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ASUS (NVIDIA) GeForce GTX 560 graphics-card review

by Tarinder Sandhu on 17 May 2011, 14:00 4.0

Tags: ASUSTeK (TPE:2357), NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qa5w3

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How we test

















GPU comparisons

Graphics card Approx.
pricing
GPU clock
(MHz)
Stream
processors
Shader clock
(MHz)
Memory clock
(MHz)
Memory bus
(bits)
Graphics driver
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1,024MB £180 822 384 1,645 4,008 256 ForceWare 275.20
ASUS GeForce GTX 560 TOP 1,024MB £175? 925 336 1,850 4,200 256 ForceWare 275.20
ASUS GeForce GTX 560 1,024MB £155 822 336 1,645 4,008 256 ForceWare 275.20
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1,024MB £110 900 192 1,800 4,104 192 ForceWare 267.59
EVGA GeForce GTX 460 1,024MB £140 675 336 1,350 3,600 256 ForceWare 267.59
KFA2 GeForce GTX 460 768MB £125 675 336 1,350 3,600 192 ForceWare 267.59
Inno3D GeForce GTS 450 1,024MB £90 783 192 1,566 3,608 128 ForceWare 267.59
Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2,048MB £200 800 1,408 800 5,000 256 Catalyst 11.4
AMD Radeon HD 6870 1,024MB £155 900 1,120 900 4,200 256 Catalyst 11.4
Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 1,024MB £130 775 960 775 4,000 256 Catalyst 11.4
AMD Radeon HD 6790 1,024MB £105 820 800 820 4,200 256 Catalyst 11.4
HIS Radeon HD 5770 1,024MB £100 850 800 850 4,800 128 Catalyst 11.4
Sapphire Radeon HD 5750 1,024MB £90 700 720 700 4,600 128 Catalyst 11.4

Test bench

CPU Intel Core i5 2500K (3.30GHz, 6MB L3 cache, quad-core, LGA1155)
Motherboard Intel DP67BG
Memory 8GB Corsair Vengeance (9-9-9-24-2T @ 1,600MHz)
Power Supply Corsair AX750
Monitor Dell 30in 3007WFP
Disk drive(s) Crucial RealSSD C300 (256GB)
Chassis Corsair Graphite Series 600T
Operating system Windows 7, SP1, 64-bit

Benchmarks

3DMark 11 Performance preset, overall score and combined test results recorded.
Aliens vs. Predator DX11, 1,280x720 and 1,920x1,080 resolutions, 2xAA, 8xAF, medium quality.
Call of Duty: Black Ops DX9, 1,280x720 and 1,920x1,080 resolutions, 4xAA, ultra quality, FRAPS-recorded benchmark.
F1 2010 DX11, 1,280x720 and 1,920x1,080 resolutions, 4xAA, high quality, Monaco circuit.
Just Cause 2 DX10, 1,280x720 and 1,920x1,080 resolutions, 4xAA, 16xAF, medium/high quality, Dark Tower benchmark.
Metro 2033 DX11, 1,280x720 and 1,920x1,080 resolutions, 4xAA, 16xAF, medium quality.
StarCraft II DX9, 1,280x720 and 1,920x1,080 resolutions, 2xAA, high quality.
Power consumption To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record mains power draw both when idle and whilst playing Just Cause 2.
Temperature To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record GPU core temperature both when idle and whilst playing Just Cause 2.
Noise A PCE-318 noise level meter is placed at front of a Corsair 600T chassis with side panel on.

Notes

NVIDIA will be releasing the ForceWare 275 drivers later this month. We were provided with a beta set for testing. Offering a slight performance boost over presently-available 270.xx, the main focus here is on improving the control-panel interface for flat-panel TVs, the company says. We'll be taking a closer look at the new drivers once they're WHQL-certified.

We've also tested a reference GTX 560 Ti on our mid-range platform as well as adding numbers for a Radeon HD 6950 2GB and HD 6870. Re-benchmarking these cards on the mid-range suite now gives us a top-to-bottom reference for all cards; these are the lowest GPUs that feature in our high-end testing. This means that every GPU from a £35 Radeon HD 6450 through to two GeForce GTX 580s running in SLI have been tested on the same games, albeit, obviously, not at the same quality settings.

Also, as NVIDIA doesn't provide a reference card for the GTX 560, we've further tested the ASUS TOP by downclocking it to GTX 560 Ti speeds of 822MHz core and 4,008MHz memory. Doing so shows architecture-to-architecture differences - specifically what happens when the card has either 336 or 384 active shaders.