Performance tests

Testbed:

• Intel Core i7-975 3340 MHz CPU
• ASUS P6T Deluxe motherboard on the Intel X58 chipset
• 6GB of 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM from Corsair
• WD Caviar SE WD1600JD 160GB SATA HDD
• Tagan TG900-BZ 900W PSU
• Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, DirectX 11
• 30" Dell 3007WFP monitor
• VSync disabled
• AMD Catalyst 12.1; NVIDIA Drivers 295.52

Benchmarks:

• Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft) — DirectX 10.0, Shaders 4.0 (HDR), built-in benchmarking utility (the Middle level), maximum settings.
• Crysis Warhead (Crytek/EA) — Cargo, DirectX 10.0, Shaders 4.0, Very High settings, batch file, timedemo available by e-mail request.
• Colin McRae: DiRT 2 (Codemasters) — DirectX 11, Ultra High settings, run as follows: "dirt2.exe -benchmark example_benchmark.xml".
• Metro 2033 (4A Games/THQ) — DirectX 11, Super High settings, PhysX disabled, run from in game.
• Just Cause 2 (Avalanche Studios/Eidos Interactive) — DirectX 10.0, Super High settings, run from in game.
• Aliens vs. Predator (Rebellion/SEGA) — DirectX 11, Shaders 5.0, Very High settings, run from in game.
• F1 2010 (Codemasters) — DirectX 11, Ultra High settings, run as follows: "formulaone.exe -benchmark example_benchmark.xml". Game provided by NVIDIA.
• Tropics Benchmark 1.3 (Unigine) — DirectX 10.0, High settings.
• Heaven Benchmark 2.5 Pro (Unigine) — DirectX 11, High settings.
• 3DMark 11 (FutureMark) — DirectX 11, Performance settings.

Final thoughts

We've recently switched to a simpler rating system and now we only have two of those: capability and usability. The capability rating compares each graphics card with GeForce GT 430 which is considered a baseline, or 100%. The rating is based on both synthetic and gaming results and shows, as the name implies, what a product is capable of.

The usability rating is obtained by dividing each card's capability rating by its price. It basically shows whether a given product is over or underpriced, considering what it can do, and thus how reasonable it is to buy it.

The complete ratings can be found in our i3Dspeed. Below are just the parts relevant to today's review.

Sorted by capability (high to low)

As you can see, factory overclocking allows KFA2 GeForce GTX 560 Ti LTD OC 1024MB V2.0 to outperform the more expensive Radeon HD 6950. The Palit's card, with clock rates close to reference, fits (as it should) between Radeon HD 6950 1GB and HD 6870.

Sorted by usability (high to low)

The affordability of Radeon HD 6870 has been keeping it in the Top 5 for months. The novelty from KFA2 comes in 8th, outperforming both Radeon HD 6950 and (naturally) the reference GTX 560 Ti. This means the performance gain more than justifies the higher price.

Palit GeForce GTX 560 Ti Twin Light Turbo 1024MB GDDR5 is a very nice GTX 560 Ti. It has a highly efficient cooler, nice illumination, small size, and all necessary output connectors. Factory overclocking is minor.

KFA2 GeForce GTX 560 Ti LTD OC 1024MB V2.0 is one of the fastest GTX 560 Ti solutions, nearly on a par with the much more expensive GTX 560 Ti 448. The cooler is noisier than usual, but that's not really critical.

Write a comment below. No registration needed!