Event Coverage

HWM+HardwareZone.com Tech Awards 2011 Editor's Choice - Part 2

By Team HardwareZone - 4 Mar 2011

Best Mainstream Graphics Chip

Best Mainstream Graphics Chip

Sure, having a super fast card like the a GeForce GTX 580 is great, but for most folks, there’s simply no good justification for plonking half a grand’s worth for a graphics card. To fill the gap, NVIDIA finally introduced their long awaited GeForce GTX 460, a truly brand new mainstream part. For AMD’s part, the newly introduced Radeon HD 6850 is leading their mainstream offensive. While NVIDIA has a matured 3D ecosystem, AMD touts the ease of which one can use the Radeon HD 6850 to setup multi-monitor configurations. But which is really the best? We find out.

Nominees:

  • AMD Radeon HD 6850
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460

And the Winner Is...

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 is our best mainstream graphics chip.

The Radeon HD 6850 is AMD’s latest mainstream card and although it was a decent performer, it didn’t do much to improve on its predecessor. And even though it was launched a good three months after the GeForce GTX 460, the NVIDIA card still remained very competitive, even if it lagged behind in certain benchmarks. 

On the other hand, the GeForce GTX 460 was the more impressive and important part. Ever since the GeForce 9800 GT, NVIDIA has yet to have a proper, new mainstream card. The GeForce GTS 250, as some of you may recalled, was actually a GeForce GTX 9800 GTX+ with a new name. Hence, the GeForce GTX 460 is NVIDIA’s first proper mainstream card for some time. And at the time of launch, it blew away the competition with its attractive blend of performance, efficiency and price, with many proclaiming it to be the best thing to come out from NVIDIA in a long time. Not surprisingly, many avid gamers and bargain hunters scrambled to get their hands on one.

For the impact it made and its competent all-round performance, the GeForce GTX 460 gets the nod as this year’s best mainstream graphics chip.

 

Scoring Breakdown
Criteria/Model AMD Radeon HD 6850 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460
Peformance 7.5 9.0
Features 8.0 8.0
Value 8.0 8.5
Overall 8.0 9.0

For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed at the References section at the end.

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