Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 1GB Graphics Card Review

Palit GTX 460 1GB Sonic Platinum

Manufacturer: Palit
UK Price (as reviewed): Unknown
US Price (as reviewed): Unknown
Suggested retailers (alphabetical order): Scan

Unfortunately Palit was extremely cagey about the MSRP of the imperiously named Palit GTX 460 1GB Sonic Platinum, so we’re not actually sure how much it is likely to be retailing for, despite us asking on numerous occasions. However, we do know that the card uses a custom cooler and PCB, as well being pre-overclocked.

Of these three individual touches, it was the custom PCB that first caught our eye, as the card is a good 15-17mm shorter than a typical GTX 460 1GB. This doesn’t sound like much, but it’s noticeable when two of the cards are placed next to each other. The shorter PCB actually makes the Palit feel pretty dinky, almost cute. We were a little worried it may get bullied by the bigger cards.

This isn’t likely to happen though, as despite its diminutive size, the Palit actually packs a extremely aggressive overclock. The core clock of the GPU has been raised to 800MHz (up from 675MHz) while the stream processors are happy running at a speed of 1,600MHz (up from 1,350MHz).

Unlike the Gigabyte card, the memory speeds have also seen a boost and the GDDR5 memory runs at a healthy 1GHz (4GHz effective) which represents a solid 100MHz (400MHz effective) bump. These overclocks should certainly help the Sonic Platinum compete with the HD 5850, though we’re intrigued to see if Palit will be able to keep the card under the £230 of the HD 5850.

The custom cooler is a fairly simple affair; two thick copper heatpipes carry heat to a nest of fins. These are then cooled by a dual-ball-bearing fan, which is a garish orange colour. The cooler shroud feels plasticky, but its solid and appears well made. It's functional if not particularly pretty.

The Palit is well connected too, as it has two DVI ports, a D-Sub port and a full-size HDMI port; you shouldn’t be of short of ways to connect the Sonic Platinum to your monitor.