HEXUS: NVIDIA's release of the GeForce GTX 560 Ti on January 25 marks the introduction of the 5-series GPU architecture this side of £200. Combing through the specifications of the new card shows that, really, its design is akin to a GeForce GTX 460 on some Balco steroids.
Knowing that the GTX 460 GPU's specifications have been set very conservatively and that most can run at the 822MHz/4,008MHz clocks of the GTX 560 Ti with nothing more than a quick dabble in an overclocking program, we set out to investigate just how a Ti 560-clocked GTX 460 1GB would perform. Doing so provides a good indication of architecture-to-architecture differences and will, we hope, give present GTX 460 owners an informed opinion on whether an upgrade is necessary.
ASUS began bundling copies of Battlefield 3 (not Limited Edition) and an ASUS-Battlefield 3 themed Lanyard with GeForce GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II TOP graphics card and Xonar D2X PCI-Express 7.1 channel sound card. You can buy either of those and get a Battlefield 3 coupon that can be redeemed on Origin.
Benchmark Reviews: It's hard to believe the last time I used a Titanium NVIDIA GPU was in 2002. The GeForce GTX 560 Ti is the new boom in the "mid-end" sector. It replaces the highly overclock-able GTX 460 video card and adds extra MHz and cores increasing 20-40% performance in many games. As it could be expected, brands like ASUS, GIGABYTE or MSI will pair this GPU with a special heatsink-cooler and increase factory frequencies to sell it at a higher price. Benchmark Reviews tests the ASUS ENGTX560 Ti DCII TOP. DCII means this card now comes with an improved version of the Direct CU cooler, now with 2 fans and adding dissipation area. They also tag this product as TOP because it sports a 900MHz GPU core instead of the 822MHz from the reference design and 1050MHz instead of 1000MHz from stock.
Based on ASUS DirectCU, which uses copper heat pipes in direct contact with the GPU core for up to 20% cooler performance, DirectCU II adds a custom cooler that uses twin 100mm fans for a massive 600% increase in airflow on HD 6970, HD 6950, GTX 580, and GTX 570 DirectCU II cards. ASUS has also launched the GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II TOP graphics card with dual 80mm fans for the best performance in its segment through doubled air power.
