Which GTX460 768MB to go for?

[RannKanu]

As one of my old 9600GTs failed recently and I got a full refund back from it, I've decided to upgrade a little. I'm going for a GTX 460 768MB, however there are a huge range on offer and comparisons are a little difficult to come by. My absolute budget limit is £160 (excluding postage). I have a couple of questions about the various cards on offer:

First, which ones come with the longest warranty period? I'm fairly sure ASUS offers a 3 year warranty and a longer warranty is definitely a plus (my failed 9600GT was 2.5 years old). Do any other manufacturers offer a 3 year warranty? 2 years would also be fine but I wouldn't want less than this.

Second, is it worth getting a factory OC'd card, given that I'm probably capable of doing it myself? I guess a factory OC'd card is 'guaranteed' to get better performance, but do non-factory-OC'd cards overclock poorly/not at all?

Third (and probably most relevantly) do the performance characteristics of cards from different manufacturers vary greatly? I.e., if I buy a PNY card is it going to be majorly different from an MSI or even Palit card?


For those about to say 'get a 1GB card', I'm pretty much totally broke and even £160 is pushing it. I'm hoping to be able to find a job pretty soon, at which point I'll probably sell on the 768MB card and upgrade to a 1GB 460 or even something more, but I figure I have to draw the line somewhere and £160 is where I've drawn it.

Thanks!

 

[Timop]

Here: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/768MB-Palit-GTX-460-3600MHz-GDDR5-GPU-675MHz-Shader-Clock-1350MHz-336-Cores-DVI-D-Sub-HDMI

£146.

 

[jyjjy]

Get this;
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-093-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1830
You are correct that factory OCs don't matter. You can easily do so on your own and with much better results. The main difference between the cards from different brands is the cooler and the two best are card above and the Asus DirectCU. The performance difference between the two versions of the card is 5-10% so don't worry about it.

 

[jyjjy]

Here: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/768MB-Palit-GTX-460-3600MHz-GDDR5-GPU-675MHz-Shader-Clock-1350MHz-336-Cores-DVI-D-Sub-HDMI

£146.

The cooler on those Palit cards has gotten quite poor reviews both for noise and effectiveness.

 

[Timop]

The cooler on those Palit cards has gotten quite poor reviews both for noise and effectiveness.

Its the cheapest card and the cooler, however bad may be, is still capable of cooling decently and a moderate OC.

For the OP, who doesn't seem like to be OCing that much, the 15p ound premium for that MSI isn't worth it IMO.

 

[hell_storm2004]

I would say the maximum warranty and the after sales service like RMA and all. Pick the manufacturer which provides the best of these two. Otherwise reference cards hardly have any difference.

Get a GTX470 or better when you get a job. Best of luck for that.

 

[RannKanu]

I noticed a Zotac card on ebay claiming a 5 year warranty. It's new (i.e., not second hand) but very cheap (which makes me a little suspicious). Has anyone had any experience with Zotac or their cards?

 

[jyjjy]

For the OP, who doesn't seem like to be OCing that much, the 15p ound premium for that MSI isn't worth it IMO.

I dunno, he specifically mentions OCing on his own so I don't know where you are getting that from. The card I linked is the best and it is within his stated budget so why not?

 

[Timop]

I dunno, he specifically mentions OCing on his own so I don't know where you are getting that from. The card I linked is the best and it is within his stated budget so why not?

It just seems every buck saved for the OP is important as he is stretching very dollar already for the GTX460.

 

[jyjjy]

I noticed a Zotac card on ebay claiming a 5 year warranty. It's new (i.e., not second hand) but very cheap (which makes me a little suspicious). Has anyone had any experience with Zotac or their cards?

How much is it and how is the person's feedback?
As for the manufacturer I haven't really heard anything bad about them. Their 768mb card has the reference cooler I believe which should be fine.

 

[Timop]

How much is it and how is the person's feedback?
As for the manufacturer I haven't really heard anything bad about them. Their 768mb card has the reference cooler I believe which should be fine.

[strike]Nope, the Zotac is quite a bit louder than the reference cooler, even worse than the Palit ones.
It may look the same, but look closely at the ports, it has a DP, dual DVIs and a full-sized HDMI port.[/strike]
Sorry, Ignore this, I totally missed the 1GB part in the reviews.

How cheap is it? Buying from ebay may result in some messy warranty claims. But if the reseller is reputable and it is a decent chunk less, Id take the risk.

 

[RannKanu]

It's £150 + £4 postage. I'm just contacting the seller about the warranty, since the Zotac '5 year' warranty is broken down into 2 year seller's warranty and their Ts&Cs state only a 1 year seller's warranty.

 

[jyjjy]

Nope, the Zotac is quite a bit louder than the reference cooler, even worse than the Palit ones.

Have you seen a review for it? I was looking and couldn't find any.

 

[Timop]

Have you seen a review for it? I was looking and couldn't find any.

Oh no, nevermind.
I was looking at the 1GB version, darn.

Sorry.

 

[jyjjy]

Yeah, I saw a slew of reviews for the 1gb card but none at all for the 768mb. I do believe that is the reference cooler though like I said in which case it is decent.