If you are the kind of user who simply wants to install a graphics card, install the drivers and start gaming without doing any further tweaking, then the ZOTAC GTX 460 Amp! Edition is the best GTX 460 choice on the market right now. Its massive out of the box overclock of 810 MHz core and 1000 MHz memory can result in a substantial performance improvement compared to the reference design which runs at 675 / 900 MHz (core/memory). Together with the Galaxy GTX 460 Super OC both cards share the top performance spot. ZOTAC has also chosen to equip their card with 1 GB of GDDR5 memory. Compared to the 768 MB GTX 460 cards this yields an additional performance increase, even though the difference is small when compared to the price increase. With a price of $259 the card is also the most expensive GTX 460 variant out there. Considering the price and delivered performance it offers similar price/performance as the regular 1 GB reference design. However, the GeForce GTX 460 with 768 MB is still a better deal in that scenario.
As mentioned before the overclock out of the box is great for novice users, but experienced overclockers may as well opt for a non-overclocked version and save some money. When overclocked manually, we see about the same clock speeds as all the other reference design cards we tested so far. ZOTAC's own cooling solution also delivers a well optimized noise experience without letting the card reach high temperatures. It is also nice to see ZOTAC including a full version of Prince of Persia with their card which clearly helps justify the price increase vs. the reference design.
Overall ZOTAC's Amp! Edition is definitely a winning design and should be on your short list when looking for an overclocked GTX 460.