The Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Review: Take Off Your Ti
Nvidia strips the Ti moniker and some performance from its GeForce GTX 560 Ti in order to create a new lesser-priced model. Can the company's GeForce GTX 560 stand up to AMD's popular Radeon HD 6870, or does it fall short of the value mark?
Test Setup And Benchmarks
We’re comparing the GeForce GTX 560 against options below and above it, specifically AMD's Radeon HD 6790, 6850, and 6870, along with Nvidia's GeForce GTX 460 768 MB, GTX 460 1 GB, and 560 Ti.
Because Nvidia didn't supply us with a sample running at the official reference clock rates, we lowered the frequencies on a factory-overclocked card to represent baseline GeForce GTX 560 performance.
| Test Hardware | |
|---|---|
| Processor | Intel Core i5-2500K (Sandy Bridge), Overclocked to 4.0 GHz, 6 MB L3 Cache, power-saving settings enabled, Turbo Boost disabled. |
| Motherboard | Asus P8P67 Pro, Intel P67 Chipset |
| Memory | OCZ PC3-16000, 2 x 2 GB, 1338 MT/s, CL 9-9-9-20-1T |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital Caviar Black 750 GB, 7200 RPM, 32 MB Cache, SATA 3Gb/s |
| Graphics Cards | Zotac GeForce GTX 560 AMP!950/1900 MHz Core/Shaders, 1 GB 1100 MHz Memory (4400 MT/s effective)**clock speed set to reference specification for reference benchmarks |
| Row 5 - Cell 0 | Asus GTX 560 DirectCU II TOP925/1850 MHz Core/Shaders, 1 GB 1050 MHz Memory (4200 MT/s effective) |
| Row 6 - Cell 0 | MSI N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr II 880/1760 MHz Core/Shaders, 1GB 1050 MHz Memory (4200 MT/s effective)**clock speed set to reference specification for benchmarks |
| Row 7 - Cell 0 | MSI N460GTX Cyclone 1GD5 725/1450 MHz Core/Shaders, 1 GB 900 MHz Memory (3600 MT/s effective)**clock speed set to reference specification for benchmarks |
| Row 8 - Cell 0 | AMD Radeon HD 6870900 MHz Core, 1 GB 1050 MHz Memory (4200 MT/s effective) |
| Row 9 - Cell 0 | AMD Radeon HD 6850775 MHz Core, 1 GB 1000 MHz Memory (4000 MT/s effective) |
| Row 10 - Cell 0 | AMD Radeon HD 6790 840 MHz Core, 1 GB 1050 MHz Memory (4200 MT/s effective) |
| Power Supply | ePower EP-1200E10-T2 1200 W, ATX12V, EPS12V |
| CPU Cooler | Cooler Master Hyper TX 2 |
| System Software And Drivers | |
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64 |
| DirectX | DirectX 11 |
| Graphics Driver | GeForce GTX 560: 275.20 BETA, All Other GeForce: 270.61 WHQLRadeon: Catalyst 11.4 |
| Games | |
|---|---|
| Crysis 2 | Very High Quality setting, No AA, 60 second gameplay, Fraps |
| Just Cause 2 | Medium Quality Settings, Textures High, all options enabled except vsync, No AA / 16xAF, Bokeh filter and GPU water disabled (for Nvidia cards), Concrete Jungle Benchmark |
| Bulletstorm | Highest Settings, No AA, 60 second sequence, Fraps |
| F1 2010 | Ultra High Settings, No AA, Steam version, in-game benchmark, DX11 Rendering |
| Aliens Vs. Predator Benchmark | Texture and Shadow quality set to medium, 8x AF, SSAO off, DX11 tessellation off, DX11 advanced shadows off, 0x AA |
| Metro 2033 | DirectX 11, Medium Detail, 4x AF, tessellation enabled, advanced PhysX disabled. |
| H.A.W.X. 2 | Highest settings, DirectX 11 tessellation enabled, built-in benchmark |
| 3DMark 11 | Performance Preset, 1680x1050 |
| Unigine Heaven | Highest settings, no AA, 16x AF, 1680x1050 |
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Prev Page Asus GTX 560 DirectCU II TOP Next Page Benchmark Results: SyntheticsDon Woligroski was a former senior hardware editor for Tom's Hardware. He has covered a wide range of PC hardware topics, including CPUs, GPUs, system building, and emerging technologies.