Soldato
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Review Thread
- Thread starter Spudgun
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Associate
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Very tempted to get the MSI version. I'm still running a 8800GT here, but I only play SC2, so having a hard time justifying +-£200 on an upgrade.
I just look at their apple to apples tests and guess what? they are benching the 560 1GB v 6950 2GB at 2560x1600, anyone buy a 1GB card to run at that res?? sites a joke.
Caporegime
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It is mentioned in the review that the 2GB of RAM is the reason that the HD6950 is doing better.
So you ignore the majority of the review then? They run tests at several lower resolutions and the apples to apples bit is an afterthought really. They regularly give out gold awards to NVIDIA cards. The GTX460 got one for example.
They even turned on PhysX in one test here (and listed it as an advantage). It's amazing how many sites just leave it off.
It's obvious they bench at that res to make the Nvidia look bad, like I said if they are doing reviews to show consumers what the best card is they would bench at a realistic res for a 1GB card, and considering the apples to apples test are really the only thing worth looking at it's a big con.
Soldato
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They also seem to be one of the only sites that try to give the user feed back as to what the gameplay using the cards will be like along with max possible settings. Thats why i rate [H] as most other sites just run canned benchmarks and pretty much tell you the same as all other sites. You can also get a feel for how the game is running with the real time frame graphcs.
Looking like a nice upgrade from my 260-216, feel like I've had this card forever! Though in it's defence there isn't a whole lot (anything) I've tried to play recently that it doesn't tear through, so it's probably why I haven't noticed about upgrading it.
Maybe, it just seems like their basing their review on the logic of 2560x1600. Although when it comes to CPU's usually they really diss AMD CPU's.RavenXXX2 said:
What really annoys me about Hardocp is they just show results at 2560x1600, seems daft - I bet theirs more people running 1680x1050 and 1920x1980, I wish they would do the review results on all resolutions.
Hardocp must think everyones loaded and can afford £800+ TFT's lol.
Man of Honour
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These are certainly very impressive graphics cards. If for instance the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560Ti OC can overclock to near the speeds of the SOC version, you have a card that is performing as well as the GTX 570 for under £200. If you go for the SOC version on the other hand and overclock it even further, you have a £230 graphics card which is performing fairly close to a £400 graphics card i.e. the GTX 580.
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 Ti SOC review
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 Ti SOC review
Think both cards will actually be fairly even on 'bang for your buck', just waiting for more retailers to list the 6950 1GB cards so we can get a better idea of the actual prices. Guess it'll come down to whether most of the games you play run better on nvidia or AMD cards...
Soldato
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If the game is playable at max settings 2560x1600 or 1920x1200 which seems to be the case in all the games benched in the [H] review whats the point in benching at a lower res as its obviously all cards involved will give a great experience at lower res.
Anyhow the gtx560 looks like another solid card from nvidia. If thinking of a purchase between a 6950 and a gtx560 you most likely have to look at the games you will be playing as to which will be the better buy.
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Let's face it, if the GTX 560 was cheaper [H] would gave slapped a gold award in it. It's just that to get that award a graphics card must offer the best bang at its price level.
When they get around to reviewing overclocked cards I'm sure that there'll be an award or two.
When they get around to reviewing overclocked cards I'm sure that there'll be an award or two.
Caporegime
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The problem is that the AMD released the HD6950 1GB and dropped the price of the HD6870 1GB and HD6950 2GB too.
that msi one looks tasty I would imagine it would be quiet and cool with those fans on it. This morning I was thinking about getting a 570 but looking at the performance of an overclocked 560 I might just get the msi one
should be a good improvment over my 260
should be a good improvment over my 260
Yeah one card is 1GB the other 2GB, so results are skewed at max res, therefor them results have no relevance to results at a lower res, considering the only fair comparison is the apple to apples test I would not base buying a 560 on OCP's review. Go look at the other reviews where it paints a completely different picture at 1920 res where the 560 and 6950 are on par for the most part.
Anandtech, always trust them.
Caporegime
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Anandtech review conclusion(full)
Final Thoughts
Wrapping things up, for the last week now I’ve been spending a considerable amount of time going over two thoughts: 1) What do I make of the GTX 560 Ti, and 2) What do I make of the name? The latter may sound silly, but I’m almost positive it’s the more important question. After all, why would NVIDIA resurrect the Ti suffix after an 8 year absence?
The answer I believe is a matter of momentum. There was a reason we called the GTX 460 the $200 King at its introduction: it was an aggressively priced card that shifted the market overnight, delivering a very high quality midrange card to a market that AMD failed to hit during their reign as the king. With a number of very quick price drops following its launch, it quickly became the $200 card of choice until AMD could fire back with the Radeon HD 6800 series. I would not classify it as the kind of legendary card that NVIDIA’s Ti 4200 became, but it had a good shot at it.
NVIDIA is now faced with a question of how they should follow-up on the GTX 460 only 6 months later. It would be difficult to recreate the GTX 460’s launch at this time – the market doesn’t have any gaping holes and NVIDIA does not have a brand-new chip. But NVIDIA wants to recreate July of 2010 anyhow – and with any luck April of 2002 while they’re at it. And that is why we have Ti.
To get a 30% performance improvement out of what’s fundamentally the same GPU is quite an accomplishment. I do not believe NVIDIA was originally intending for it to be this way (rather they’d launch something like the 560 back in July of 2010), but the result is nevertheless remarkable. Since the launch of the GTX 460 NVIDIA’s launches have been mostly solid, and the GTX 560 Ti adds to that list. Price/performance is not quite as aggressive as the GTX 460, but NVIDIA is still being aggressive enough to reshape the market – why else are we seeing Radeon HD 6800s for so cheap, and the very sudden launch of the 1GB Radeon HD 6950?
So what do I make of the GTX 560 Ti? There’s the question I haven’t quite answered. It seems like the video cards that go down in history as being truly great are aggressively priced cards the competition has no immediate answer for. I firmly believe that NVIDIA deserves most of the credit for the recent shakeup in video card pricing between $200 and $300 due to the launch of the GTX 560 Ti. But credit is not the same as a solid recommendation.
AMD’s scramble to launch the Radeon HD 6950 1GB has produced a card with similar levels of performance and pricing as the GTX 560 Ti, making it impossible to just blindly recommend the GTX 560 Ti. With sufficient case cooling both the GTX 560 and the Radeon HD 6950 1GB are good cards for the price, and represent a meaningful step up from where we were just 2 weeks ago. Ultimately I think the situation is very similar to December’s launch of the 6900 series, and the match-up between the GTX 570 and the Radeon HD 6970: we have two very similar cards in almost all respects. The GTX 560 Ti ultimately has the edge: it’s a bit faster and it’s quieter than the 6950, and if that’s all you care about then there’s the answer you seek. But you could grab the 6950 1GB and you’d be doing no worse. The deciding factor seems to come down to just how much to value noise and cooling (560) versus power consumption (6950), what games you play, and whether you’re currently invested in the NVIDIA (CUDA, 3D Vision) or AMD (Eyefinity) ecosystem.
In the long run I suspect pricing pressures will make things clearer. Based on what we’ve seen with the GTX 460, NVIDIA clearly has more pricing latitude than AMD with products in this range and with GPUs between 300mm2 and 400mm2. A stalemate is only 1 price drop away from being a clear victory for NVIDIA, so it may simply come down to just how badly NVIDIA wants to win.
Final Thoughts
Wrapping things up, for the last week now I’ve been spending a considerable amount of time going over two thoughts: 1) What do I make of the GTX 560 Ti, and 2) What do I make of the name? The latter may sound silly, but I’m almost positive it’s the more important question. After all, why would NVIDIA resurrect the Ti suffix after an 8 year absence?
The answer I believe is a matter of momentum. There was a reason we called the GTX 460 the $200 King at its introduction: it was an aggressively priced card that shifted the market overnight, delivering a very high quality midrange card to a market that AMD failed to hit during their reign as the king. With a number of very quick price drops following its launch, it quickly became the $200 card of choice until AMD could fire back with the Radeon HD 6800 series. I would not classify it as the kind of legendary card that NVIDIA’s Ti 4200 became, but it had a good shot at it.
NVIDIA is now faced with a question of how they should follow-up on the GTX 460 only 6 months later. It would be difficult to recreate the GTX 460’s launch at this time – the market doesn’t have any gaping holes and NVIDIA does not have a brand-new chip. But NVIDIA wants to recreate July of 2010 anyhow – and with any luck April of 2002 while they’re at it. And that is why we have Ti.
To get a 30% performance improvement out of what’s fundamentally the same GPU is quite an accomplishment. I do not believe NVIDIA was originally intending for it to be this way (rather they’d launch something like the 560 back in July of 2010), but the result is nevertheless remarkable. Since the launch of the GTX 460 NVIDIA’s launches have been mostly solid, and the GTX 560 Ti adds to that list. Price/performance is not quite as aggressive as the GTX 460, but NVIDIA is still being aggressive enough to reshape the market – why else are we seeing Radeon HD 6800s for so cheap, and the very sudden launch of the 1GB Radeon HD 6950?
So what do I make of the GTX 560 Ti? There’s the question I haven’t quite answered. It seems like the video cards that go down in history as being truly great are aggressively priced cards the competition has no immediate answer for. I firmly believe that NVIDIA deserves most of the credit for the recent shakeup in video card pricing between $200 and $300 due to the launch of the GTX 560 Ti. But credit is not the same as a solid recommendation.
AMD’s scramble to launch the Radeon HD 6950 1GB has produced a card with similar levels of performance and pricing as the GTX 560 Ti, making it impossible to just blindly recommend the GTX 560 Ti. With sufficient case cooling both the GTX 560 and the Radeon HD 6950 1GB are good cards for the price, and represent a meaningful step up from where we were just 2 weeks ago. Ultimately I think the situation is very similar to December’s launch of the 6900 series, and the match-up between the GTX 570 and the Radeon HD 6970: we have two very similar cards in almost all respects. The GTX 560 Ti ultimately has the edge: it’s a bit faster and it’s quieter than the 6950, and if that’s all you care about then there’s the answer you seek. But you could grab the 6950 1GB and you’d be doing no worse. The deciding factor seems to come down to just how much to value noise and cooling (560) versus power consumption (6950), what games you play, and whether you’re currently invested in the NVIDIA (CUDA, 3D Vision) or AMD (Eyefinity) ecosystem.
In the long run I suspect pricing pressures will make things clearer. Based on what we’ve seen with the GTX 460, NVIDIA clearly has more pricing latitude than AMD with products in this range and with GPUs between 300mm2 and 400mm2. A stalemate is only 1 price drop away from being a clear victory for NVIDIA, so it may simply come down to just how badly NVIDIA wants to win.
Soldato
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Sorry raven but why trust only anand? Is it because they paint the picture of what you want to see. As i said above it all seems to be down to the games used these days as to what picture is painted in each review so i then go to [H] to see what kind of real time gameplay experience each card is giving in the games they use.