Galaxy’s GTX 560 Ti GC – Introducing Nvidia’s Titanium Hunter
Conclusion
This has been quite an enjoyable – if physically exhausting – one week, hand’s on experience for us in comparing our brand-new, under-NDA, Galaxy GTX 560 Ti versus our other 15 video card configurations and we look forward to evaluating further new products from AMD and Nvidia.
We wish that we had more than the 7 days that we were allowed to benchmark the GTX 560 Ti so as to give you our first impressions. Fortunately, we have been gaming for months with our other test cards, so that we can provide you with a reliable comparison. We feel priviliged to bring you our very first benchmarks and performance testing of Nvidia’s amazing value GTX 560 Ti.
We like the new Galaxy GTX 560 Ti GC quite a lot and it has exceeded this editor’s own expectations. Soon we will cover AMD’s continued launch of their HD 6000 series Antilles dual-GPU with which they expect to take on GTX 580. In the meantime, feel free to comment below, ask questions or have a detailed discussion in our ABT forum. If you have any requests on what you would like for us to focus on for further testing or for any other information, please join our ABT forum or leave a comment.
Galaxy GTX 560 Ti GC
Pros and Cons:
Pros:
- The Galaxy GTX 560 Ti GC is much faster than its competition, HD 6870 and is slightly faster than HD 6950 in the latest DX11 games; Nvidia has brought $300 performance into a $250 package.
- There is further room for overclocking and good scalibility.
- New architecture brings support for GPU computing and a level of performance way beyond the last generation.
- DX11 and great support for tessellation, PhysX and CUDA, 3D gaming, and 2D/3D Surround (with SLI) bring realism to gaming
- Galaxy’s 3rd generation detachable fans and highly efficient cooler is great for achieving and keeping your OC by keeping your GPU cool. It is one dual-fan awesome cooler that tames GTX 560’s thermals very quietly, even at full load.
- Power draw limiter is left off the Galaxy models. There is no need for it and it may benefit overclocking without it.
- If you are considering SLI (for performance, 3D or Suround), 2 x GTX 560 Ti is a very potent performance solution.
Cons:
- Price and uncertainty about AMD’s new HD 6950-1GB. The market will decide.
- The dual fans on the Galaxy GTX 560 Ti GC are difficult to avoid handling during installation; there is worry about possible breakage if they are handled roughly.
That’s it. For about the same price or slightly more than a reference HD 6870 or an overclocked version; a bit less than a HD 6950-1 GB, you get all the features that Nvidia video cards have to offer in a very solidly-built, cool and quiet-running GTX 560 Ti! Add to this all the benefits of a premium Galaxy card with their excellent customer service and 2-year warranty, their superb quiet cooling solutions, and we feel that Nvidia/Galaxy have a real winner in their GTX 560 Ti GC to offer us and we are pleased to award them our ABT Great Value award! Great Value as Nvidia has succeeded in bringing the performance of the $350 GTX 470 into a $250 package that is much cooler running and quieter to boot! Add on top of that Galaxy’s amazing cooling fans and great support and you cannot go wrong with the GTX 560 Ti GC for 1920×1200 gaming.
We do not know what the future will bring, but this amazing card brings a great value to the Fermi family of GTX “hunters” in Nvidia’s lineup. Look for it at an etailer this week. This editor believes that Nvidia brings a very remarkable full-featured DX11 GPU lineup to the market that will find good acceptance among customers and their fans alike. Fermi architecture is impressive and flexible and it does translate to performance in gaming – although with a bit of a price premium.
We have also seen Nvidia’s drivers improve and their multi-GPU SLI scaling for newer games is very impressive. We also like the direction they are heading in with their simplified installations of the GeForce 260 drivers.
If you currently game on a 8800 GTX, 8800 GTS, or 9800 GT class of card on up to HD 4870 and GTX 280, you will do yourself a big favor by upgrading. The move to a GTX 560 will give you better visuals on the DX11 pathway and you are no doubt thinking of GTX 560 Ti SLI if you want to get even higher performance or want to use Suround’s three-panel display (which we are going to explore in a future article versus Eyefinity).
If the many exclusive features of the new GTX 560 Ti appeal to you and you are gaming at 1920×1080 or above, you cannot go wrong with a Galaxy GTX 580 Ti GC. In this editor’s experience, it is also great choice if you are considering overclocking further as scaling is superb and the cooling is up to the task.
The competition is hot as the prices on both the HD 6870 and the HD 6950 have softened and they offer their own set of features including a cheaper way to experience 3-panel multi-display with Eyefinity. And AMD is also bringing out their Antilles-based highest performing dual-GPU video card out shortly. Stay tuned, there is a lot coming from us at ABT.
Mark Poppin
ABT Senior Editor
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Waaah! this was one amazing review, excellent job Poppin!
I’m already thinking of upgrading my system 😛
fantastic review gives out the Clear picture which gives out what and there is no Bias of favoring nvidia or ati like we get to see on other sites
great work done !!
Hey, another stellar review–glad to see even more games. You continue to lead the web with by far the most games benchmarked.
Just curious about the Mafia II 2560×1600 results, where GTX 570 is much, much slower than GTX 480.. was it an accident with using different settings, or is it a glitch with newer drivers?
Thank-you!
In Mafia II, the GTX 570 (266.58) and the GTX 480 (263.09) are using different drivers and should not be directly compared to each other. Generally, the brand new GeForce driver set evenly brought overall excellent performance increases over the last set – but with a couple of oddities in my system.
There were three instances (out of 64 benchmarks) where the GTX 570 failed to perform as expected and where I repeated the benchmarks many times and checked and rechecked settings. I would guess that they are driver-related since they did not show in the earlier driver set.
Of course, it is possible that a resolution setting got accidentally changed between the time that I ran the first set and last weeks testing so I will retest these same benches over again. In my follow up article which is going to pit SLI versus CrossFire, we shall use the (same) latest drivers for GTX 480 and GTX 570 (for single and SLI results).
It was a resolution setting. I tested the GTX 480 at 1920×1200, not at 2560×1600. The charts have been corrected and only the competing cards tested with the very latest driver set are compared now.
Thank-you for bring this error to my attention!
“we found the GTX 460 to be just a bit cooler-running than our GTX 460”
Thank-you. Typo Fixed.
“We found the GTX 560 Ti to be just a bit cooler-running than our GTX 460.”
Article word count: 13,316 😛
“And now we test at 1920×1200:”
You then put the graph for 1680×1050 😉