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| Review: Zotac Geforce GTX 560Ti (1Gb GDDR5) |
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| Posted by Winston | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Monday, 21 February 2011 23:00 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Introduction Ever since Nvidia launched their Geforce GTX 500 Series of graphic cards last year, it's have been making headlines around the world, winning numerous awards. Right now, Nvidia's Geforce GTX 580 is currently the most powerful single GPU based graphics card avilable on the market. Even AMD's flagship Radeon HD 6970 graphics card is no match against the Geforce GTX 580. However, AMD does have a few tricks up their sleeves, including their very impressive Eye-Finity (multi-monitor display) feature, allowing you to use upto 6 monitors, as well as offering excellent performance scalability via their CrossfireX multi-GPU configuration. But having said, your average user or gamer will probably only use one graphics card within their system ... multi-GPU configuration via CrossfireX (AMD/Radeon) or SLI (Nvidia) are a luxury for cash-rich, hardcore gamers who want uncompromised high resolution gaming. Moving on ... Nvidia's recent success have allowed them expanded their range of Geforce GTX 500 series to include the GTX 570, which is a slightly cut-down version of their flagship GTX 580, and now the GTX 560 Ti. The GTX 560 Ti is an interesting addition to the Nvidia's Geforce GTX 500 series, as it sits in between the GTX 570 and the older GTX 460 in terms of numbers. I say old, but it's only been 6 months since the launch GTX 460 ... LOL! But, 6 months in computers terms is a whole generation. I've created a table below, which shows you the comparison between the GTX 570, 560 Ti and the 460. Looking at the numbers, it seems that the GTX 560 Ti might be the imminent replacement for the GTX 460.
In this review, we'll be taking a look at the Zotac Geforce GTX 560 Ti (1Gb GDDR5) graphics card. The Geforce GTX 560 Ti is aimed at the higher-end of the mainstream market, for gamers who's after good performance at a reasonable price. Looking at the Nvidia's website, the GTX 560 Ti is currently the entry-point to their GTX 500 series. However having said that, they may introduce another cut-down version later in the year ... but who knows. The Geforce GTX 560 Ti features all of Nividia's 3D technologies, which includes CUDA, DX11, OpenGL 4.2, PhysX, Nvidia's 3D Vision, support for 2-way SLI multi-GPU, as well as HD hardware video decode acceleration. This particular model from Zotac features a standard GPU with a default clock speed of 822Mhz. It contains total of 384 CUDA cores, and comes with 1Gb of GDDR5 ram using a 256-bit memory interface. It's very similar to the Geforce GTX 460 in terms of specifications. Thanks to its increased clock speed, Nvidia's new GTX 560 Ti GPU can pump out an impressive texture fill rate of 52.5 billion/sec, with a memory bandwidth of 128 GB/sec. This increased numbers should be more than enough for most gamers, who wants high detail, high resolution gaming based on a GTX 500 series graphics card. For connectivity, you get HDMI, DisplayPort, and dual DVI outputs. Accessories include a DVI-to-VGA converter, as well as 2 x PCI-E power cables. The package includes a full version of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (DX11) game, which I think is a great added bonus.
As I've mentioned above, the Zotac Geforce GTX 560 Ti uses a standard GTX 560 Ti GPU clocked at 822Mhz. Although the clock speed does look very high, it is in fact non-overclocked and believe it or not, it's the default clock speed of the GTX 560 Ti. If you're after more performance, then there are two more models Zotac which are actually overclocked ... the Geforce GTX 560 Ti Overclock (850Mhz) and Geforce GTX 560 Ti AMP! Edition (950Mhz). I think the Geforce GTX 560 Ti will do well, as it is attractively priced at around USD $250, which is $100 less than the Geforce GTX 570. Also, since it is the entry-point to Nvidia's Geforce GTX 500 series, it should appeal to a lot of users wishing to hop onto the GTX 500 series bandwagon, gamers especially. And as I've said before, the GTX 560 Ti very similar to the older GTX 460 in terms of specs as features. It uses the same 256-bit memory interface, offers 2-way SLI only, and has similar number of CUDA cores.
We're expecting the Zotac Geforce GTX 560Ti to produce some excellent results from our tests. The increased clocked speeds should give us some increase performance gains. It should fall slightly behind the GTX 570, while outperforming the GTX 460. It will be interesting to see how it compares with other DX11 based graphic cards in our labs. We'll be testing the Zotac Geforce GTX 560 Ti (1Gb GDDR5) on our test rig, which consists of the following ... Intel Core i5 - 650 (LGA 1156), Gigabyte P55 USB3 motherboard, 4Gb Crucial Ballistix DDR3-2133, Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 CPU cooler and a Thermaltake ToughPower XT 875W power supply. It's the same system we've been using to test all our graphics card.
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