This is a review of the GTX 465, which is a video card made by Nvidia all the way back in 2010. I am going to run through a gauntlet of up to date test, like 3dmark Firestrike, Performance test 8, as well as a variety of others.
Background and Specs of the GTX 465
The GTX 465 was released on June 1st, 2010 at an MSRP of $279. The specifications of the GTX 465 can be seen below(taken from Nvidia’s website):
These days, you can pick up a GX 465 for as little as $60, and I am going to test out whether this card is worth buying or not. Considering the fact that DirectX 12 will be supported all the way back to this age of GPU (Fermi), it could be quite good to see just where the GTX 465 and other GPUs from that age stand. I only have a GTX 465 right now, so here is the review of it!
The test rig
The test system I am running is as follows:
The tests and methodology
For gaming benchmarks, if the game does not have a built-in benchmark I will take a 5-minute sample from a set level. For the games and tests that do have benchmarks built in, I will run the test and show you the results.
In any case, here is the list of games and benchmarks I will be running:
First up: 3dmark06
In 3dmark06, the GTX 465 gets a score of 32148.
3dmark 11 Performance
3dmark 11 is one of the standard DirectX 11 test from Futuremark. It tests a wide variety of GPU capabilities, and has an online comparison feature to see just how good your hardware is. In this test, the GTX 465 fares… not so well, achieving a score of P5119. This is, according to Futuremark, better than only 28% of all other results. In the tests, the GTX 465 was only able to hit 30 FPS on the Graphics test 3, but hovered around 20 FPS in the other graphics tests. While not that great of a showing, considering the GTX 465 is five years old, it is still admirable.
Next up, 3dmark Firestrike
This is one of the hardest benchmarks for any system to run, even ones with 980 Ti’s and Titan X’s. The GTX 465 gets a score of 2667, which is better than 19% of all results. In this benchmark the GX 465 truly struggled, pulling out only 13 FPS in both GPU only tests and only managing a tiny 3.96 FPS in the combined CPU+GPU test. This is not that great, but again this is a 5-year-old GPU.
Performance Test 8.0
A very well-known benchmark, which tests a whole range of features. The GTX 465 does well here, only about 20% slower than an r9 270 with a score of 3938. In the DirectX 11 test, the difference is much less- only about a 1.5 percent difference between the GTX 465 and the r9 270. The biggest performance drawback of the GTX 465 is DirectCompute performance, which is a full 70.7% slower than the r9 270.
Gaming Benchmarks: Thief
The latest Thief game, it holds many similarities to the game Dishonored. Perhaps that is why it got so little fanfare, but in any case it is still a good test for seeing how well your system performs. I ran the game at 1920×1200, with settings of High using the built-in benchmarking tool. At this setting, the GTX 465 pulls out an average of 26.7 FPS, which is a bit lower than the 30 FPS that is usually OK for gaming- but the fact that this GPU can still get this high of FPS is quite impressive.
Crysis 2
Crysis is perhaps one of the most famous games of the PC world, with the infamous “But can it run Crysis?” stemming from the game’s incredible graphics (that are also very hard to run). The test I have set up is a five-minute playthrough of the game, starting with the “Second Chances” level. I have set the graphics to “Very High” pre-sets, and used the FPS tool in MSI afterburner to record FPS. In Crysis 2, with DX11 mode on, the GTX 465 achieved an average FPS of 59.8, with a minimum of 50 FPS and max of 80 FPS. This is a very good showing, and proves that Fermi does still have some kick left! Here are some photos of the benchmarking run:
Warthunder (Eastern Front Benchmark)
Warthunder is the premier free to play World War 2 battle simulation game. With great graphics and fun gameplay it is one of my most played games. Warthunder has a number of built-in benchmarks, one of which is the Eastern Front benchmark. In this benchmark, the GTX 465 does very well- achieving an average FPS of 133! This is with all settings on the “High” pre-set in DirectX 11 mode. This is quite good, and the GTX 465 really flexes its gaming muscles in this title.
Tomb Raider
The latest Tomb Raider game, featuring TressFX and DirectX 11 along with a brand new story. The preset I used for this game is the Ultra preset, at 1920×1200. The GTX 465 gets an average FPS of 44.6, with a minimum of 35 FPS and a maximum of 52.5 FPS. While this is not the 60 FPS many PC gamers like, the game was still very smooth at this setting.
Conclusion
The GTX 465 is a dated GPU, no question about it, being over 5 years old. With that said, it still offers very good performance for 1080p, with most games either at High or Ultra settings. Considering the price, and the age of the GTX 465 it is one of the best GPU’s you can buy for less than $100- and outperforms many newer, more expensive GPU’s. The major downside to the GTX 465 is the fact that it creates a lot of heat and uses up to 200 watts of power. So it may not be the most efficient option out there, but a GTX 465 will still happily run most games at good framerates. So, all in all, the GTX 465 is a very decent, but very old GPU that performs well but creates a lot of heat doing so.
What are your thoughts? Is fermi still worth the buy? Is it just better to get a newer GPU? Let us know in the comments below!