Help choosing a 560Ti (probably) graphics card

[Brewster0101]

Hmm... the 1GB 560Ti is looking a good candidate then.

I use Scan a lot as they're not that far from me (I've used them for years, since they were in a small warehouse in Radcliffe!) I've seen a much better prices on one of the cards though - the 560Ti 448 Core for £220.

Scan are not too competitive at the moment. - Not to bash them too much as I think they are still super.

I'm thinking of swapping my MSI 6870 for a 560ti, tad fed up with AMD drivers.

[foxyrick]

Yeah, I'm seeing a few prices at scan that are several quid higher than other places, some of which have free delivery as well. That's just the stuff I'm considering buying.

I tend to think a few quid is worth it for the convenience of being within driving distance (about 45 minutes) if I have a problem, but a few quid on each item soon mounts up.

...

Back to the cards, looks like that deal on the 560ti 448 core has died so I'll most likely go for the 1GB 560Ti now, unless Scan have a good offer on the 2GB version this weekend.

I think I might just upgrade my whole setup too if the prices are right.

[Paul_Lye]

Yea you do really need the today only deals for scan to 'beat' off the competition but tbh after just buying parts for a new computer (which arrives today) i compared the prices for my parts in scan, amazon, dabs and ebuyer and scan ended winning by a fair margin even factoring in the very expensive delivery cost (just shy of £14 delivery). I got to admit, I did enjoy checking the today only deals every day. Never know what would turn up, by comparison the other sites seemed boring lol

[foxyrick]

I've now read so many comments that BF3 needs more than 1GB that I'm feeling back to square one... not that I might ever even play it, but I'm wondering what else might come out in the next year or so that needs more RAM.

Hmmm... If I did add a second 1GB card in SLI at a later date, would that equate to having 2GB VRAM, or does it not work like that?

Time for more research before I take the plunge...

[foxyrick]

Never mind that question - the answer is it doesn't work like that. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

[Zak33]

Or consider a 560 (non-ti) 1gb card - almost as fast, especially when speeds are bumped a little, but a lot cheaper.

The 560ti 448 is not really a bargain considering the full 570 used to cost only £20 more.

/\ is right if its to be nVidia

and tbh, an ATI 6950 is great. I have one and I was an nvidia boy for a moderate, happy time with 275 and 260's but the 6950 is good.

[8bit]

Sorry to thread hijack but I'm also in the market for (probably) a 560Ti. I'm wondering if the newer 448-core ones are worth the premium over the cheaper (but faster clocked) 384 core ones?

[shaithis]

Hmm, it's highly debatable. Personally I would go with one of the older 560Ti cards or a 570.

[danroyle]

Sorry to thread hijack but I'm also in the market for (probably) a 560Ti. I'm wondering if the newer 448-core ones are worth the premium over the cheaper (but faster clocked) 384 core ones?

i agree with shaithis the newer ones are not really worth the premium.

you can get some really good 1gb 560ti cards for around £155-165 if you look around which puts the new ones at a £50 premium

[Pob255]

The newer one a gtx570 with masked off clusters, in the same way the gtx560 non-ti is just the gtx560ti with masked off clusters.

It should really of been called the gtx565 but nvidia probably didn't want to call it that because of the bad rep the gtx465 had

However unlike the gtx465 which had rather poor performance compared to the gtx460, the gtx560ti 448 is far closer to the gtx570 in performance.

lower clock speeds than the gtx560ti but this time more ROPs and memory bandwidth which make a major difference in the end performance, they've not had to cut it back as much as the gtx465

[Terbinator]

I was under the impression my 480 was faster than a 570

[Pob255]

Yes and No, it depends.
That is an overall score, in some areas the gtx480 is better in other the gtx570 is better
The gtx570 is a slightly higher clock speed, and more texture units (FP16) but slightly lower ROPs and memory bandwidth.
They are pretty much trading blows nether one really comes out on top.

Anything within 0-3% on that table can been seen as equal

[8bit]

The newer one a gtx570 with masked off clusters, in the same way the gtx560 non-ti is just the gtx560ti with masked off clusters.

It should really of been called the gtx565 but nvidia probably didn't want to call it that because of the bad rep the gtx465 had

However unlike the gtx465 which had rather poor performance compared to the gtx460, the gtx560ti 448 is far closer to the gtx570 in performance.

lower clock speeds than the gtx560ti but this time more ROPs and memory bandwidth which make a major difference in the end performance, they've not had to cut it back as much as the gtx465

Cheers Pob, useful info. So looks like the price difference does buy a bit extra performance, interesting. I'll have a look at prices before deciding.

When you say that the newer 560Ti is really a 570 with "masked-off clusters", can these be re-enabled with some sort of firmware/BIOS hack by any chance? Or are these GPUs which have had up to a given number of clusters fail testing so they mask them off and sell them as lesser-spec models?

[timread]

Excuse me for the thread-jack but I'm in a similar position to the OP (except I'll be building out a new system to go with a new GPU)... roughly the same usage (two LCDs - 1920x1080 primary and 1680x1050 secondary; gaming on primary LCD at 1080p in my case), same budget of around £200, up to £250 if it's really warranted... also same noise concerns.

I too like the MSI range with the Twin Frozr cooler, but I'm agnostic between Nvidia and AMD so the options as I see them are:

1. MSI GTX 560 Ti Twin Frozr II 1GB, 384 Cores, £182

2. MSI GTX 560 Ti Twin Frozr II 2GB, 384 Cores, £205

3. MSI HD 6950 Twin Frozr III Power Edition/OC 2GB, £216

4. MSI GTX 560Ti 448 Core Twin Frozr III Power Edition 1280MB, £229

5. MSI GTX 570 Twin Frozr III Power Edition 1280MB, £273

6. AMD HD 6970 cards are thin on the ground, MSI don't seem to be selling a Twin Frozr variant any more. Other brands are retailing from £240-290.

7. Is it worth waiting for AMD/Nvidia 32nm GPUs, e.g. HD 7950 or Kepler, to come into the £200-250 price range? Or will they remain in the £300+ range for the foreseeable future?

It seems like the latest games need 1.3GB+ of vram, so in my mind that rules out the 1GB 560Ti model.

The 448 Core 560Ti is ~10% faster than the 2GB HD 6950, from Pob's results above. But then the 6950 is 6% cheaper.

The MSI GTX 570 is over budget.

To me that makes it a straight fight between 2, 3, and 4 (or play the wait game with what's coming from AMD/Nvidia at 32nm).

Downsides of the Nvidia cards - the GTX 560Ti and GTX 570 cards all use *significantly* more power than the HD6950 2GB card, both at idle and under load - see this review page: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/M...zr_III/25.html

The MSI GTX 560Ti 448 Core does seem to be significantly noisier than it really should be given the Twin Frozr cooler (and even using the Quiet BIOS switch setting), according to the above TechPowerUp review: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/M...zr_III/26.html.

Why is it so difficult choosing a GPU in this price range !!

Personally, I'm still coming down on the side of the 2GB HD 6950... anyone care to argue counterpoint?

[shaithis]

A couple of games require >1GB VRAM @ 1080p when textures are set to ultra.

Other then that, your not going to hit 1GB.

I'm spotting a trend of MSI.....I would seriously recommend the Gigabyte Windforce cards....IMO, they are slightly quieter then the twin frozrs.

[Smudger]

Yea you do really need the today only deals for scan to 'beat' off the competition but tbh after just buying parts for a new computer (which arrives today) i compared the prices for my parts in scan, amazon, dabs and ebuyer and scan ended winning by a fair margin even factoring in the very expensive delivery cost (just shy of £14 delivery). I got to admit, I did enjoy checking the today only deals every day. Never know what would turn up, by comparison the other sites seemed boring lol

Now you've got more than 20 posts, and if you're going to stick around, you can apply for free delivery from Scan. There's a thread somewhere about it...