Overclocking

EVGA GTX 460 FTW is a factory overclocked graphics card running at 850MHz for the GPU and 1000MHz (4000MHz effectively) for the memory.



Our attempt at additional overclocking without messing with voltages and manual RPM control resulted in 860MHz for the GPU, whereas maximum fan RPM allowed for 870MHz.

After increasing the voltage from 1000mV to 1087mV (fan at AUTO settings) we managed to hit 900MHz, which was good enough for gaming but not FurMark. For the latter test, we had to push the fan to the max.  

The highest memory clock we managed was 1040MHz, which is 40MHz (160MHz effectively) higher than the factory overclock. We’re talking about Samsung’s K4G10325FE-HC05 GDDR5 – the same one we managed to push up to 1090MHz in our EVGA GTS 450 FPB review.



Overclocking to 900MHz/4160MHz further improved the results by 4% in Metro 2033 and almost 5% in AvP, as you can see from the following table.



Thermals, Noise

EVGA GTX 460 FTW features the same reference dual slot cooler we find on GTX 460 cards with the exception of a small passive VRM heatsink. The fan’s AUTO operation is pretty balanced so the card will be inaudible in 2D and will not be loud during gaming. FurMark is of course another story and while the card could be heard, we can’t say it was too loud. Naturally, if you push the fan to the max, you’ll probably find it too loud.   



Minimum idle temperature was at 28°C. Our factory-clocked EVGA GTX 460 FTW hit 76°C in FurMark whereas playing Aliens vs. Predator resulted in 74°C.



After our overclocking to 900MHz (fan at maximum RPM) we measured 74°C in FurMark. We tried leaving the fan at AUTO RPM mode but the card refused to run stable and the temperatures we measured were at 84°C.




Consumption