GTX 460 1GB | GTX 460 SE 1GB | GTX 460 768MB | |
CUDA cores | 336 | 288 | 336 |
Texture units | 52 | 48 | 52 |
ROPs | 32 | 32 | 24 |
GPU clock | 675 | 650 | 675 |
Shader clock | 1350 | 1300 | 1350 |
Memory clock | 900 | 850 | 900 |
Memory bus | 256-bit | 256-bit | 192-bit |
The GTX 460 SE sits between the GTX 460 1GB and 768MB models with a few key differences. First, the SE model moves up to the 256-bit memory bus and a 1GB frame buffer – good news for gamers using higher resolutions. But that change comes at a cost: CUDA / shader cores have dropped from 336 to 288 (now down to 6 SMs of 48 cores each) and texture units fall to 48 as well. In tandem with this we will see fewer tessellation units on the SE model – all of this adds up to lower performance in tessellation and general shader computing power.
Though I am not 100% sure what the performance differences will be on these new cards compared to the other 460 models, I am just slightly annoyed that NVIDIA would offer another option that is partially crippled, just in a different way, from the GTX 460 1GB. Maybe annoyed isn’t the right term, maybe I am just disappointed. Neither the GTX 460 768MB or or the GTX 460 SE 1GB take away from the goodness that is the GTX 460 1GB card but now we are going to have even more confusion in the market. After all, isn’t “Special Edition” better than not??
NVIDIA is still apparently planning on keeping all three offerings in the market for the foreseeable future so if the 1GB GTX 460 (full version) is out of your budget, at least you have another option to take a look at. The GTX 460 SE 1GB should be a better solution for high memory bandwidth use cases compared to the GTX 460 768MB which will be slightly better at shader or tessellation performance.
We are getting some samples in this week so expect reviews up soon!
Further Reading
Though I am not 100% sure what the performance differences will be on these new cards compared to the other 460 models, I am just slightly annoyed that NVIDIA would offer another option that is partially crippled, just in a different way, from the GTX 460 1GB. Maybe annoyed isn’t the right term, maybe I am just disappointed. Neither the GTX 460 768MB or or the GTX 460 SE 1GB take away from the goodness that is the GTX 460 1GB card but now we are going to have even more confusion in the market. After all, isn’t “Special Edition” better than not??

NVIDIA is still apparently planning on keeping all three offerings in the market for the foreseeable future so if the 1GB GTX 460 (full version) is out of your budget, at least you have another option to take a look at. The GTX 460 SE 1GB should be a better solution for high memory bandwidth use cases compared to the GTX 460 768MB which will be slightly better at shader or tessellation performance.
We are getting some samples in this week so expect reviews up soon!
Further Reading
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 1.5GB Review and SLI Testing – GF110 brings full Fermi
- AMD Radeon HD 6870 and 6850 Review – Barts Architecture Refresh
- MSI GeForce GTX 460 1GB HAWK Review – Custom Everything
- Galaxy GeForce GT 430 1GB Review – NVIDIA moves Fermi to HTPC
- ASUS Radeon HD 5870 ROG Matrix and V2 Graphics Cards Reviewed