Which 560ti to buy...?

[Skiz]

I'll be buying a new graphics card to finish off my new build but I need a few suggestions before doing so. I'm not a gamer at all but I am good for buying about one or two games a year. I have 2 8800GTS's in SLI right now and have basically settled on the EVGA 560ti as my upgrade. I'm currently looking for suggestions on which one to buy.

Choice #1

EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti DS Superclocked - $269 - lifetime limited warranty

1024MB GDDR5 Memory
PCI-E 2.0 16x
900Mhz GPU Clock Speed
4212Mhz Memory Clock Speed
NVIDIA SLI ready

Choice #2

EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti - $299 - 3 year limited warranty

2048MB Memory
PCI-E 2.0 16x
822Mhz GPU Clock Speed
4000Mhz Memory Clock Speed
NVIDIA SLI ready


Potentially relevant system specs:

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz
Windows 7 "Enterprise" 64-bit
GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3 LGA motherboard
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (DDR3 1600)
Cooler Master 690 case
750W Corsair modular PSU

[Snee]

I nearly bought two 560Tis, in fact I went so far as to order and then cancel my order (it was 1:25 in the morning, on a sunday) and they fucked up and sent them out anyways. (I'll be sending them back, free of charge.)

The reason I'm not keeping them is kepler. GK104 *should* hit stores come march-april, and the thing is that while I'm not sure that they'll be twice as good, as NVidia is implying, I think it might be worth the wait just to see how they turn out, them being midrange and slated to occupy the same price-range as the 560s originally did.


However, if you have to choose between those exact two, it's difficult, I'd say. On the one hand games like BF3 and Skyrim on Ultra can presumably eat over a gig of VRam at FullHD or more, and more games are sure to follow that trend, on the other hand it's not certain the GPU is actually powerful enough to use that much VRam, which should mean that an OC'd Superclocked 560Ti with a mere 1GB of VRam might give you more of a gain, it being faster, and presumably better suited for even more overclocking, what with that edition getting the choice chips.

If I absolutely was to order something else with the moniker 560Ti, though, I'd look into something with a 448-core. They sit about in the middle of the 560s and 570s, and come with a 25% buff in VRam as standard. They also support triple SLi



The ones I ordered were the Asus OC DCUII version. Nice cooler on those. No idea what the EVGAs are like.

As a sidenote, most 560Tis I know of don't have a proper HDMI-port. They come with a mini-hdmi port + an adapter. That may or may not lead to a loss of quality. If you're planning on using something HDMI, keep that in mind.

[bijoy]

The Choice #1, because of higher clock speed & also have the added advantage of dual fan cooling.

Asus OC DCUII is also good, but the bad thing is, it takes 3 extension slots. And in CM690 cabinet, if you ever think about going for dual GPU setup, you just can't add any other extension card (i.e. sound card etc)

[Snee]

Asus OC DCUII is also good, but the bad thing is, it takes 3 extension slots.

Not that it matters since he's probably gotten one of the EVGAs by now, but no, no it (http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1284243&CatId=3585) doesn't.

[Skiz]

No, I haven't pulled the trigger just yet. That post had a lot of good info so I figured I'd wait like you said and look at prices in March-April for the GK104. If they're more than I'm willing to throw at a GPU, I'll go back to the 560ti. Who knows, maybe those prices will drop a tad by then.

[Snee]

Kewl. I'll keep you posted if I run across any tests or owt.

What I have thus far is a price tag possibly around $299 (could be bunkum, we'll see), it's built on a 28nm architecture (smaller than last gen, so presumably cooler and more energy efficient), comes with 2GB VRam as standard and is said to perform somewhere between 50% above a GTX560Ti and 50% above a GTX580 (reference design).

Also, NVidia claims to be working towards releasing them in larger quantities/have enough stocked up before the release so as to not run into a shortage from the get-go. We'll see.

I've read articles all over the place, but here's one sauce (http://fudzilla.com/home/item/25636-nvidia-28nm-gk104-gpu-specs-revealed) and here's another (http://semiaccurate.com/2012/02/01/physics-hardware-makes-keplergk104-fast/).

I was looking at a HD7970 initially, then went for the 560Tis in SLi because ATis drivers have been pissing me off to no end, and because I actually do play a few games with hardware physx. And then I found out about kepler.

[Snee]

After reading some reviews, and deciding I totally could afford it, I ordered a gtx 680.

Here's one http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-680-review/

Later on they'll be releasing the 670s, and some time after that the 660s*. From what I've read, the 680 beats the AMD 7970, and is basically the best single core, single card solution available for ordering. The 670s and 660s will be slower ofc, but the architecture seems solid, and even the 660 may come close to, or beat the gtx580. And given the pricing on the 680s, the other cards may very well land somewhere close to what's been promised.

In short, things are looking good.

edit: Also, GTX 580s may be available cheaper from now on. On another board someone noted they'd seen them as low as $330 :idunno:

*last time around they released the geforce 570 about a month after the 580.

[Skiz]

What will you be doing with your former GPU(s)? :whistling:

[ckrit]

They're spoken for, I'm afraid.

One of my younger siblings is still making do with an HD4870, I figured I'd upgrade his rig and mine at once.

edit: heh, wrong account.

Not really a secret tho.

[Skiz]

No probs. No harm in asking. :kiss:

[Snee]

Just put my gtx680 in and started up a few games off steam just to see what it can do.

It's more silent than a rev1 5770 with stock cooling (and two 5770s in CF + something nvidia for physx, for that matter) at what I've tried it with.

It does Skyrim in ultra, and Stalker: Call of Pripyat, EvE Online and Batman: Arkham Asylum maxed out in full-HD. It's all pretty smooth. I think the only game where I actually heard the fan rev up* was Batman: AA, and that's probably due to some physx-heavy areas. I might install the first crysis just to see if I can finally max everything in that.

Cryostasis crashed, but that's probably an issue with the game getting a bit old or something.



At any rate, seeing what this can do thus far, I reckon 660s and 670s will be really nice, going by the fact that they'll probably not do that much worse at similar games, and have a better price:performance ratio.

*My case does have some sound-proofing.

[bijoy]

You could have waited for custom PCB version of 680s which will come up in next 2-3 weeks.

[Skiz]

Just put my gtx680 in and started up a few games off steam just to see what it can do.

It's more silent than a rev1 5770 with stock cooling (and two 5770s in CF + something nvidia for physx, for that matter) at what I've tried it with.

It does Skyrim in ultra, and Stalker: Call of Pripyat, EvE Online and Batman: Arkham Asylum maxed out in full-HD. It's all pretty smooth. I think the only game where I actually heard the fan rev up* was Batman: AA, and that's probably due to some physx-heavy areas. I might install the first crysis just to see if I can finally max everything in that.

Cryostasis crashed, but that's probably an issue with the game getting a bit old or something.

At any rate, seeing what this can do thus far, I reckon 660s and 670s will be really nice, going by the fact that they'll probably not do that much worse at similar games, and have a better price:performance ratio.

*My case does have some sound-proofing.

Sounds fun.

I bought an EVGA GTX 550ti at Fry's yesterday for $119. I just couldn't see spending $300+ on something that I'll only see the benefit of maybe once a year. It runs BF3 on high settings at 1920x1200. I put the ol' 8800GTS in as a dedicated Physx card. :idunno:

[Snee]

You could have waited for custom PCB version of 680s which will come up in next 2-3 weeks.

No. I shouldn't have. Not only does it do what I wanted, but I have it right now, and if I want to add an aftermarket cooler or waterblock to it later on, there won't be any trouble finding something that fits.

Have fun making sure something fits on a custom board, nubbins.

[KushBlow]

Wow those 680s are sweet but a bit overkill if you're on a budget. I mean my single 560TI plays Skyrim, STALKER: COP, Witcher 2, and ME3 (why god?) maxed out. Granted, it is running at 1000 core. What am I getting at? Perhaps go for the GTX 560 Ti Hawk, factory OC'd to 950/2100 and save some valuable coin to put back into your coffers.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127578&Tpk=gtx 560 ti hawk

Unless you absolutely need 2GB, then go for the EVGA since it is future-proof. Perhaps 2GB of VRAM isn't needed now (even I have yet to struggle with Skyrim with HD textures and everything @ max and ENBSeries with a lousy 1GB) but yeah for shit like Far Cry 3 the EVGA would probably be of use.

[Snee]

If I were skizo I'd just keep the 550 he just bought :mellow: