[ekg84]

It've been more than two months since nvidia released GeForce GTX 460 videcards and competition between ati and nvidia got noticably hotter, and guess what its great for us - consumers. Personally at the moment of gtx 460 release i was using Sapphire ati 5850 Toxic on my primary pc, but i was very curious how close gtx 460 can get to 5850 and to its bigger brother GTX 470, so i decided to test them all and to make this mini review to possibly help those who can not decide between these great cards.
So here they are: EVGA GTX 460 (768 mb) vs PNY GTX 470 vs Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 Toxic:

Sapphire 5850 Toxic comes factory overclocked @ 765/1125mhz instead of reference 725/1000mhz. Both Evga GTX 460 and PNY GTX 470 are reference design, running at 720/1440/1800 and 607/1214/1675mhz respectively. Ive decided go for 768Mb version of gtx 460 over 1Gb version because of its price - its $169 after nvidia surprised everyone with the price drop, and cause its potentially a great overclocker.
My test system is in my signature, its an overclocked to 4.0Ghz i3 540 and 4 gb of Wintec Ampx 1333 ddr3, which is more than enough to avoid any bottlenecks for the videocards.
I am using Catalyst 10.9 for the Radeon and Nvidia 258.96 drivers. OS is Windows 7 x64 Home Basic. All benchmarks performed at 1900x1200 resolution. Cards were tested stock and overclocked. I ran these titles:

Battlefield Bad company 2
Crysis
Far cry 2
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
Lost planet 2 Benchmark
Metro 2033
Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2

Overclocking details:
5850 toxic - 805/1285
GTX 460 - 810/1620/2140
GTX 470 - 745/1490/1745

So lets start with BFBC2
Settings: everything maxed, Vsync-off, hbao-on, 4xAA, 4xAF

Crysis:
Settings: everything High, noAA, no vsync

Far Cry 2:
Settings: everything maxed, 4xAA, 4xAF, no vsync.

Heaven Benchmark:

5850 stock:

5850 OC:

GTX 460 stock:

GTX 460 OC:

GTX 470 Stock:

GTX 470 OC:

Stay tuned the rest is coming up...

 

[ZealotKi11er]

HD 5850 rapes the GTX470 and still keeps up with that poor overclock on the core.

 

[ekg84]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZealotKi11er HD 5850 rapes the GTX470 and still keeps up with that poor overclock on the core.

I was a bit surprised how good it performes comparing to gtx 470 myself, and yes u r right this particular 5850 isnt the best overclocker, everything above 805Mhz on the core would give me errors. I have tested stability with OCCT for 1Hr.

 

[ekg84]

Lost Planet 2 Benchmark
Settings: No AA, No Vsync, DX11 features-MIDDLE, Motion blur ON, the rest on HIGH
5850 stock:

5850 OC:

GTX 460 stock:

GTX 460 OC:

GTX 470 stock:

GTX 470 OC:

 

[sLowEnd]

Your 5850 has an unusually low overclock. Bad luck I guess.

Thanks for the review

 

[ekg84]

COD MW2
everything maxed:

Metro 2033
overall quality - HIGH, no AA, 4x AF, tesselation ON, depth of field ON

 

[ZealotKi11er]

I though in Metro the GTX470 would be better but it looks like its not.

 

[ekg84]

System power consumption
GPU stressed, CPU idle

GPU temperatures

I have to say that during the stress testing all fan speeds were set on auto. Both 5850 Toxic and gtx 460 were very quiet, practically inaudible, And GTX 470 had a noise of my friends impreza's turbo engine

I want to mention though that during the real gameplay (MW2) it wasnt hot (below 85C) nor loud, maybe a bit louder than the other cards though.

 

[sLowEnd]

Can you use GPU-Z to check your cards' VDDC? (Voltage)

 

[Durdle Class A]

I am very confuzzled at how 5850 bested 470.

And has lower power consumptions and temps..

 

[ekg84]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZealotKi11er I though in Metro the GTX470 would be better but it looks like its not.

Indeed, this was the game where i expected gtx 470 to destroy 5850, and surprisingly it didnt happen.

 

[supra_rz]

I like the review , thanks +1 , Makes me sad for not buying a 5850 and makes me happy i didn't go green

 

[ZealotKi11er]

Can you post some temperature comparison at same fans speed ~ 70% and load them up with something or a game. Also which one is the loudest? I know GTX470 up to 70% is not bad at all but after that its a screaming monster.

 

[jcde7ago]

This review gives a great indication of how these cards run - only if, as a buyer, you do not plan to overclock, PERIOD. At all. Yes, you're doing right by basing this review on stock settings for an even footing - but honestly, the difference in stock clock speeds is very significant.

Once you up the clocks on the 470 to the 800-820/1600-1640/1900mem range, it will pull away from the other two very, very quickly. You also have to understand that the GTX 400 series sees a significantly larger gain on an overclock than the 5000 series, clock-per-clock.

a 607 Mhz 470 vs an 800 Mz 470 is a VERY big difference. This is why you see many, MANY reviews where the 470 beats the 5850 and goes on par/better than a 5870, even when overclocked.

See this.

 

[ekg84]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sLowEnd Can you use GPU-Z to check your cards' VDDC? (Voltage)

sure:
5850

Attachment 174086

Attachment 174087

 

[ekg84]

gtx 470:

Attachment 174089

Attachment 174090

gtx 460:

Attachment 174091

Attachment 174092

 

[ZealotKi11er]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jcde7ago This review gives a great indication of how these cards run - only if, as a buyer, you do not plan to overclock, PERIOD. At all. Yes, you're doing right by basing this review on stock settings for an even footing - but honestly, the difference in stock clock speeds is very significant. Once you up the clocks on the 470 to the 800-820/1600-1640/1900mem range, it will pull away from the other two very, very quickly. You also have to understand that the GTX 400 series sees a significantly larger gain on an overclock than the 5000 series, clock-per-clock. a 607 Mhz 470 vs an 800 Mz 470 is a VERY big difference. This is why you see many, MANY reviews where the 470 beats the 5850 and goes on par/better than a 5870, even when overclocked. See this.

You understand that he has the GTX470 @ 750Mhz and HD 5850 @800Mhz which is horrible. Getting 800Mhz in GTX470 is like getting 1Ghz in HD 5850.
Just do a comparison. 800/725 = 10% OC on HD 5850 and thats 750/607 = 24% OC on GTX470. My HD 5850 @ 950Mhz core was faster in most games then the GTX470 i have now.

 

[mdatmo]

Were the 470 and 460 overclocked at stock voltage? The toxic doesn't have voltage control, right? If you left the 470 and 460 at stock voltage, then I can see the OC comparison as fair, but if you didn't I think you would need to compare to a 5850 with volatge control.

 

[ekg84]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mdatmo Were the 470 and 460 overclocked at stock voltage? The toxic doesn't have voltage control, right? If you left the 470 and 460 at stock voltage, then I can see the OC comparison as fair, but if you didn't I think you would need to compare to a 5850 with volatge control.

You are absolutely right, i didnt want to mess with a voltages because toxic doesnt support voltage control and also because even at stock voltage overclocked GTX 470 was getting hot and loud, so thought it would be wise to keep voltages stock.

 

[ekg84]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZealotKi11er Can you post some temperature comparison at same fans speed ~ 70% and load them up with something or a game. Also which one is the loudest? I know GTX470 up to 70% is not bad at all but after that its a screaming monster.

Here we go, overclocked GPU temperatures at 70% fan speed, running furmark:

Attachment 174106

Attachment 174107

Attachment 174108

and i have to say that i turned furmark off as soon as gtx 470 hit 100C, cause temperature was still goin up. Unfortunately i dont have tools to measure noise but at 70% fan speed all cards were pretty quiet, id say gtx 460 was the most quiet.