As we’ve said in a previous article, nVidia’s GeForce GTX 460 GPU has really reignited the battle in the $200 US price range for a capable graphics card that can actually play your games. AMD has recently responded with their HD 6xxx series which starts at $179 US and is aimed squarely at nVidia’s $200 price point darling. And then another salvo gets fired by nVidia who promptly responded with a set of price drops that brought the price of the GTX 460 1GB to $199 from $229 US and the GTX 460 768MB from $199 to $169 US. That means that come this holiday season, the choices are going to get harder for the mainstream or budget gamer.
One of the things that make picking a card easier are the differentiating factors. Price and bundle are always the first things that come to mind. But design and cooling solution also factor in because that leads to the overclockability of the card. Some cards come pre-overclocked while some cards are born to overclock.
Today we’re looking at two cards that embody many of these differentiators: The MSI N460GTX Cyclone 768D5 OC Edition and the ZOTAC AMP! Edition 1GB.
In One Corner: ZOTAC GeForce GTX 460 AMP! Edition 1GB
The company with the weird name has been in the nVidia game now for quite some time. As a die hard nVidia supporter, the company refused to jump ship when times were rough and instead carved out some other niches in mini-ITX systems as well. Here’s a quick video unboxing and overview of the card:
When it comes to overclocking, there are different strokes for different folks. Some want a guaranteed overclock so that they can frag on without effort, while others want to earn it with a careful tweak. ZOTAC’s hand picked overclocked GPUs do provide a handsome 810 MHz which is over 135 MHz over stock, but it certainly isn’t the highest on the market.
What the ZOTAC AMP! Edition gives users is a unique looking video card with a custom cooling solution and up to two games to play with right away for a reasonable $229 US after rebates. Factor in the cost of two new games and add a lifetime warranty on top, and that $30 premium over regular MSRP doesn’t seem like a bad deal at all.
In The Other Corner: MSI N460GTX Cyclone 768D5 OC Edition
This MSI card launched with the GTX 460 not so many moons ago. In fact, this is the same card featured in our launch article. While not much has changed, the price sure has with recent price drops and it still has one of the quietest and best performing cooling solutions available. Here’s a quick video overview of the card including an unboxing of what you get inside:
The main feature that differentiates this card from the ZOTAC, besides memory is not the milder overclock, nor is it the memory. But it’s the fact that the card offers a voltage adjustment that allows you to potentially get much higher and more stable overclocks far exceeding any hand picked GPU on the market. This is accomplished with MSI’s excellent “Afterburner” overclocking utility that combines not only the basic tweaks, but also software that validates your overclock through an intense burn in routine.
The MSI GTX 460 Cyclone 768D5 OC Edition can now be found for as low as $169 US with a free game for a limited time. While the bundle is pretty bare bones, folks looking for no games, but all the performance can get it with this card.
What We Plan To Do Here…
Both of these video cards have their special powers in different areas. The MSI N460GTX Cyclone 768D5 OC has a mild overclock, but with its MSI Afterburner software and unlocked voltage adjustments, this card has the potential to take on bigger prey at an affordable price. The ZOTAC AMP! Edition GTX 460 1GB has the higher end GPU with more memory and bandwidth, but it also offers the value of a bundled game, a much higher factory overclock of 810MHz plus a lifetime warranty versus the 3-years on the MSI.
The plan is to have the MSI N460GTX give the ZOTAC AMP! Edition a run for its money in overclocking. We’ll then turn around and see if even with all the extras, whether or not the ZOTAC AMP! Edition is still definitely worth the extra money. At the end of the day a gamer looking for a video card at around $200 is all about value and we plan to find out which one provides the most. We’ll also be incorporating benchmarks from the newly minted AMD HD 6850 1GB to give a better picture of overall value and yes we have double and triple checked our AMD sample to make sure we’ve got the one with 960 shaders and not 1120 to make it a fair and accurate fight.
A Closer Look at the Competitors
This handy dandy chart has been provided to show off all the cards featured in the benchmarks. We’ve made sure to list them in pricing order because we believe it’s important that cost be factored into your decision. It’s like looking at the test results of fast cars and not considering what it costs to get those top speeds and the quick 0-60 times. Obviously you can’t buy a super car with a Honda budget.
Overall, it’s a pretty tight pack with the ZOTAC AMP! Edition GTX 460 at the top at $229 US (after rebates) and the reference nVidia GTS 450 at the bottom at $129 US. But the battle really starts with the MSI N460GTX at $169 US (after rebates). Of course, we’ll be making reference to the AMD HD 6850 along the way as it is the new hotness.
The nVidia GeForce Line Up As of Today
As of today, the nVidia line up of GPUs around $200 looks like this…
This chart represents all recent price adjustments in the current GeForce line up. Despite it seeming like nVidia has phased out the GTX 465, it is still being stocked at most retailers. The news though has been on the GTX 470 getting a new price of $259 US to compete against the HD 6850’s bigger brother, the HD 6870.
Test System Setup
For the purposes of our testing, we put together a system that hopefully reflects that needs and budget of a mainstream gamer…
- CPU(s): AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition CPU
- Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-890FXA-UD7 (F2 BIOS)
- Memory: Kingston HyperX DDR3 1333 MHz 8GB Quad Channel Memory Kit
- Video Card 1: nVidia GeForce GTS 450 1GB Reference (Overclock = 920MHz Core)
- Video Card 2: GIGABYTE GV-R5770SO-1GD Super Overclock (HD 5770)
- Video Card 3: GIGABYTE GV-R583UD-1GD (HD 5830)
- Video Card 4: MSI N460GTX Cyclone 768D5 OC Edition (Overclock = 895 MHz)
- Video Card 5: AMD HD 6850 1GB Reference (HD 6850) (Overclock = 850MHz core)
- Video Card 6: ZOTAC AMP! Edition GTX 460 1GB
- Hard Drive: Seagate 250GB 7200.10 SATA2 Hard Drive
- CPU Cooler: AMD Reference Heatpipe
- Power Supply: Ultra Products X4 750 Watt Modular ATX Power Supply
- Optical Drive: LG SATA DVD Writer
- Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit
- Other: 2 x Silverstone AP121 Air Penetrator 120mm Case Fans
With the exception of a grossly excessive amount of DDR3 memory, we think that the system does a pretty good job of representing a reasonable all around gaming system. We already know that excessive amounts of memory do nothing for gaming so that won’t be a factor in getting the big picture from the results. All of our components were installed in an open test bench.
Testing Notes
All of our tests were conducted using the latest available drivers and BIOS revisions unless otherwise noted. As of the date of this article, we are running AMD Catalyst 10.9 drivers for the HD 5770 and HD 5830 with the exception of the HD 6850 which gets run on AMD Catalyst 10.1 drivers. The nVidia GTS 450 and the GTX 460’s gets run with the latest GeForce driver release as of this writing which 260.89. Since we are using a non reference GTX 460 board from MSI, this board was underclocked to mimic the results from a reference 768MB GTX 460 and the same was done to the ZOTAC AMP! Edition for the 1GB GTX 460 reference results.
For GPU temperature testing we will be using FurMark 18.2 to push each GPUs to their limit and reveal max temperatures and noise levels. Idle temperature will be taken 30 minutes after booting into the system from the off position with each video card while load temperature will be taken after each card endures 30 minutes of torture. Ambient temperature within the room is maintained at 25C for all temperature readings. GPU temperatures for overclocked tests were omitted because fan speed was maxed and in the case of the MSI N460GTX, voltage was increased.
Noise levels will be measured at both load and idle using a noise level meter pointed directly at the middle of the video card and placed 6 inches away. We are looking for the relative noise level between each video card in terms of higher or lower noise between the three video cards. Overclocked results were omitted because we maxed fan speeds on those tests.
Power draw will also be measured as whole system consumption at both idle and load conditions using a power meter plugged into the PSU then into the wall outlet. Idle load will be measured at 30 minutes after booting in from the off position. Load measurements will be taken before the conclusion of our FurMark stress test when the GPU is producing the highest level of heat.
Unless otherwise stated, benchmarks will be performed using default settings and we use a standard resolution of 1920×1080. Please see each test for specific modifications. Let’s get cracking!
Overclocking
Since you buy your overclock when you buy the ZOTAC AMP! Edition, it makes no sense to mess with a perfectly stable and reasonable overclock backed by a lifetime warranty. However, the MSI N460GTX in comparison is cheap as chips. We got the card to a monster 895MHz core clock with the voltage cranked and the fan cranked for good measure, though after experimenting a little more, it really didn’t need to be at 100%. This card was completely stable through our entire suite of benchmarks beginning to end.
While we’re sure that the ZOTAC could go a little further, it’s kind of silly to spend extra money for an overclock when you aren’t going to leave well enough alone. In that case, I’d recommend the non-AMP! edition which is priced a little less. But for today, we’ll test the store bought overclock of 810 MHz as is.
Synthetic Benchmarks
There’s a place for synthetic benchmarks in all testing. They give us a rough idea of how things will play out as we progress through out testing with other real world benchmarks. If something is out of whack, we can quickly check back to our synthetic benchmarks to see if we need to test again. We start off our testing with a few of the greatest hits…
3DMark06
At stock clocks, the MSI is no match for the ZOTAC. But once you overclock it, the MSI is now within 50 marks from the much more expensive ZOTAC. It also takes a chunk out of the stock clocked HD 6850, but the overclocked HD 6850 wins the day in this DX9 benchmark.
3DMark Vantage
Moving along to our DX10 synthetic benchmark of choice, we see that the overclocked MSI N460GTX is that much closer to the ZOTAC AMP! Edition. Both GTX 460’s trump the HD 6850 both stock and overclocked so we expect some interesting things during our DX10 benchmarks.
Cinebench 11.5
Cinebench 11.5 definitely pushes the brute force rendering aspects of a GPU using OpenGL. And with that in mind, we see that the HD 6850 powers away at stock clocks, and further away overclocked. Back to the GTX 460s for a sec and you will see that the MSI and ZOTAC are within a frame of eachother. Clearly the card you want for rendering is not a GTX 460.
Heaven Demo 2.1
Heaven is a really great benchmark because you can literally watch it run all day long. It really is a beautiful benchmark and gives you a good idea of performance in titles that favour tessellation. The GTX 460s do very well both regular and overclocked against the HD 6850 but things get weird when we hit OpenGL. The HD 6850’s commanding lead in Cinebench’s OpenGL results gets clawed back in this benchmark. Also strange is the DX9 performance of the ZOTAC’s performance in DX9 over a stock clocked 1GB reference GTX 460. We’ll definitely have to head to the other benchmarks to really clear this up.
Now that the preliminary synthetics are out of the way, let’s see how this translates to the benchmarks based on real games and apps.
Game Engine Benchmarks
Game engine benchmarks are extremely important to the evaluation of the performance of a video card. It provides a consistent measuring stick and lets us know which cards work well for which games. This allows us to select the right tool for the right job. Obviously we’ll pick the card that performs best for the games or genres of games that we play the most. We’ll be concentrating on playable frame rates on each of the tests and we’ve used games that have built in benchmarks so that you can play along at home to make sure that you are getting the right card for you.
Batman Arkham Asylum: Game of the Year Edition (DX9)
Our first DX9 test is loaded with goodness and utilizes PhysX for those extra realistic effects. Personally, I wouldn’t play this game without PhysX so I didn’t bother testing without it. But we will look at a game later with and without it.
Despite it being a DirectX9 title, it’s still a lot of fun and it’s pretty clear that you need an nVidia GPU to play it right. Every AMD card gets destroyed here with completely non-playable frame rates, even the new HD 6850. The game also clearly favours the extra memory bandwidth provided by the ZOTAC AMP! Edition over the high core clocks of the overclocked MSI GN460GTX.
Street Fighter IV (DX9)
Street Fighter IV is a classic and you’ll see it played at LAN parties on the PC and on the console. The game clearly plays well on all modern hardware all the way down to the GTS 450. All three of the top cards are in reality very close to one another, but it would appear that the extra memory bandwidth offered by both the HD 6850 and ZOTAC AMP! Edition help out for a few more frames at the top end.
Final Fantasy XIV (DX9)
Final Fantasy XIV launched just last month and as an nVidia sponsored title you would expect it to be top dog. However, the benchmarks call the HD 6850 out as the top dog. Between the two GTX 460s we have slugging it out, the game seems to prefer clock speed over memory bandwidth and so the MSI N460GTX both stock and overclock wins the day between the two cousins. This is good news for those looking just to upgrade for this title as it seems that the best performance can be gotten with less expensive cards, when overclocked.
Mafia II (DX9)
This game is another title that takes advantage of nVidia PhysX. While I probably wouldn’t play this game without PhysX on, for the sake of fairness, I turned it off for a few benchmarks just to see what that performance hit really is.
There really aren’t any surprises here as without PhysX in hardware, the AMD cards take a huge performance hit. But even without PhysX, the AMD cards still take a bit of a performance hit compared to their nVidia counterparts, but by far less and all the cards finally put down playable frame rates above 60 FPS. Between the two GTX 460s, we see that memory bandwidth does prevail over high clock speeds.
We continue our look at game engines by shifting gears into DirectX10 titles which include Crysis, FarCry2, Resident Evil 5, H.A.W.X., and World in Conflict.
Crysis (DX10)
Crysis continues to be the measuring stick for beating the crap out of any video card. Using ultra high settings, only one card managed to break 30 FPS and it wasn’t either of the GTX 460s, but the HD 6850. However, between the two siblings, Crysis does seem to favour the memory bandwidth provided by the ZOTAC AMP! Edition over the high clocks of the overclocked MSI N460GTX. This benchmark does show that under the HD 6xxx architecture, there is something sinister lurking. Hopefully drivers and game optimizations really bring out this power because this is a huge win for Sub $200 video cards.
Far Cry 2 (DX10)
Where there is Crysis, Far Cry 2 isn’t too far behind. Here, we see great playable frame rates across the board which is great to see from all product in the gamer’s sweet spot of $200 and under. The HD 6850 is bested by both GTX 460s but between the two GTX 460s are the same until Anti-Aliasing (AA) is enabled. Then the extra memory bandwidth on the ZOTAC AMP! is utilized for a few more FPS.
Resident Evil 5 (DX10)
HD 6850 takes this one with both AA on and off. But between the two GTX 460s, the memory bandwidth provided by the 256 bit bus of the ZOTAC AMP! edition vs the 192 bit bus of the MSI N460GTX definitely helps it a long for a couple more frames.
H.A.W.X. (DX10)
With H.A.W.X. 2 already out, 2011 will mean a lot of changes to our roster of test games. But for now, this title represents potential performance for flight sim fans. All of the top performers are fairly close but turn on AA and the higher bandwidth of the ZOTAC AMP! kicks in for a slim win. HD 6850 is right there with the MSI N460GTX.
World in Conflict (DX10)
A lot of you may have been wondering why we don’t switch up to Starcraft II for RTS duties. Well, the simple answer is that it really is too easy of a benchmark and doesn’t really stress today’s hardware that much. The game will play on an 8800 ULTRA with all the details cranked with full AA. So that’s why we’re sticking with World in Conflict because it’s still good at a beat down. Both GTX 460s seem reasonably matched within FPS of one another. The HD 6850 hangs in there just fine.
Next we take on some tough DirectX11 benchmarks such as STALKER, Alien vs Predator, Battleforge and Metro 2033.
STALKER – Call of Pipryat (DX11)
We cranked things up to Ultra High and let STALKER do its thing. At the end of the runs we are looking at the increased memory bandwidth of the ZOTAC AMP! Edition winning the day, but not far behind at all is the MSI N460GTX. The overclock only puts it a few FPS behind. The HD 6850 gets beat up in the Sunshafts section of the benchmark quite heavily.
Alien Vs. Predator (DX11)
Alien Vs. Predator is an older DX11 title, but its built in benchmarking tool still makes it valuable for assessing performance between video cards. Here we see the HD 6850 defend its price point well against a cheaper and more expensive adversary. However, the additional memory bandwidth of the ZOTAC AMP! Edition clearly wins the day in this benchmark.
Battleforge (DX11)
Battleforge is one of the RTS titles we rely on because it’s not only totally brutal, but it’s one of few RTS games that comes with its own benchmarking utility. Using that benchmark, we can see that this AMD sponsored title clearly favours the HD 6850 when you turn off the AA. Turn it on though, and the nVidia cards take over. We also notice that the very overclocked MSI N460GTX at 895MHz core really takes it to the ZOTAC AMP! Edition in both AA on and off tests.
Metro 2033 (DX11)
Metro 2033 is a totally brutal title that destroys weak video cards. Every card except the ZOTAC AMP! Edition failed to hit 30 FPS. This is a huge win for the extra memory bandwidth of the ZOTAC’s 1GB powered GTX 460. It makes me wonder if the 2GB version that ZOTAC has waiting in the wings makes a difference in this title. If I was to replace Crysis tomorrow, I’d replace it with this benchmark in a heart beat.
This concludes our game engine benchmarks. As you can see from many of the results, the bargain basement priced MSI N460GTX Cyclone 768D5 OC Edition really does well when taken to the limit. It nearly matches the overclocked and more expensive ZOTAC AMP! Edition GTX 460 1GB in more than a few instances, and really puts the hurt on the HD 6850 whether overclocked or not, especially when it comes to PhysX titles. The best part was how easy it was to overclock and make stable thanks to the voltage adjustment.
Extra Credit: Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 Mercury Playback Engine Benchmark
We introduced this benchmark in our original nVidia GTS 450 launch review. While Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 does offer official and growing support for nVidia cards, it currently offers no support for AMD, which is really disappointing. However, the Adobe doesn’t currently support anything below the GTX 470 so what many people have done is taken less expensive GPUs that meet the requirements of having 1GB or more of memory and hacking a configuration file to make it work. Does a higher end GPU help out though? Let the results speak for itself.
Clearly, the ZOTAC AMP! Edition is the one to go for based on the number one reason why you buy a factory overclocked card: reliable and guaranteed overclock. Since Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 is a monster non-linear editing suite for video production, it really puts the hurt on your hardware different than a game. The overclocked ZOTAC AMP! Edition clearly takes time off our render using our test file. Since the time is expressed in minutes/seconds, imagine how many hours you would save over the course of the year if you were doing a lot of projects and how crappy it would be if you overclocked your card only to have it crash in the middle of getting important projects done.
Power Consumption
For the reasons we mentioned earlier in the review in the test notes, the consumption numbers for the overclocked to the limit MSI GTX N460GTX and the HD 6850 cards were omitted. Looking at the consumption numbers for the ZOTAC AMP! Edition GTX 460, the factory overclocked card does consume a good amount more energy than a stock card. I’m actually surprised that ZOTAC doesn’t recommend more than a 450W PSU in their system requirements. Even the MSI N460GTX lists a minimum of 550Watts. Of course, with an overlock of 895MHz on the MSI vs the 810MHz of the ZOTAC, plus the MSI is running more voltage, I’d estimate just under 400 watts consumption already.
What was really surprising is how much lower the power consumption is of the new HD 6850. At over 50 watts less consumption, it really provides a staggering amount of “performance per watt”. What’s great about that is that budget conscious gamers that don’t want to spring for a new power supply can consider the HD 6850 and still get a lot of performance. It’ll also cost less because you won’t have to replace a power supply.
Noise Levels
Again, due to the reasons cited in test notes, only the noise levels at stock speeds were recorded for the cards tested. Keep in mind that our “Stock” GTX 460s are actually just the ZOTAC and MSI underclocked. Even so, the excellent cooling solution on the MSI is much quieter than the ZOTAC’s cooling solution at load. But at idle, it was pretty much a wash between the two cards. One thing I can volunteer though, and I only found this out after the fact, is that the MSI’s cooling solution was no louder than stock even when overclocked. The cyclone cooler is definitely the better solution of the the two as far as noise go. But what about temperatures?
GPU Temperatures
The two cooling solutions definitely differ in performance. The MSI’s cyclone cooler was over 7C lower at idle and no hotter or cooler at load when we’re talking GPUs at the stock reference speeds. As I mentioned in the noise level section, I observed later that the MSI cyclone cooler didn’t emit any noise at its highest overclock and where it translated to on the graph was a temperature that was no different than its stock slight overclock. That means the MSI Cyclone cooler is way more efficient and much quieter all around.
So if you do overclock the snot out of this card, there are no worries that it will get too hot.
2D and 3D Image Quality
Wrapping up our miscellaneous sections of evaluations, we have to mention the things that people do at their computers pretty much 80% of the time. Unless you have a completely dedicated gaming rig, you’re probably using your computer for a bunch of other things besides gaming and I’m willing to bet that it’s probably either doing work, surfing the web or many other things that won’t stress the 3D prowess of your chosen GPU.
In the case of the GTX 460s, both the MSI and the ZOTAC exhibited the same level of image quality across the board. Neither was better than the other and that’s a good thing because that means that both cards are equally well built when run into the same Samsung LCD monitor with a 1920×1080 resolution. I also tested the HDMI port and again, I didn’t notice any difference in quality from a single monitor. However, once hooked up to my two regular 24 inch monitors that output at 1920×1200 you’ll notice that it just starts to go a bit fuzzy. Not a lot. Just enough to notice when you’re looking at things that should be completely black and sharp like text.
When gaming, you tend to notice these things less frequently which is an area that the GTX 460s clearly do well. But the elephant in the room is the HD 6850 and I can tell you right now that as far as sharp image, whether running one or two monitors, is crystal clear on the AMD card. In fact, every AMD (or ATI back then) video card has always been sharper than the nVidia counterpart. I notice this because I switch frequently with a KVM switch to the same monitor and always know which one it is. Just something to be aware of if more of your time is spent working in the 2D realm where you spend most of your time or if you plan on running more than one monitor most of the time; something that AMD does very well with their Eyefinity technology.
Final Thoughts on the MSI N460GTX Cyclone 768D5 OC Edition
MSI’s Afterburner software coupled with their unlocked voltage firmware for the GTX 460 GPU has created a little monster in their N460GTX Cyclone 768D5 OC Edition card. Not only does the cooling solution provide for a quiet gaming experience, but the cooler also gives the card the ability to overclock to a completely stable 895 MHz which was not only validated by the included stability testing utility, but also the fact that it made it through our entire testing suite without a hiccup. If you are into getting your performance by yourself, then this card is a steal. Did I mention that it compares favourably against AMD’s latest and greatest HD 6850 while being a few bucks less?
While the bundle is pretty non-existent with this video card and the warranty is only 3 years compared to the lifetime warranty provided by the ZOTAC, I still think this is one heckuva card for the price. In all reality if you’re really into gaming you’d change your video card after 2 years anyway. While having a game in the box is a nice gesture, most mainstream gamers already have a collection of games that they choose to play. Fun can be had by simply being able to turn up all the eye candy in your favourite game without worrying about playable frame rates.
Most importantly at only $169 US, it’s perfect for gamers on the budget that are willing to work a little for their frame rates. Even then, it’s really easy with the included MSI Afterburner software and the excellent cooling solution. Definitely an Editors’ Choice in my books.
Overall Rating: 9.0 / 10.0
Final Thoughts on the ZOTAC AMP! Edition GTX 460 1GB
While the MSI N460GTX Cyclone 768D5 OC Edition receives our top award the ZOTAC AMP! Edition GTX 460 is definitely one to contend with when it comes to a great user experience. Who can say no to free games and a great performance out of the box without working for it?
I know that many enthusiasts scoff at buying pre-overclocked anything. The reality is that overclocking enthusiasts make up a small portion of the market. Most people don’t want to overclock. They just want to buy a card that provides excellent performance out of the box with some fun games in the box to get you started on your road to becoming a hardcore gaming and computer enthusiasts. It doesn’t matter if you can run a utility and easily overclock it. For that market, this card satisfies all the criteria and it’s no surprise why we find ZOTAC video cards at many big box retailers.
While it too tops the gaming performance of the new AMD HD 6850, it doesn’t completely run away from the overclocked and much cheaper GTX 460 from MSI. But where it does shine is in one area where an overclock needs to be stable and guaranteed and that’s using Adobe’s Mercury Playback Engine under Premiere Pro CS5.
When you factor in what you get with the ZOTAC which is the game, the guaranteed overclock and the lifetime warranty, the price premium of $229 US after rebates over a standard $199 US 1GB GTX 460 really isn’t that bad at all. It’s also a unique looking card that’ll look great in a windowed case. I have a hard time not recommending this card for many of the reasons above.
Overall Rating: 8.5 / 10.0
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MSI N460GTX Cyclone 768D5 OC Edition and ZOTAC AMP! Edition 1GB GeForce GTX 460 – Photo Gallery
