Which Brand should I go far?

[guy93]

Asus GTX 460 - http://ncix.com/products/?sku=55031&...nufacture=ASUS

MSI GTX 460 Cyclone - http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...=MSI/MicroStar

MSI GTX 460 HAWK - http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...=MSI/MicroStar

What is the best choices out of all these cards? I am not familiar with PC and component cooling so I need some help here. Also, the MSI offers 1-2 free games as well.

 

[happy medium]

they are all good, pick the one with the free games if you don't have them,otherwise pick the cheapest one.

 

[guy93]

they are all good, pick the one with the free games if you don't have them,otherwise pick the cheapest one.

Good point, also what is your opinion on the Cyclone vs HAWK? Perfomance and cooling.

 

[happy medium]

Good point, also what is your opinion on the Cyclone vs HAWK? Perfomance and cooling.

Looking at the reviews the Hawk is made to overclock and runs cool and quiet.

The Cyclone also runs cool and quiet and will overclock well also.

The Hawk is to the Cyclone as a Corvette is to a Mustang.

I would buy the cyclone and overclock it myself, but I'm broke.

 

[Idontcare]

I have the 1GB cyclone, some folks get 900MHz OC on it, I can't. Anything over 825MHz or so and she won't pass OCCT regardless the volts.

That said, if I had the purchase opportunity to do over again I'd go for the Hawk, dual-fan and larger fin area is only going to make for a quieter card at any given clockspeed.

And if you OC then you certainly have more headroom with dual-fan on Hawk than the cyclone.

Not that the cyclone is a bad card for the price, I am quite happy with mine for my uses (CUDA stuff).

 

[TechAZ]

I had bought a Palit last weekend and returned it. I now have a MSI GTX460 Cyclone and it is great. Real quiet, real cool.

After playing BC2 for an hour at max settings for an hour the temps got to 46c, and I couldn't hear the fan over the case fans.

So far, I'm very happy with the cyclone.

 

[happy medium]

I have the 1GB cyclone, some folks get 900MHz OC on it, I can't. Anything over 825MHz or so and she won't pass OCCT regardless the volts.

That said, if I had the purchase opportunity to do over again I'd go for the Hawk, dual-fan and larger fin area is only going to make for a quieter card at any given clockspeed.

And if you OC then you certainly have more headroom with dual-fan on Hawk than the cyclone.

Not that the cyclone is a bad card for the price, I am quite happy with mine for my uses (CUDA stuff).

But in all fairness , your Cyclone was 50$ cheaper. (at the time)

 

[Idontcare]

But in all fairness , your Cyclone was 50$ cheaper. (at the time)

Oh yeah, even if it wasn't $50 cheaper in all fairness OC'ing is always a YMMV type situation.

I just ended up with a bit less mileage than what most people seem to report for the cyclone.

Regardless I got a near 14% OC out of it without any noticeable increase in noise or heat for my computer room so I figure I still made good.

But if I was going to spend the money again I'd pony up a few tens more dollars and get the GTX460 that had the extra cooling for no other reason than to have the extra OC headroom.

It was hella fun to play around with OC'ing through afterburner. Would love to have had an excuse to do even more with it. Software-based OC'ing FTW :thumbsup:

 

[extra]

Imho i'd prefer to support MSI over Asus, since MSI has done a lot to support the enthusiast community (afterburner, etc). Nothing wrong with asus though.

The hawk is a good card, but pushing into gtx470 pricing territory.

 

[superccs]

I have a cyclone, and think its great. Paid $210 for it. OCable as much as you have heard. Quiet as well. I think its a win win win situation. The new AMD cards are coming out though... so things could change for the better soon.

 

[Rifter]

Another vote for the cyclone. Mine hits 900Mhz with 1.05v

This seems on the upper end of the reported overclocks but proves that the card and cooler have what it takes to get that high, so why spend more than you need to.

 

[extra]

I have a cyclone, and think its great. Paid $210 for it. OCable as much as you have heard. Quiet as well. I think its a win win win situation. The new AMD cards are coming out though... so things could change for the better soon.

Yeah, may be worth waiting since they are supposedly only a few weeks away. But at some point you gotta just suck it up and buy, because there will always be something better before too long .