The GTX460 has quickly become one of the best-selling graphics cards currently on the market. Thanks to its affordable price and excellent performance, it has become a must for gamers looking for the best “bang for the buck” card. Gigabyte claim that their own GTX460 has become the best seller in the US, Germany and South Korea, key gaming markets. The company realise that this card will spend a lot of time inside computers found in Cyber Cafes or LAN rigs, so they have carefully customised their offering to cope with the intense wear and tear expected from such duties.


I won’t go into too much detail about the specifications because our previous GTX460 review covered most of technical aspects. The sole difference in specifications is the 715MHz core clock speed over the stock 675MHz. Instead, I will focus on the card’s unique features. In that sense, it is very similar to its SOC siblings albeit a cut down version. The board uses the Ultra Durable VGA concept for more efficient operation and stable power delivery through the use of 2oz copper PCB, Ferrite chokes, Low RDS (on) MOSFET, Japanese solid capacitors and tier 1 memory modules. The main difference between the VGA+ cards is the absence of the NEC proadlizers.

The custom cooler on the GTX460 is from the Windforce series and given the 2 fans present, it has been dubbed the Windforce X2. The distinctive fans feature a revolutionary Smart Dust-Reducing design. In its default configuration, both fans operate for maximum cooling performance but when cooling is already adequate, Smart Alternate mode switches on. In this mode, one fan speeds up to cool the GPU and simultaneously pushes any dust towards the other side of the card. Later on, the fan switches off and the second one speeds up to get rid of the dust. This alternating action ensures that dust doesn’t collect over time, a problem that plagues many gamers who tend not to maintain their hardware. The feature would also not be possible without the inclined dual fan design that effectively enhances airflow and heat dissipation by reducing turbulence. In addition, two copper heat pipes aid in heat transfer.

Here’s the cooler in action: