Power-draw, temps, and noise
NVIDIA's done well in pushing GTX 460 into truly mid-range territory. Comfortably better than GTX 470 in the power-draw stakes, AMD's Radeon cards are better still.
Testing with the POV TGT card was done on a day where the ambient temperature was 21°C, or 2-3°C lower than the other cards'.
Towing the reference line means that temperatures are very good, thanks to the lower power use of the GeForce GTX 460 768MB GPU, rather than the 1GB model.
A word on noise
We alluded to the noise on the opening page of this review. Expanding on it a little, you will not hear the card when it's in idle (2D) mode; it's wonderfully quiet.
Housed inside a Corsair Obsidian 700D chassis with the side panels on, play games and the fan's rotation begins a steady ascent from 40 per cent (default, practically silent) to a maximum of 54 per cent in Crysis, which can be termed quiet under load. Only those of a sensitive aural disposition will even comment on the card's noise profile.
