Posted on Thursday, October 21 2010 @ 17:59 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
One day before the launch of AMD's Radeon HD 6800 series, Gigabyte decides to introduce the GeForce GTX 460 Super Overclock edition. This card features the WindForce cooler and a 815MHz core, 1630MHz shaders and 1GB GDDR5 clocked at 4000MHz. This compares quite nicely to the stock cards which feature a 675MHz core, 1350MHz shaders and 3600MHz memory. Pricing and availability is unknown.
GIGABYTE, a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, introduces a powerful new addition to its Super Overclock Series: GTX 460 SOC (GV-N460SO-1GI). To qualify for Super Overclock Series, a GPU must go through GIGABYTE’s innovative GPU Gauntlet™ Sorting process and it must be equipped with Ultra Durable VGA or VGA+ boards. Designed specifically for overclocking competition and gaming battle, GIGABYTE’s secret weapon GTX 460 Super Overclock Edition is built with NVDIA GeForce GTX 460 GPU. Based on 40nm processor and advanced GDDR5 memory technology, the powerful new GPU consists of ground-breaking features including Microsoft DirectX® 11 and NVIDIA PhysX™ which leads to incredibly immersive HD gaming experience and unrivaled performance. GV-N460SO-1GI also features WINDFORCE™ 2X, 7 phase PWM design, OC Guru graphic card smart tuner and voltage read point.
WINDFORCETM – GIGABYTE’s Latest Cooling Solution
GIGABYTE introduces WINDFORCE™, the latest cooling technology that differentiates the brand’s graphics cards from the rest. GIGABYTE understands that a fan is crucial to the graphics card, so only the fan with the most efficiency is selected for WINDFORCE™. To qualify for WINDFORCE™, the cooling solution must be equipped with anti-turbulence inclined-fin, ultra quiet PWM fan and pure copper heat pipe. Inclined-fins redirect airflow and help to reduce excessive heat and turbulence. Depending on its orientation, there are 3 types of inclined-fin designs: parallel-inclined, mirroring-inclined and 3D-inclined. Each type contributes to generating excellent exterior airflow for efficient heat dissipation from the interior GPU core.
WINDFORCETM 2X: Anti-turbulence Cooling
GV-N460SO-1GI is equipped with WINDFORCE™ 2X cooling solution. The special inclined dual fan design effectively minimizes the flow of turbulence between two fans and enhances heat dissipation of hot area right underneath each fan. By unique design, WINDFORCETM 2X even enlarges air channel on the graphics card vents and creates a more effective air flow system in chassis. This special design helps heat dissipate quickly from GPU. In addition, WINDFORCETM 2X is equipped with 2 copper heat-pipes which strengthen the speed of heat dissipation.
Pure Power Architecture
GV-N460SO-1GI has incredibly pure power. It is compatible with ATX standard length PCB. 6 phase PWM design includes 6 for GPU, 1 for memory. The 6 power phase status LED indicators indicate graphics card’s current power phase, helping users monitor power consumption. This feature ensures a more stable system and better overclocking capability.
GPU Gauntlet™ Sorting
GIGABYTE’s very own GPU Gauntlet™ Sorting process is the key to the best GPUs for Super Overclock Series. A GPU must pass a sequence of tests to be selected. This unique process offers three major advantages. First, full-throttle performance tuning improves overclocking ability by at least 10% to 30%. Second, optimized thermal efficiency lowers extra temperatures by 5% to 10%. Fan speed is guaranteed at standard rpm in high-rated 3D and physics-accelerated games to reduce noise for an absolutely quiet environment. Lastly, expert power switching lowers power switching loss by 10% to 30%. With GPU Gauntlet™ Sorting, GIGABYTE SOC graphics card guarantees higher overclocking ability.
Ultra Durable VGA+
Thanks to Ultra Durable VGA+ that features 5+1 quality components, the Super Overclock Series supports top performance in graphics benchmarking. GIGABYTE Ultra Durable VGA+’s 1 proadlizer on GV-N460SO-1GI graphics cards is able to provide purer power supply compared to traditional power design (zero proadlizers).
Proadlizer®
One of the quality components of Ultra Durable VGA+ is GIGABYTE’s exclusive use of proadlizers. On GV-N460SO-1GI graphics cards, GIGABYTE uses one NEC Proadlizer®, also known as film capacitor, to provide amazing current capacity and extremely low ESL/ESR for super overclocking ability. The added proadlizer transmits more stable power even during heavy loading.
OC Guru – Graphic Card Smart Tuner
GIGABYTE proudly improves its graphics card smart tuner OC Guru. This graphics card tweaking utility puts together the best combination of software/hardware overclocking. It now features 3 profiles: OC (for overclocking mode), Gaming (for gaming mode), and Green (for power saving mode). The different modes cater to users’ different needs. GIGABYTE’s distinctive adjustable software offers gamers to adjust tuners for memory, voltage, and fan speed. OC Guru, the user-friendly software, gives hardcore gamers liberty when overclocking.
Voltage Read Point
GIGABYTE’s specific voltage read point supplies hardcore gamers an ultimate benching experience at overclocking competition. Heavy users can change the voltage simply through software instead of manually adjusting any components on PCB. It is easy for overclockers to master the platform and monitor GPU workload at any time just through voltage read point.
