14 DAY TRIAL // Eager to offer a graphics solution that is more power efficient and hot compared to the GF100, NVIDIA has been working on the GF104 GPU, slated to power the next batch of cards for the upper level of the mainstream. Still, even though the GeForce GTX 460 wasn't supposed to actually come out until the 12 of July, some retailers have decided to jump the gun and grab a bit of pre-release hype by already listing the new graphics card.
The GF104 has a major advantage over the GF100 because it is much less expensive to manufacture. As such, the video boards based on it should prove quite formidable and reasonably affordable for the performance market. Currently, it is the ASUS ENGTX460/2DIS/768MD5 that Fudzilla has gotten wind of.
The ENGTX460 will measure up to the ATI Radeon HD 5850 and 5830 models. It boasts 336 shaders, 42 texture units and clock speeds of 675 MHz for the graphics processor, 900 for the memory and 1350 for the shaders themselves. Furthermore, the power consumption is of 'only' 150W. This TDP may not be the most formidable of them all, but it is far lower than that of the GeForce GTX 470 and GTX 480. Granted, this comparison shouldn't need to be made, since the markets they address are completely different, but it still shows the efficiency of GF104.
Currently, the GTX 460 has a price point of roughly 200 Euro, but it may drop even as low as 180 once it actually starts selling worldwide. This, of course, goes for the version with 768 MB of memory. The 1024 MB model is expected to cost about 30 Euro more. Unfortunately, end-users will have to wait until July 12 for the boards to become available, since that is when the official introduction will take place. If anything, the appearance of GTX 470 might finally put pressure on AMD and lead to lower price points, though nothing is certain.