself, to save some bucks, how about the 6850 and O/C that, if you want to do your own O/C? Choice of brands @ $179.99, less power usage, AIB designs, with slightly better performance than the 460.