N460GTX Cyclone 1GD5/OC gets tested and reviewed

In our GeForce GTX 460 launch article we had a shootout of many cards. Tucked away in there was the 768MB version of MSI's Cyclone GTX 460 as well. However, there's another SKU available, the 1024MB OC model and MSI really wanted us to test that card as well. Though it arrived a little late we certainly wanted to take a good look at it as the GTX 460 cards offer true value for money.

The launch of NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 460 series graphics has certainly been a very successful one with two new interesting SKUs (768MB/1024MB), and it surely is a product that a lot of you guys have been waiting on. In their baseline configuration these products are just good. However, for the first time in a rather long time NVIDIA allowed it's partners to customize the PCBs, cooler and clock frequencies at launch time. The board partners have been complaining about that stringent grip of NVIDIA on the board designs for a long time time now, and the minute we see a launch with customized board partner SKUs, the minute the launch is a success.

The 'default' GeForce GTX 460 editions have the GPU running at 675 MHz and the memory clock at 3600 MHz (effective data-rate)..

The Cyclone GTX 460 OC model on the other hand, flexes the GPU muscle all the way up towards a semi at 725MHz, the shaders to 1450 MHz and the GDDR5 to 3600 MHz (effective).

Armed with a 2-year limited warranty, MSI is trying real hard to not only bring a nice custom board to the market, built with military class components to last you a long time, but meanwhile they also slapped the Cyclone edition cooler on top of this board. Let's have a peek at what MSI offers with the N460GTX Cyclone 1GD5/OC