Fermi has grown up pretty quickly. First, the hot headed GF101/102 came and as the GTX 480/470, many jokes about frying eggs evolved. Then, the GF104 gave us the GTX 460; a card that really hit the gaming sweet spot in terms of price and performance. Then brought the scaled up GF110 which firmly secured the GTX 580 as the most powerful single GPU video card solution today. But nVidia wasn’t done!
The work continues as NVIDIA’s engineers continue refining the Fermi architecture and the latest GF114 GPU aka the GTX 560Ti is about to make the gamers’ sweet spot even sweeter. The “Ti”? Well, it has nothing to do with the old school GeForce 3 and 4 Ti series, but it does represent what this new GPU is all about: Lighter, stronger, faster just like the metal!
GeForce GTX560 Ti Features and Specifications: The Target is Set!
The new GPU updates have positioned the GTX 560 Ti as the optimal choice for gamers who want performance using a 1920 x 1200 resolution with some AF/AA settings turned up. Gamers using the average 1680 x 1050 resolution should find this extremely appealing if you’ve waited to upgrade and want to crank the settings up without spending a pile of cash. NVIDIA touts this as the GPU worth pairing up in SLI thanks to it’s new optimizations. In fact, a pair of these should rival the GTX 580, but that’s an article for another day. But the real target is the more expensive AMD RADEON HD 6950 which enjoyed a very short moment at the top of the podium in this price range.
To achieve the targets set for the GTX 560 Ti, NVIDIA took the previous GF104 GPU found in the successful GTX 460 and refined it. By balancing things like transistor paths, engineers were able to improve power efficiency and thermal output resulting in a much higher clocked GPU known as the GF114. With plenty of overclocking headroom leftover with its modest 822 MHz stock clock and all 384 CUDA cores enabled, this card is definitely ready to go for broke. The best part is that it does all this at only an extra 20Watts of power over GTX 460 which translates into a modest increase to a 500W minimum power requirement over the 450W requirement of the GTX 460 GPUs. Overclockers may choose to go 600Watts or greater.
Since the GTX 460 (GF104) continues to be a great asset amongst budget gamers, NVIDIA is not replacing it with the GTX 560 Ti (GF114). Instead, you’ll still be able to buy the GTX 460 for some time which is great news if you’ve been considering adding a second card for SLI or Physx. As the GTX 470/480 cards continue to disappear, the GTX 560 Ti will help fill the performance gap left behind just under the GTX 570 (GF110).
Suggested pricing for the GTX 560-Ti starts around $249 USD. Higher clocked cards will reach the $289 depending on the vendor. Unfortunately, GTX 460 prices probably aren’t going to drop much if any. It still averages $189 US for a standard 1GB (non-SE) card depending on the cooling solution and clocks.
Great Options for Gamers
The NVIDIA GTX 560 Ti has really pushed partners to get creative with their own variations of coolers and clock frequencies in hopes of gaining your hard earned money. Some vendors are launching stock cards using NVIDIA reference coolers which do the job just fine as you’ll see later on in testing. However, some manufacturers like MSI and ZOTAC have decided to provide better cooling right out of the gate skipping the reference cooler.
MSI will be shipping their N560GTX-Ti cards fitted with their Twin FrozrII GPU coolers with stock frequencies (see an unboxing above of this card). They also have models that step up their Ti series with their Twin FrozrII OC and SOC editions reach GPU core frequencies of 880 MHz which all but guarantees breaking the 900 MHz with minimal effort. They also return with their highly coveted Golden Edition offering the best of everything you could want in a card. Could they return with a GTX 580 Ti Hawk edition? We can only hope!
ASUS also puts some serious effort in to their own cards as well with the DirectCU II cooling. If you think back to our recent CES 2011 trip, their jedi-like component marketing manager gave us a sneak peak at the SAP Initiative. Under the SAP Initiative, ASUS will be releasing specially branded motherboards and video cards that push frequencies in to new territory. You can be sure that something sweet is being boxed up for shipping.
Finally, GIGABYTE bust out of the gate also offering a wide range of cards using their new WINDFORCE GPU coolers from stock to Super Overclocked cards. The GIGABYTE Super Overclock GTX 560 Ti is the only card at launch to hit 1GHz core from the stock 822 MHz. Pricing for this and other cards clocked in this range should hit the $279+ US range.
Test Systems and Configuration
The objective here is to compare a few of the more popular video cards within a similar pricing range. We’ll also have an opportunity to see GTX 560 Ti SLI in action. Here’s our system breakdown:
- Processor: Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge LGA1155
- Motherboard: MSI P67A-GD65
- Memory: Kingston HyperX Genesis 4GB 2133MHz DDR3
- Video card 1: MSI NVidia Geforce N560GTX-Ti Twin FrozrII
- Video card 2: NVidia Geforce GTX560-Ti
- Video card 3: MSI N460GTX 1GB Cyclone
- Video card 4: ZOTAC Geforce GTX480
- Video card 5: GIGABYT HD 5870 1GB
- Power Supply: Antec CP-850
- Storage: Patriot TorqX 128GB SSD
- Operating System: Windows 7 Pro 64-bit
- CPU Cooling: Zalman CNPS10X Extreme
Our selection of video cards were chosen to give us just a quick peak at what a little less and a little more buys you and should let you know whether or not you’re missing out on holding on to that previous gen GPU.
The GTX560 Ti drivers used are the 266.58 downloaded directly from NVIDIA’s site and are the latest available as of the beginning of our tests. You may find newer drivers there in weeks to come. Also recommended is MSI’s fantastic overclocking utility called Afterburner which we’ll be using to overclock the card. GPUZ will be used to validate our results. Let’s get on with the benchmark suite.
Benchmark Notes
I’ll be using several game titles to thoroughly test DX9, DX10, and DX11 performance. All benchmarks were performed using 1920 x 1200 resolutions. 3DMark Vantage (Performance DX10), Unigine Heaven 2.0 (4xAN, Normal), Batman (8xAA Very High Settings), Final Fantasy XIV (Default Settings 1920×1080), Mafia 2 (8xAN High Settings), Crysis (4xAA High Settings), Farcry 2 (4xAA High Settings), Resident Evil 5 (Maximum Settings), HAWX2 (8xAA High Settings), Metro 2033 (4xAN, 4xAA, High Settings), and Stalker – Pripyat (4xMSAA High Settings).
At the end, we’ll take a look at the GTX560 Ti temperatures, noise levels, and power consumption.
3DMark Vantage
Thanks to MSI, the GTX 560 Ti ships with a copy of 3DMark11 which debuted at their MSI overclocking event at CES 2011. As 3DMark06 starts to phase out around here, we’ve included results for the remaining 3DMark titles for your enjoyment.
Vantage scores show a more level playing field between the similarly priced HD 5870 and more expensive GTX 480. SLI performance is impressive in this benchmark. However, 3DMark11 brings all of these big GPUs back to reality. The GTX 480 which performs similarly to the GTX 570 takes the lead with the GTX 560 Ti not far behind. SLI performance again is where it’s at if you pride in boasting your benchmarks.
Unigine Heaven 2.0 (DX9, DX10, DX11)
Unigine’s demo is so handy for benchmarking video cards and free to download. Here, the Ti just seems better tuned for DX9 and DX10 performance, outpacing my GTX 480. In DX11, the data makes more sense as it starts to match. SLI performance is just awesome across the board.
Batman (DX9)
The pinnacle of DX9 games continues to impress us with and without PhysX. Unless you are running an AMD card. Without applying any tricks to the AMD HD 5870, you can see the performance gains of the GeForce GTX 560 Ti in single and SLI modes. With the PhysX off, SLI performance is through the roof!
Final Fantasy XIV (DX9)
The score is a little different in this benchmark. But, suffice it to say the GTX 560 Ti can handle MMO/RPG type game titles well. But oddly enough, the AMD HD 5870 bounces back hard in this benchmark and bests everyone. There might be some fight left for the previous gen AMD card.
Mafia 2 (DX9)
One feature that can sometimes pulverize any video card is PhysX especially if it’s an AMD video card. AMD just doesn’t have it in the drivers or the developer support for some titles. Here, we see the huge difference CUDA can make when enabled. The 560 is obviously a stronger choice for the gamer who likes having PhysX enabled.
Farcry 2 (DX10)
This is a nice surprise. After running the benchmarks a few extra times, the GTX 560 Ti kept up with the GTX 480. It could be drivers or the settings, but there’s plenty of frame rate to go around. And, of course, SLI performance is uber sweet all around.
Resident Evil 5 (DX10)
It looks like DX10 performance is leveling off pretty well here even when using SLI. This game title just about runs on anything especially in the benchmark. The ATI HD 5870 actually does well here. Wonder how they all do in DX11 games?
Alien vs Predator (DX11)
Since this is a DX11 friendly card, we’re adding more benchmarks. It’s a free demo and will probably show up more often. Unfortunately, it won’t run on DX10 or DX9 video cards.
The GTX 560 Ti is a very lean DX11 card as we see here. It keeps up with the HD 5870 and almost with the GTX 480. SLI performance is just excellent. This is a very healthy scale up for a pair of cards.
HAWX2 (DX11)
If you haven’t seen HAWX2 with Tessellation turned up, you’re truly missing out. Fortunately, NVIDIA video cards seem to have no problem producing playable frame rates. The AMD card has a harder time for some reason, probably due to driver optimizations. The GTX 560 Ti really seems to be tuned for the DX11 titles.
Metro 2033 (DX11)
Metro 2033’s intense first person shooter action details can force frame rates to hit below 30 during benchmarks and regular game play. It’s nice to have the GPU power to prevent that from happening. The GTX 560 Ti once again impressed me with a healthy 65 FPS average. In SLI, it tops 100 frames which is really sweet to see.
Stalker – Pripyat (DX11)
Here we see what an extremely detailed video game does to performance video cards. The GTX 560 Ti is a huge improvement over the GTX 460 and HD 5870. But, as you can see, SLI action scales pretty nicely leaving the GTX 480 in the dust.
A Look at MSI’s Non-Reference N560GTX-Ti Cooling Solution vs Reference
In these tests, I use Unigine’s benchmark which acts as a very good representation of intense gaming. The benchmark was repeated at the highest DX11 tests several times. Both video cards were left to control themselves. The Antec P183 case’s fans were left on low to represent an average computer case being used.
I was expecting much higher temps given the 42 CFM air flow of the case while when running 3D given the higher GPU frequencies. Basically, between the extra heat pipe and GPU updates, both cards’ coolers do a decent job. But, the Twin FrozrII cooler is still quieter and cooler. We’re very interested in seeing what some other partner’s have come up with in the labs later on.
Power Consumption Under 500 Watts
During my testing, I had my test system plugged into a Seasonic Power Angel and kept an eye on the wattage pulled from the socket. Hibernation and Sleep mode weren’t turned on during all the work. Furmark and Unigine Heaven demo was again used to test the power consumption limits of the card(s). Unigine is a very video intensive demo more so than most games. Furmark pushes the cards much harder like @Home Folding folks no doubt understand.
While sitting idle at desktop, the system pulled a meager 141 watts. In single card mode, the system pulled about 295 watts. In SLI mode, the system consumed 421 watts. Furmark pushed the video cards further reaching an average of 457 watts. This means our cards are consuming a max of about 158 watts which is inline with specifications. This also means that gamers wanting to run SLI can get away with using a quality 80Plus 750 watt power supply. The 500 Watt minimum requirement just will not cut it.
Overclocking the GTX 560 Ti
First, I worked at overclocking the Ti in a single card capacity using MSI Afterburner; a utility that works on all cards not just their own. The GPU clock just reached 970 MHZ and Shader topped out at 1935 MHz. Frame rates went up a few points across the titles tested. This was impressive and all on a stock Ti GPU, but I’m a fiend for SLI overclocking.
After pairing up the cards, the configuration’s max overclock was 960 MHz GPU Clock (1089 MHz Memory) and 1920 MHz Shader clock. Frame rates were a bit higher and more noticeable in various titles with a healthy average increase experienced in Metro 2033. Any higher and the voltage needed to be increased just a little more than I typically like.
It might not be all that great, but it makes a bigger difference if you’re using resolutions above 1920 x 1200. Sometimes that extra 8 to 12 frames makes all the difference in a challenging scene.
The Sweetest Choice for Gamers in 2011
Based on all we’ve witnessed, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti is a light weight, strong and high performance video card that lives up to its Ti designation which represents a metal with similar characteristics. While DirectX 9 and 10 performance is all around great, it’s the DirectX 11 performance that is probably the most impressive feature of this new GPU. It’s in those benchmarks that this card truly shows off what it is capable of at such an affordable price.
At the end of the day, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti is a great bang for buck choice for gamers wanting to play at high resolutions well up to 1920 x 1200. Anyone using slightly smaller monitors will be even more impressed as you begin to maximize every possible setting including PhysX. Best of all is the aggressive $249 US price tag at launch which is only $20 more than the GTX 460 1GB when it launched. And while the GTX 460 was never the GPU to push SLI, NVIDIA really did tune this one to work better as a pair and they have let us know it here today.
After seeing what the MSI N560GTX-Ti with the Twin Frozr II cooler can do, we’re really looking forward to seeing what the next batch of GTX 560 Ti cards can do in our testing labs.
Love This Review? Hate This Review? Leave a Comment Below!
NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 560 Ti – Hitting An Even Sweeter Sweet Spot for Gamers! – Photo Gallery
