Introduction

Main - meaning the chief part or the most important principal. We have main drains, valves and streets and for whatever reason they are built, they are also the most used and most common. Mainstream - the majority. What the most will likely use or which is the most appropriate? When speaking in computer terms we refer to mainstream as being the most cost effective based on performance or what the average consumers will purchase most often.

Amongst computer gamers what is considered mainstream? As a gamer a price point is usually the correct answer when choosing a new video card. Studies have shown that the “Sweet Spot” for mainstream gamers over the last 5 to 6 years has been the $175.00 to $225.00 USD price range. (Taken from Steam Hardware Survey)

Approximately 9 months ago Windows 7 and DirectX 11 went “Mainstream” it took almost 4 months for a video card manufacturer to produce a video card that both fit and performed well enough to meet the target price point. Even though the card met the price and performance point there were some concerns, the card was produced from parts that would not perform at it's intended manner. Intended manner? Streaming processors were shut down but for what reason? My conclusion – recyclability, have a GPU where all intended streams fail to meet their specs, shut them down and sell the product with the dead cores inaccessible. Good and bad, if part of something is good, ok use it and sell it for less, your profits won’t dwindle and you have an easy way to produce a product at a price/performance point without reinventing the wheel. Bad – does the consumer want a broken part? If it failed once will it fail again?
Mainstreamers you finally have a choice, a new DirectX11 video card that meets the price/performance point is now available in both a 768MB and a 1GB version.

The EVGA GeForce GTX 460 DirectX 11 Video Card contains NVIDIAs’ latest GPU the GF104. The EVGA Geforce GTX 460 can be purchased with either 786 MB or 1GB of memory and starts at a price point of $199.99 USD. At its price point the EVGA GTX 460 falls in the middle of the “Sweet Spot” for mainstream gamers.