Android Enteng: Asus GTX 460 Top 1Gb DirectCu overclocked Edition

Recently, I bought this card as a replacement on my old Powercolor ATI Radeon 4870 512mb DDR5 PCS Cooling Edition.Im just wondering the difference between DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 on todays latest games like Dirt2, Metro 2033 , Lost planet 2 and etc. Also the cooling system on this card really amazed me because it uses HDT technology which directly contact on GPU core for better absorption of heat.

Some introduction and specification of the card: (based from overclock3d.com)

Less than a fortnight ago we tested nVidia's latest midrange performance offering; the GeForce GTX 460. The product in question was of reference design, sporting its default clock frequencies and cooler. However it became clear that a number of Add In Board partners had developed their own versions of the graphics card. We are fully aware that many of you readers are less fond of the trusty but more basic reference designs so today we're going to test something with all of the bells and whistles attached. This is the Asus GeForce GTX 460 1GB graphics card.There are a number of things to pay attention with this particular graphics card. As the Asus GTX 460 is of the 1GB variety, it sports a wider 256bit memory interface and 32 ROPS as opposed to the 768MB's 192bit and 24 ROPS. The differences that I've mentioned apply to any 1GB graphics card, however the Asus GTX 460 boasts from three additional features. First of all, the DirectCu TOP edition boasts a 100MHz increase in Core Frequency, a 200MHz increase in Shader Frequency and a 400MHz increase in Memory Frequency. Moreover, it might be possible to push this particular variant as it allows the user to manipulate its core Voltage. As far as cooling a heavily overclocked graphics card is concerned, Asus were kind enough to implement an all new cooling system.

Manufacturer	nVidia	Asus	nVidia
Model	GeForce GTX 460	GeForce GTX 460 DirectCu	GeForce GTX 465
Stream Processors	336	336	352
Memory	768MB	1024MB	1024MB
Memory Interface	192bit	256bit	256bit
ROPS	24	32	32
Core Frequency	675MHz	775MHz	606MHz
Shader Frequency	1350MHz	1550MHz	1215MHz
Memory Frequency	3600MHz	4000MHz	3206MHz
RRP	£150	£195	£220

The Packaging and accesories (From overclock3d.com)
Asus certainly don't believe in the conservation of trees as the DirectCu arrived in a rather elaborate set of packaging. Aside the use of Asus' recent white and green livery, it is also both wide and deep. I say...what lurks inside..?

Removing the flimsy white/green layer of packaging reveals a thicker black box. It would surely command the package to fall in the hands of a delivery man with the mental capacity of Family Guy's Opie to cause any damage to the equipment that lies inside.

Inside you will find a further three boxes. The box at the top contains a leather wallet to store your favourite CD's, a Driver Disc and Installation manual. To the right you will a narrow box that conceals a Molex to PCI-Express adapter plus DVI → HDMI and DVI → VGA adapters. Finally, below the former box lies the GeForce GTX 460.

For those who have read our review of the reference GTX 460, you will have noticed two things. Different PCB and different Cooler. Despite the graphics card being of the same length as the reference design, the new cooler stretches beyond the PCB by as much as one inch.

Consequently the placement of PCI-Express 6pin connectors have moved to the top of the graphics card rather than the rear.

Now lets take a closer look at the cooler itself. As the name “DirectCu” suggests, Asus' cooler sports heatpipes that make direct contact with the GPU Core. It's clear that no compromises have been made with the design, with the use of thick 8mm heatpipes, a huge area of fins and a larger 92mm fan. We will find out very shortly if it makes the impact that it suggests.

I decided to conduct my own test and here's my rig specification:

- Phenom II X2 555 (unlocked to quad core Phenom II B50 running @ 3.6Ghz)
- MSI 890FXA motherboard updated bios to F1.8
- 4gb DDR3 1600 Gskill Ripjaws
- 1Tb Seagate SATA 3 (6gb/s) hard disk
- Xigamtek Balder Cooling on CPU
- Coolermaster 690I chasis
- Creative Titanium Fatality Champion Ed. soundcard

My actual various benchmark on 3dmark 2006 and Vantage: