Power Consumption & Temperatures

If the benchmark numbers were not impressive enough, the GeForce GTX 460 will blow you away when it comes to power consumption figures, especially considering where we are coming from with the previous Fermi launches. The Inno3D GeForce GTX (768MB) consumed just 285 watts under full load making it 9% more efficient than the Radeon HD 5830. Although this is 24% more power than the Radeon HD 5770, when you factor in the performance advantages, these are pretty impressive numbers.

Then we have the Palit GTX 460 Sonic Platinum (1GB) which virtually mirrored the performance of our GeForce GTX 470 but scaling down a notch with about 18% power savings. Furthermore we see that the Palit GTX 460 Sonic Platinum (1GB) used just a fraction more power than the Radeon HD 5850.

The considerably improved power consumption levels have allowed the GeForce GTX 460 graphics cards to operate at very reasonable temperatures. While a full load temperature of 64 degrees for the Inno3D GeForce GTX (768MB) is impressive, it is the convenience that it brings that makes it striking. Torching these cards with FurMark, the Inno3D GeForce GTX (768MB) and even the heavily overclocked Palit GTX 460 Sonic Platinum (1GB) remained extremely quiet.

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