GTX 560 Ti - MSI Hawk (950Mhz) or Gigabyte SOC (1Ghz)

[stormy]

Hello Hexus people,

Looking to upgrade my PC shortly with a new motherboard, CPU and ram. Pretty much decided there (i5 2500k) and am not sure on graphics. At current I have a 520W Corsair modular supply so think it should be able to cope with either the
GTX 560 Ti - MSI Hawk (950Mhz) or Gigabyte SOC (1Ghz) no problem.

I have read a few posts on the net about problems with some of these cards but not sure if thats just the run of the mill problems with any cards (ie artifacts in games and OCCT at standard factory clocks).

I have seen positive review on the Hawk and the 950Mhz GSOC performance and noise wise, although can't see much on the 1Ghz. As I also want the card to be as quiet as a 560 Ti can be.

Any of you guys out there running these cards and have some comment?

Cheers,

Mike

[Domestic_Ginger]

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...abyte-msi.html

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would save up a bit of extra money and get a GTX570 instead for under £240:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1280m...s-dl-dvi-mhdmi

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1280m...s-dl-dvi-mhdmi

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/250492

The highly overclocked GTX560TI cards have hardly any overclocking headroom left unlike the standard GTX570 cards. The GTX570 cards have more shaders and more VRAM too.

Also,some of the earlier GTX560TI SOC cards had stability issues IIRC.

The HD6970 2GB can also be had for under £240:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-s...es-2x-mdp-hdmi

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/253396

TBH,I would not spend more than around £185 on 1GB VRAM graphics card.

For instance these HD6950 1GB cards have decent coolers and AFAIK can be overclocked a decent amount:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...56&subcat=1752

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-g...2x-dvi-dp-hdmi

There is also this GTX560TI card which has a decent cooler too:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-a...84-cores-mhdmi

There are also some decent HD6950 2GB cards too:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-m...mhz-1408-cores

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...56&subcat=1752

Some of the non-referance cards can be unlocked although it is less likely.

This HD6950 2GB referance card has a good chance of being unlocked to the same number of shaders as an HD6970 2GB:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-x...vi-hdmi-2x-mdp

[stormy]

Thanks very much ffor the replies so far.

Cat, the problem with the 570 is that its going to need a 600W PSU+ and so with the cost of the extra on the graphics card, and the PSU cost it makes it not as attractive as the 560 Ti OC/SOC.

Also with it obviously needing more power, its likely to be noisier. Thats another reason to look at the MSI/Gigabyte cards above as they get great reviews on noise.

While of course I would prefer to get bigger and better, I have to balance it with cost.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thanks very much ffor the replies so far.

Cat, the problem with the 570 is that its going to need a 600W PSU+ and so with the cost of the extra on the graphics card, and the PSU cost it makes it not as attractive as the 560 Ti OC/SOC.

Also with it obviously needing more power, its likely to be noisier. Thats another reason to look at the MSI/Gigabyte cards above as they get great reviews on noise.

While of course I would prefer to get bigger and better, I have to balance it with cost.

The overclocked GTX560TI cards suck up a lot of power.





The referance GTX570 card actually consumes less power and the referance HD6970 and HD6950 cards even less power. If you want power efficiency the AMD cards are still better.

The referance GTX570,HD6950 and HD6970 cards are still quieter too.

[Ferral]

I recently bought the EVGA 560 Ti 1Gb Superclocked edition, runs everything a treat and from what I have been reading overclocks quite well if that is your thing. Good thing about EVGA also is that if you register your card within 30 days of purchase you get a 10 year limited warranty, also got a free copy of Mafia 2 on Steam and Futuremark 3DMark 11 key.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-e...vi-i-mini-hdmi

I paid £179 for it about 2 weeks ago, worth every penny and its pretty quiet even under load.

[stormy]

Cat, I can only go on what the manufacturers say although I can't seem to find what MSI Say, for Gigabyte:

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/lis...,62&v=1,1@2,16

600W+ for 570 and 500W+ for 560Ti even the overclocked varients. Hmmmm. Odd. But I can imagine if I have any issues with the 570 the retailer or OEM would be blaming my 520W Corsair PSU.

So dunno what to do now. I want to go with nvidia this time (my present card is ATI) around as most games I play or want to play seem to be optimised that way.

Ferral, Ah right looks good, its gone up in price and is not in stock at the moment although they do have this one instock:

1GB EVGA GTX 560Ti DS Superclocked

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-e...s-dl-dvi-mhdmi

Only 3 year warrenty though.

Incidently, EVGA also state:

Requirements
Minimum of a 500 power supply.
(Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 30 Amps.)
Two available 6-pin PCI-E power dongles

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I can only go on what the manufacturers say although I can't seem to find what MSI Say, for Gigabyte:

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/lis...,62&v=1,1@2,16

600W+ for 570 and 500W+ for 560Ti even the overclocked varients. Hmmmm. Odd. But I can imagine if I have any issues with the 570 the retailer or OEM would be blaming my 520W Corsair PSU.

So dunno what to do now. I want to go with nvidia this time (my present card is ATI) around as most games I play or want to play seem to be optimised that way.

Have they stated exactly what models of PSU?? Nope. Many of the companies overstate the PSU requirement especially if they have their own PSUs lines or have links with some PSUs companies.

Reviews,are a more objective way of looking at what PSU you need.

Ferral, Ah right looks good, its gone up in price and is not in stock at the moment although they do have this one instock:

1GB EVGA GTX 560Ti DS Superclocked

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-e...s-dl-dvi-mhdmi

I didnt realise the 10 year warrenty applied to UK? If so thats great and might sway the balance.

Incidently, EVGA also state:

Requirements
Minimum of a 500 power supply.
(Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 30 Amps.)
Two available 6-pin PCI-E power dongles

EVGA have a decent warranty but you need to ship the card to Germany. However,I would check the small print. I really doubt if your card failed after 5 years you would get an equivalent tier card. If this is the case EVGA would go out of business. BFG did.

The MSI cards I mentioned also have a decent warranty too.

[stormy]

Have they stated exactly what models of PSU?? Nope. Many of the companies overstate the PSU requirement especially if they have their own PSUs lines or have links with some PSUs companies.

Reviews,are a more objective way of looking at what PSU you need.

EVGA have a decent warranty but you need to ship the card to Germany. However,I would check the small print. I really doubt if your card failed after 5 years you would get an equivalent tier card. If this is the case EVGA would go out of business. BFG did.

The MSI cards I mentioned also have a decent warranty too.

Yeh, I understand perfectly what you are saying re the power, but imagine the scenario where I am having problems with the card (whatever they are) and call them up. "Oh your power supply is only 520W, thats not good enough for our 570 range, it says 600W+ on our litrature"

While my PSU is only 520W its very good still, and 570 + New PSU is going to be a lot more expensive than a 560Ti unfortunately.

Yeh, warrenty small print is always a killer.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Yeh, I understand perfectly what you are saying re the power, but imagine the scenario where I am having problems with the card (whatever they are) and call them up. "Oh your power supply is only 520W, thats not good enough for our 570 range, it says 600W+ on our litrature"

While my PSU is only 520W its very good still, and 570 + New PSU is going to be a lot more expensive than a 560Ti unfortunately.

Yeh, warrenty small print is always a killer.

Perhaps not the £180 GTX560TI Ferral linked to but the 1GHZ SOC card is around £209. The MSI GTX570 is £239 and the PNY GTX570 is around £227. The GTX570 will also have a better resale value as it is a higher tier card. Again,as I have shown the highly overclocked GTX560TI cards consume more power or similar power at load when compared to a GTX570.

This post on warranties is useful to read:

http://forums.hexus.net/graphics-car...ally-look.html

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

BTW,if you have a problem with a card then say you have an HX620W, sorted!!

[stormy]

BTW,if you have a problem with a card then say you have an HX620W, sorted!!

Hehe, very good point. Do you think the 520W powersupply will be ok with the 570 and my setup which will look sth like:

Intel Core i5 2500K CPU 3.3Ghz, maybe slight overclock.
Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3-B3 Motherboard (Intel Z68 Chipset, DDR3, Socket 1155)
Coolermaster TX3 Cooler
Corsair 8GB (2x4GB) Vengeance 1600Mhz RAM
Corsair 120GB Force SSD
WD SE16 7200RPM 16Mb Cache - 1x500Gb + 1x320Gb (might drop the second HD)
Corsair HX520W (as mentioned)
Antec P180 case (3 fans)
Panasonic 16x (or sth like that) DVD-RW, cant remember model.

+ the graphics card.

Edit: used this site and looks like I have a little headroom.. http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine But of course thats only a guide, says Minimum 400W, Recommended 450W.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Hehe, very good point. Do you think the 520W powersupply will be ok with the 570 and my setup which will look sth like:

Intel Core i5 2500K CPU 3.3Ghz, maybe slight overclock.
Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3-B3 Motherboard (Intel Z68 Chipset, DDR3, Socket 1155)
Coolermaster TX3 Cooler
Corsair 8GB (2x4GB) Vengeance 1600Mhz RAM
Corsair 120GB Force SSD
WD SE16 7200RPM 16Mb Cache - 1x500Gb + 1x320Gb (might drop the second HD)
Corsair HX520W (as mentioned)
Antec P180 case (3 fans)
Panasonic 16x (or sth like that) DVD-RW, cant remember model.

+ the graphics card.

I have an HX520W myself!! It is certainly a decent PSU.

Certainly a Core i5 2500K and a GTX570 at stock speeds should be fine. I don't know how much of a power hog an overclocked Core i5 2500K is though??

It might be worth starting another thread to get other peoples opinions too but I think it will be fine TBH.

[planet436]

Bit-tech have power consumption numbers for overclocking the 2500k here. Mind that using Prime95 to get these numbers won't be indicative of real world usage since they stress the system something chronic.

[ed^chigliak]

I think it will be fine too. If you had some garbage brand PSU at 600W+ I'd be more worried.