Verdict and Conclusion
When I first got this card I thought it was going to be one of those cheap cards that doesn’t really offer too much for someone running a higher resolution. Oh boy, was I wrong. This card has the horsepower to play 1920×1200 easily on pretty much every game out there. It was easily able to hang with my GTX580 in terms of playability. Sure you dont get the huge FPS that comes with buying a top of the line card, but everything is more than playable. Sure you get a few fps dips but they aren’t enough to take someone away from buying a card like this if you are on a budget.
Zotac has a real winner with this card, it has the power to make the GTX560Ti redundant. You have the ability to save a few bucks and have the same performance of a faster card. In my eyes, that is absolutely outstanding.
When buying a midrange card like this you give up the super-high FPS that comes when you buy a top of the line card, but you can save a huge chunk of money doing so. If one were to buy a couple of these cards and throw them in SLI they would easily be able to give a GTX580 a run for its money, yet cost less.
Including a game was pure genius on Zotacs part. These days hardly any companies have the afterthought of including a game in the package. Usually, you get a demo or a coupon for some software you may never use. If you were planning on buying Assassins Creed: Brotherhood, it is a nice way to save yourself $50.
Noise and heat were never a concern during testing. Although, it would be great if Zotac could unlock the bios on the cards to allow for 100% fan speed. They put a limit on the fan speed to 75% which in my eyes really limits the card from hitting its full potential. When pushing the card past 1ghz core I was greeted to skyrocketing temps due to the fan only being able to run at 75%. Noise can get a little loud at 75%, but its not something you will notice during an intense gaming session or running some benchmarks.
Price-wise, this card comes in at around $220USD which is a good price. There are other cards out there from other makers that are a bit cheaper and can overclock to the same speeds. Most of those cards dont come with a game though, so if you were planning on buying Assassins Creed, think of it as a price-saving bundle.
The factory overclock on this card is one thing I must talk about. In the industry it is common for a company to throw a 10mhz overclock on a card, call it the Supermegaoverclocksawesome edition, and charge $40-50 more. Zotac charges a bit more than its entry-level GTX560, but you get a nice difference. You are greeted by a 140mhz factory overclock over reference clocks, and a nice dual-slot cooler. The factory overclock is absolutely insane for todays standards. It is nice to have that much of an overclock guaranteed out of the box for most people that dont want to take the risk of buying a cheaper card and overclocking it.
Final words. Coming from a GTX580, I was thinking to myself that this card wouldn’t be able to impress me and I would find it lackluster. Well, that is not the case at all. The GTX560 is an absolute beast for its price-range. It throws down big numbers in benchmarks and games alike. If you want great performance without breaking the bank, a GTX560 will surely be a great bet.
Good:
- Awesome bang for the buck
- Dual-fan cooler keeps temps low
- Huge factory overclock
- Game bundled in
- Price point
Bad:
- Fans are limited to 75% speed
- No voltage control
SCORE
9.1/10
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