MSI 460 Cyclone/OC or Zotac 460 Amp for SLI with MSI 460 Hawk 1GB

[Death_Knight]

Guys, I have a MSI 460 Hawk 1GB. I had pre-decided to go SLI when the price will drop, but the high demand and the ever changing graphix market have left me stranded with this out of stock throughout India .

My existing MSI 460 Hawk: Core 810 Mhz, Memory 3900 Mhz, Twin Frozr II cooler

The only option left for me is to go for the existing stocks available now:

MSI 460 Cyclone/OC: Core 725 Mhz, Memory 3600 Mhz, Cyclone cooler

Zotac 460 Amp: Core 810 Mhz, Memory 4000 Mhz, Custom cooler

Now, Which one to choose to pair with the hawk keeping compatibility, overclocking and cooling factor in mind?
Also how to arrange the cards to achieve maximum possible cooling?

You can get the idea of spacing on my motherboard (MSI P55-GD65) here: *i.imgur.com/LbQGR.jpg

Please reply soon, else these stocks may vanish too!

P.S.: Is there any way to know if new Hawk stocks are coming or not?

 

[mukherjee]

Hold on...imho

HD7000 series should be here by this years end...

 

[Death_Knight]

Good thought. I am very reluctant to go for these available options.
Darn, who could have thought the Hawks would be in such crysis crisis.

 

[mithun_mrg]

U can get either of them SLI will work irrespective of GPU clocks as long as GPU & Memory is same please make sure they have the same amount of VRAM as in ur HAWK

Cooling Depends on ur overall case Ventilation anyways u have to use the two Blue X16 sloths.

BTW i am also using the same MB damn stable & Value for money

As for brand its ur personal choice go for one which has good support in ur area

 

[Death_Knight]

VRAM?? All of them are 1GB GDDR5, if its what you mean.

And by the pic of MoBo, I meant to give an idea of how close the two cards are going to be, since the space between the two is a deciding factor in cooling of the top card. Zotac & Hawk are shrouded, while Cyclone is open.

 

[mithun_mrg]

VRAM?? All of them are 1GB GDDR5, if its what you mean.

And by the pic of MoBo, I meant to give an idea of how close the two cards are going to be, since the space between the two is a deciding factor in cooling of the top card. Zotac & Hawk are shrouded, while Cyclone is open.

Yes i mean exactly that because there is a 768 MB version of the same about the cooling u have to R&D urself use realtemp and find the optimum config i think it wont make much of a difference.

 

[comp@ddict]

Well, you can always BIOS flash the other card, so both cards are the same then.

But it's not worth the risk. I say hold on to your money, and wait till September this year (there will be a nice surprise)

 

[Cilus]

^^ That is actually a good idea. If you don't wanna play with your BIOS then go with the Zotac one as the clock difference between the Cyclone and Hawk is almost 100 MHz and I you shouldn't go with manual overclocking unless you know exactly what are you doing.

Also Zotac Amp edition is also a very good card, you can opt for it. Just overclock the HAWK's memory by 25 MHz.

 

[comp@ddict]

Yep, and as Clius says, it's best to have both cards @ same clocks.

 

[Death_Knight]

Well, you can always BIOS flash the other card, so both cards are the same then.

But it's not worth the risk. I say hold on to your money, and wait till September this year (there will be a nice surprise)

Are you referring to the AMD 7xxx release?

Had a long chat with mukherjee regarding this issue, he too is facing the dilemma of selling his GTX460 to get a GTX560ti or waiting for the AMD 7xxx & the Kepler, set to release soon this year.

 

[comp@ddict]

Are you referring to the AMD 7xxx release?

Had a long chat with mukherjee regarding this issue, he too is facing the dilemma of selling his GTX460 to get a GTX560ti or waiting for the AMD 7xxx & the Kepler, set to release soon this year.

Those who own a GTX460 upwards or HD5700 upwards should just hang on to their horses and wait out this generation. It's not worth the investment, especially when we're half way through this current generation.

Buying next gen HD7k or nVidia counterpart the moment they release will be a good thought, cuz it's already 28nm tech, gonna be super fast as usual, and buying it in the beginning means you're making it last the longest.

Did that with my HD5850, still uber strong. I think I'll be able to game through 2012 and 2013 till next gen consoles come out and PC gamers start suffering due to lack of optimization, again.