We were foiled in our quest to find the best vendor-provided GPU cooler for Nvidia's GeForce GTX 560. But out of the ashes sprung a round-up of cards armed with those very same solutions. Which of these five GF114-based boards is right for you?
This story was conceptualized as a means to compare graphics card coolers from different vendors. Because no two GPUs have the exact same overclocking headroom, we wanted to take one GeForce GTX 560 and drop solutions from Asus, ECS, Galaxy, MSI, and Zotac onto that bare board. With thermal, acoustic, and performance data, we would have been able to give you a definitive answer as to whose heat sink and fan combination does the best job of pulling heat away from Nvidia's GPU. Surely, this would have been great information to have when overclocking.
Unfortunately, that plan was foiled by a number of variables that we simply couldn’t overcome to our satisfaction. For example, the cooler designers employ a surprisingly diverse range of fan power cable plugs, which aren't interoperable with any one card's connector. Moreover, fan temperature profiles vary from one card's firmware to another's, affecting our thermal and acoustic results.

With five GeForce GTX 560 cards in-hand, though, we still had the makings of a respectable round-up. So, we abandoned the idea of isolating cooler/fan effectiveness and forged ahead to bring you a comprehensive look at five examples of Nvidia's roughly-$200 contender.
| Asus GTX 560 DirectCU II TOP | ECS Black GTX 560 | Galaxy MDT4 GeForce GTX 560 | MSI N560GTX Twin Frozr II OC | Zotac GeForce GTX 560 AMP! | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Graphics Clock | 925 MHz | 870 MHz | 830 MHz | 870 MHz | 950 MHz |
| Shader Clock | 1850 MHz | 1740 MHz | 1660 MHz | 1640 MHz | 1900 MHz |
| Memory Clock | 1050 MHz | 1000 MHz | 1002 MHz | 1020 MHz | 1100 MHz |
| GDDR5 Memory | 1 GB | 1 GB | 1 GB | 1 GB | 1 GB |
| Cooler | DirectCU II | Reference | Custom | Twin Frozr II | Custom |
| Size | 10.25" x 5" | 9.5" x 5" | 8.75" x 5" | 10" x 5" | 9.5" x 5" |
| Connectors | 2 x DL-DVI, 1 x mini-HDMI | 2 x DL-DVI, 1 x mini-HDMI | 4 x DVI, 1 x mini-HDMI | 2 x DL-DVI, 1 x mini-HDMI | 2 x DL-DVI, 1 x mini-HDMI |
| Form Factor | Dual-slot | Dual-slot | Dual-slot | Dual-slot | Dual-slot |
| GPU Voltage | 0.912 V Idle 1.012 V Load | 0.950 V Idle 0.987 V Load | 0.912 V Idle 0.987 V Load | 0.912 V Idle 0.987 V Load | 0.912 V Idle 1.15 V Load |
| GPU Voltage Adjustment | Asus Smartdoctor | Not supported (MSI Afterburner) | Galaxy Xtreme Tuner HD | MSI Afterburner | Not supported (Stock 1.15 V) |
| Special Features And Software | N/A | N/A | Quad-Display Support | Includes game: Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light | Includes game: Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood |
| Warranty | 3-Year parts & labor | 2-Year labor 3-Year parts | 2-Year labor 3-Year parts (if registered in 30 days) | 3-Year parts & labor | 2-Year Standard, Limited Lifetime Extended (if registered in 30 days) |
| Newegg Price | $219.99 | $192.99 | $229.99 | $199.99 | $219.99 |
As you can see, there’s a wide range of specifications applied to these cards, none of which match Nvidia’s reference 810 MHz core and 1002 MHz frequencies. The Galaxy model comes closest with its 830/1002 MHz clocks, but Zotac's AMP! edition goes all the way to 950/1100 MHz.
There’s a lot more distinguishing one board from the others than operating clock rates, though, as all of the coolers are unique as well. There's only one that matches the reference design. Some cards also include value-adds like games, and the Galaxy MDT supports as many as four display outputs and triple-monitor surround gaming. Of course, we also have to gauge how far our samples can be overclocked.
- 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.