We'll use Battlefield 3 to assess the performance of these cards overclocked as far as we're able to push them.

Stock, these cards are all about five frames per second away from each other, as we established a couple of pages ago (between 38.5 and 43.5 FPS).
When we overclock them, the finishing order changes. However, we maintain that approximately 5 FPS spread, which rises to somewhere between 45.1 and 51.5 FPS.
Considering the overclocked cores are all within 40 MHz of each other, memory bandwidth probably plays the biggest role in differentiating these boards. Interestingly, the lowest-priced card from ECS manages to achieve the highest overclocked performance, suggesting that your mileage will almost certainly vary.
Now, let’s look at multi-monitor performance with Galaxy’s GeForce GTX 560 MDT x4:

Using Ultra quality settings in Battlefield 3, multi-monitor performance drops off too fast to remain playable. We'll need to shift down to less-attractive detail settings in order to figure out where we're able to use three screens.

Dropping all the way down to Low quality is the only way to enable semi-playable performance, unfortunately. None of these results are ideal, mind you. The fact of the matter is that a GeForce GTX 560 isn't quite powerful enough on its own to facilitate hardcore gaming on a trio of displays. For that, you'd likely want a higher-end card like one of Galaxy's GeForce GTX 580 MDT boards or an SLI configuration from any Nvidia partner.
But with lowered settings and smaller triple-monitor configurations, the GeForce GTX 560 MDT x4 could be useful for driving less-demanding titles.
- GeForce GTX 560 In Nvidia's $200 Range
- Asus GTX 560 DirectCU II TOP
- ECS Black Series NBGTX560-1GPI-F GeForce GTX 560
- Galaxy 56NGH6DH4TTX GeForce GTX 560 MDT x4
- MSI N560GTX Twin Frozr II/OC
- Zotac AMP! ZT-50702-10M GeForce GTX 560
- Test System Setup And Benchmarks
- Benchmark Results: 3DMark 11 And Battlefield 3
- Benchmark Results: AvP And Metro 2033
- Overclocking And Multi-Monitor Performance
- Power, Temperature, And Noise
- Five Unique GeForce GTX 560s
This dosent match with the above chart
Your kidding right, my overclocked 580GTX at 60% fan speed idles at 32c. Cards down clock themselves which allows them to run cooler at idle temps even if it were clocked at upwards i don't think a card would get hot unless it was being used.
I have the feeling that even a i5 2500k@4ghz bottlenecks a 7970 @1080p in most newer games.
If the GPU market goes the way it does, it won't take long that even midrange cards will be bottlenecked @1080p by the cpu.
Not really. This is mostly game depended. Depends on how much stress each graphics engine push at cpu and gpu.
Games like Dragon Age 2 and SWTOR are gpu intensive. So a GTX570 (that I have) is being used at 1080p at 99% of its usage with a low performance nowadays Q6600 in SWTOR (used MSI after burner to monitor it).
But with games such Skyrim which cpu is more important than other games, a highly clocked sandybridge is required in order to play smoothly at 1080p.
One thing is certain for sure. The higher the resolution the more gpu power and less cpu power requires a game.
The 280 idles higher than the 580 to the best of my knowledge, plus it's a 65nm part and the largest gaming GPU ever created.
That's an enormous amount of fan speed for an Idle GPU. Hope you're happy having a nice loud fan at idle. I can't imagine how loud it gets under a light load.
To the article, I don't think these comparisons are really necessary. All the cards are going to have different overclocking capabilities, which is what anyone from tom's is going to check. Hell, the worst card you guys test according to this comparison might overclock the most, and be the best card for the money on someone else's comparison.
For a $30 savings the ASUS ENGTX560 DCII OC/2DI is worth a look. Sure if you run the fans at 100% a higher CFM fan is going to be very loud, but no one runs their fans @ 100% either.
With Apps like MSI Afterburner and others it's incredibly easy to OC any GPU. It's a balancing act between performance, temperatures, and dDA (noise). One of the big reasons for water blocks on higher end cards, etc.
BTW - I appreciate the Article, it's enlightening and offers good info. Thanks!
Quite right! Fixed.
The GTX 560 is comparable to the 6870, though generally thought to be a little slower but with better OC headroom. The 6950 is much faster, and is comparable to the GTX 560 Ti.