KFA2 GeForce GTX 460 Razor Single Slot review

Final Words & Conclusion

So this was GeForce GTX 460 card number nineteen (!) that we have tested to date? The overall baseline performance of the GeForce GTX 460 of course speaks for itself.

Performance wise you'll have nothing to complain about, pretty much any game up-to 1920x1200 will run just fine with a fairly decent set of image quality preferences enabled.

The noise levels are reasonable. In idle you'll hardly hear the product, but when under full load you can hear the airflow quite well. Not annoying, but borderline acceptable. It is however airflow that you hear, not a weird pitch sounds or anything. This of course is the compromise you'll have to make when opting for a single slot graphics card solution.

Now I've been asking myself this question continuously, what do you gain by using a single slot version of the GeForce GTX 460, and as much as I like the product it really does not bring much more to the table other than saving one PCI(e) slot. Make no mistake, the card looks great, performance is as expected, it overclocks pretty well for a single slot card and in all aspects is doing well. But really, I'm not sure how many are after a product like this as dual-slot cooling is just not an issue for pretty much anyone these days and a dual-slot solution is definitely more silent.

One oddity we found a little puzzling is the fact that the card is missing an SLI connector, now these cards support software SLI meaning you do not need to bridge them. All compositing data will pass over the PCIs x16 / PCI x8 slot which basically functions as the bridge.

On the compute side of things the RAZOR 460 GTX series definitely can be interesting, as when your motherboard allows it, you can in theory put six of these puppies together and create a nice CUDA "creaming" solution. I'm fairly sure Guru3D's Folding@Home team members are looking at this product with great interest alright, but that market is slim alright.

Of course the reality is that most of you only need/want one card. The Razor series is definitely a sufficient enough product for modern gaming up-to 1920x1200 if you keep your image quality settings at an acceptable level, say 4xAA. As mentioned the 1024MB models of the GTX460 are often harder to overclock. Squeezing 850 MHz out of the core should however be very possible, and 2200~2250 MHz (x2) on the memory is no problem either. That brings in a significant amount of extra performance alright.

Whatever your preference is, single or dual-slot, the GTX 460 remains affordable, offers a nice chunk of gaming performance that stretches itself to the preferred 1920x1200 monitor resolution. If you can find it at the right price, then go for it, if you need a little more silence, then KFA2 has an excellent dual-slot product available as well. But for those that need to save every bit of room inside their slim PC or just need that extra slot, it might be a great slick looking alternative.

More info on the razor series can be found here.

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