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Which GTX 560Ti? Trying to find decent ground between "noise" and "performance".

thezeronumber

thezeronumber

thezeronumber

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22 Feb 2011
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[Short version: After a GTX560Ti with good performance and low fan noise but not sure which i would go for. Willing to sacrifice a little of either if it means the other gets an improvement. Power usage and temperatures aren't of much matter, although the lower the better for obvious reasons.]

I made a topic 2 weeks back requesting advice on what GPU to purchase for my system in which i received some very helpful information, so thank you to the community. The 3 options were the GTX 460, 480, or 560Ti. The 460 series ran fairly cool and had low noise but lacked the performance i was after, where-as the 480 series had the performance i wanted yet sacrificed nice temperatures and quiet fans. In the end i decided to with the 560Ti series as it wasn't far behind the 480s but kept the positives of the 460s.

A few days of research later and i thought i had come across a winner. The Sparkle Calibre x560 had great performance, low power usage, reasonable temperatures, and was one of (if not) the best cards when it came to fan noise under high load. The only problem? It doesn't seem to exist anymore and so i cannot buy it. Naturally my thoughts turned to the "second best" GTX 560Ti but i honestly cannot see which one is worth going for. There are so many brand names flying about and different versions of cards that it's making my head spin: Take the Sparkle away and everything else is hard to sort through.

The MSI Twin FrozR is said to have amazing build quality and so-so audio under high-load but suffers in the performance department. It runs very cool so it has over-clocking potential but would the performance really increase that much? Even then, would the fan noise still be the same or would it increase to a noticeable level? I've seen the Gigabyte SOC and it's brilliant performance but it apparently suffers a great deal on the fan noise end, not to mention i've seen a few issues arise with the factory-clocked cards (pushed a bit too far, so i've heard). The Asus is apparently in the middle for audible airflow and performance, which seems like a sensible option if i cannot find a better alternative. The Palit Sonic 1gb didn't look that good to me but apparently there is a 2gb version out, although i've no idea how decent it is. In fact, there are tons of other versions out there which i have no clue about: Zotac, KFA2, Inno3D, PNY, Gainward, and even then there are different types like 1gb, 2gb, OC, Super OC, etc. Could make a guy lose his mind trying to fathom all of that data!

I am really lost on this one, would appreciate the help. The reason i am so touchy about high-load fan noise is not for myself but others around me. The Desktop is situated in an area where a couple of people regularly socialise, watch TV, etc. I don't want to be gaming or rendering/designing something and have the fan audio become so much that it becomes a background annoyance, but at the same time i don't wish to sacrifice a ton of performance if the noise difference is negligible.

Budget is £190-250, which should cover every GTX 560Ti out there.

EDIT: Had to remove one of the brand names i mentioned because apparently it was filtered out and replaced with asterisks... O_o
 
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The gigabyte gtx560 OC here
Or even better the gigabyte gtx560 SOC is a top buy, however ocuk dont seem to have it on stock. But you should be able to get it easily somewhere else
 
Can I ask why you are after only Nvidia and not both brands?

The reason I'm asking is I have a 6950>70 with an AC extreme 5870 cooler and it doesn't get quieter than that, even under load.

The 560 is a great card, but when it's up against the 6950>70, it loses more than it wins.
Yes I know the 560 is a smashing oc'er but the 6950>70 can hit 1GHz too: MY 6950>70 @ 1GHZ, which takes it even further ahead.

The video is pretty boring, but it was just made for proof(to the doubters here;)) and to show the oc stability.
 
tommybhoy said:
Can I ask why you are after only Nvidia and not both brands?

The reason I'm asking is I have a 6950>70 with an AC extreme 5870 cooler and it doesn't get quieter than that, even under load.

The 560 is a great card, but when it's up against the 6950>70, it loses more than it wins.
Yes I know the 560 is a smashing oc'er but the 6950>70 can hit 1GHz too:

The video is pretty boring, but it was just made for proof(to the doubters here;)) and to show the oc stability.
Click to expand...

Not all cards will hit 1GHz and those that do will no doubt have added voltage that may just end up throttling the card. I've had 2 HD6970s and 2 HD6950 and none could achieve 1GHz. The only one that got close was the ASUS DirectCU II card.

There's nothing wrong with a GTX560 and overclocked, it can surprisingly match a HD6970. With the benefit of so many cards being quite cheap and come with custom coolers, it's an excellent buy. The only real downside is the amount of vRAM but that's only an issue at 2560x1600.
 
Ive just purchased the KFA2 (delivery due imminently), whilst its a relatively unkown brand ATM (hence the good price), Ive researched them and they look very promising, Theyre Galaxies premium European brand, just getting into Europe, they listen to their customers and pretty sure have UK based RMA and support, the cards very quiet too, if you google it you can find reviews, though the first few are the White Edition one (clocked further for increased performance), its not too hard to find the other one (Anarchy Edition or simply EX OC) which is actually geared towards low noise which is what I myself was after in a card, they also reportedly clock well

Edit: Guru 3d Review Page 10 for noise levels

And some excerpts

Clock frequency wise the card is factory clocked at a shy 835 MHz on the primary graphics core, and the reference 4000 MHz on the gDDR5 memory (effective datarate). It's a card that is very overclockable.

This card is made with silence in mind, it is still a great overclocker by the way. It comes with KFA2's (Galaxy) own design, the “TwinBlade” dual 90mm silent fan cooler which offers 1.8x more cooling fin than reference cooler.
The huge benefit as you'll learn later on is a much more silent effect.

The Anarchy however sits still at 39 dBA, you can hardly even hear it.

Let's break down the two cards tested, first the KFA2 GTX560 EX OC Anarchy. What a sweet little card this is. Though the cooling is made for one thing, good cooling performance versus low noise levels, that's where this card kicks ass big-time. You will not hear it whatsoever. For a product with OC in the name, we had hoped to see a faster factory GPU clock though, an increase of 13 MHz over the reference product on the GPU core is not what justifies a product to be named OC. However -- and I do say this very specifically, the actual overclock potential is really good. You will easily pass 900 MHz, and 950 is a possibility if you apply a little more RPM on the cooler. It is a very tweakable, silent and sexy product that comes with all the bells and whistles you require from a modern age graphics card purchase.
Click to expand...
 
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Be interested on your views on the noise, I'm massively sensitive to noise from my machine now (having basically had one almost completely passive in the past) and the 4890 I've got is imo too noisy - but bearable with headphones on.
 
Thank you for the replies, these forums are brilliant for speedy and quality posts. :)

I'd like to start by answering tommy's question. I don't have a preference in name and i'm not a follower of one or the other, but i've noticed a couple of games have some artefact problems when it comes to AMD cards. In fact, one of the games i am currently playing and am addicted to (Monday Night Combat) has a running problem with the 5/6xxx series and black artefacts show up on some explosions and particle clouds. 2 months on and they cannot find a fix for it either, so couple that with some other games having similar problems and i'm ruling out AMD for the time being.

I've seen good things about the Gigabyte's performance but i've also heard that the factory OC seems to be a little weird for some people. Not sure why or how, never investigated. I've also heard that it's got some high fan audio compared to the rest of the 560 range, although i imagine it is still fairly quiet. Not sure what to make of this card if i'm honest. The MSI Twin FrozR took my fancy before i read up on review sites and found that it lacks on the performance front. Temperatures are great so it looks to be good for over-clocking, meaning it can probably be a really good performer when given a tweak, i just don't know how that will affect the default fan noise. It may be ok now but if it's going to crank up another 5-10db then i will probably pass on it. Like the Gigabyte, not sure what to make of this card either.

The KFA2 cards intrigue me. They are pretty cheap which brings forth both positive (low price for good performance?) and negative (cheap for a reason?) thoughts. I will have to look into them further because those noise levels are really something!
 
i'd be carefull before buying one, my thread had a few problems with it, but its starting to look like a faulty card which is not very unuasual for my..... everything i buy seems to be faulty.... no lie :/
 
thezeronumber said:
I'd like to start by answering tommy's question. I don't have a preference in name and i'm not a follower of one or the other, but i've noticed a couple of games have some artefact problems when it comes to AMD cards. In fact, one of the games i am currently playing and am addicted to (Monday Night Combat) has a running problem with the 5/6xxx series and black artefacts show up on some explosions and particle clouds. 2 months on and they cannot find a fix for it either, so couple that with some other games having similar problems and i'm ruling out AMD for the time being.
Click to expand...
:cool:
 
I got bored of waiting for the SOC and bought the OC at weekend at the basis of it being a fair bit cheaper and no one knows when the SOC will be back in stock.

I am blown away by its performance, i'll never pay for a high end card again, as for noise its a little louder than the card it replaced which was an 8800GTS but its not unbearable and I hate noise!
 
Oh my, this isn't getting any easier! Unless something crops up before Tuesday afternoon i will probably go ahead and order the MSI Twin FrozR, seeing as it's well priced and has room for some decent over-clocking with its low temperatures. The only cards i've not yet investigated are the Gainward Phantom 2gb and the KFA2 series, but i will get onto that after some sleep (1:35am already? Time flies too quick!) :)
 
As I say, Im very impressed with the KFA2, not had a play at OCing it myself yet but its silent as far as I can tell, read the review I linked to in earlier post, and dont be subject to brand snobbery (not that you would just saying :D)
 
gainwards are good cards but if you have a problem with one in future it only goes downhill from there. Some people say they have a decent RMA but like me and a load of others it took a 6+ month turnaround due to lack of communication between sites.

They have a UK office but all RMA's based in europe are dealt with in Germany and there EXTREMELY fussy for me one of the capacitors blew and they tried to say I modded it which voids warranty and trust me when I say fussy I mean it. After months of battling plus constant letters and e-mails they decided to go back on there word and gave me a replacement but the cheeky buggers gave me an 8400GS when I sent them a 8800 gtx. After 3 months I had bought a GTX 260 anyway so I just said sod em for life.

However I didn't know they weren't dealing with it till 4 months into the RMA as I called the UK office they then said they would chase it up 1 month later still no word called again they said sorry they would chase it up another month went by no word 1 month later I FINALLY get a response from someone in germany saying sorry warranty void no replacment but we can repair it for you for 65 euros. I then thought what a kick in the teeth they just dumped it on the shelf saying sod that and it took months of chasing them up as to what the hell they are doing.

This was in 2008 theres stories like this dating all the way back to 2003 you would have thought they would have improved there RMA.


As for KFA2 as in my sig had a GTX 470 just kicked the bucket in less than 6 months at stock I bought from another site this was there premium GTX 470 as well, so for me I won't buy another one but I don't know much about them just bought it cause it was cheapest non reference with a modded cooler so could be a rare occurance not everyone has a 100% success rate, card is currently at supplier for RMA so see how that goes.
 
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My KFA2 card died after three weeks. It had a mild OC to 900 on the core. I had experimented with higher (975 core including a small voltage bump) but it was running at pure 900 for the last week of its life....went to sleep one day and never woke up.

The KFA2 cards are cheap but I do wonder about the quality.
 
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