Trouble with getting two 460 2GB cards working`

[bear75]

problems with 2 gtx 460 here!
with only one installed, it works at 100%
two installed on the system will result in gpu load at 50% each, i can't figure it out

[vlado]

with only one installed, it works at 100%
two installed on the system will result in gpu load at 50% each, i can't figure it out

Yep, I can reproduce this issue here; it seems driver-related as older drivers seem to work fine. I'm trying now a few different driver versions; will let you know which ones are ok.

Best regards,
Vlado

[dpmitchell]

Hi Everyone, I am having trouble getting two Palit GeForce 460 2GB cards working for Vray RT GPU. Vray GPU works fine with one card installed but doesn't work with two cards. I used both the nvidia 258.96 and 260.89 drivers. Any ideas? please help!!!

Hey how are the temps on the Palit GTX 460 2GB cards? The reviews are terrible because of the heatsink and the fan that blows straight down into the case, and that, supposedly, the heatsink doesn't cool the memory, and the voltage regulators get white hot with very little load. Anybody have any feedback? I was thinking of mounting a Koolance GTX 460 waterblock on it and water cooling it.

The Palit and the Zotac GTX 460 are the only 2GB fermi geforce cards. The Zotac runs about $50 more though

[bear75]

no man! the best 2gb 460 gtx is made by Gainward!
good heatsink, my 4 460s go from 54°c to 60°c on load if used alone
in sli mode the upper one touch the 70s (with little oc to 750/1900)
not bad for a 170€ video card...

[dpmitchell]

no man! the best 2gb 460 gtx is made by Gainward!
good heatsink, my 4 460s go from 54°c to 60°c on load if used alone
in sli mode the upper one touch the 70s (with little oc to 750/1900)
not bad for a 170€ video card...

Thanks for the info. I did a quick search, and the Gainward card looks exactly like the Palit version of the GTX 460 2GB. Which is not surprising, considering Gainward and Palit merged several years ago. That said, after doing a quick google search, I couldn't find any US sellers that were selling the Gainward cards. I'd rather not pay international shipping. Any suggestions?

[kein_plan]

hi, i had troubles with 2 460 palit in one case. i use them now in two cases with dr....

[bear75]

palit version: aluminum heatsink without heatpipes
gainward: copper heatsink with 2 heatpipes!

[bear75]

with nvidia driver 258.96 there's no problem

[dpmitchell]

palit version: aluminum heatsink without heatpipes
gainward: copper heatsink with 2 heatpipes!

Thanks. Yes, that is a significant difference. I would probably strip any of the Geforce cards though and mount a card-specific waterblock to it if I were to use it extensively for GPU computing. Those blocks are designed by the nVidia reference model, and provide cooling for VRs and capacitors, as well as the actual fermi chip. I would be concerned with those things just as much or more as the chip when it comes to the Geforce card's ability to hold up in GPU computing environments. The fermi chip itself in most of the GTX 400 series cards -- the GF100 -- is the same exact chip used in the Quadro 4000/5000/6000 cards, except that nVidia turned off FP64 on 2/3 of the multiprocessors on the Geforce version of the GF100 (470/480), and nearly neutered it of FP64 in the GF104/106/108 redesign of fermi (460/Quadro2000/Quadro600) while still leaving single precision very high. The chip itself is stable though. 3rd party vendors skimp on heatsinks, circuit boards, VRs, general QC, etc. Thus, the cooler the better.