Overclocking
I tend to avoid overclocking comparisons in launch stories because they’re disingenuous. It’s humorous to think that the card we receive ahead of an embargo with the note to “check out the amazing overclocking” hasn’t already been binned for above-average headroom.
This time around is different, though. Gigabyte sent me its GV-N560SO-1GI, which it is proud to admit is binned for headroom—a process that helps the company guarantee its 1 GHz operating frequency (up from 822 MHz) and 1145 MHz memory clock (up from 1 GHz). Representatives from Gigabyte say this board will sell for $269, a $20 increase from the $249 reference suggested price.
As you can see, the GeForce GTX 560 Ti running at 1 GHz is substantially faster than the board Nvidia sent over. It’s not quite as fast as a GeForce GTX 570, like Gigabyte claims, but the fact that it’s close, for $80 less, is pretty darned crazy.
Now, like I mentioned, Gigabyte uses its own binning process to sort the GF114 GPUs capable of hitting 1 GHz. Not all of them make that grade. However, it’s a fair bet that a majority of GeForce GTX 560s will reliably hit speeds somewhere in the middle. Nvidia confirms that core clocks around 900 MHz are fairly typical from what it has seen so far.
