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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti SLI Performance Analysis

By Kenny Yeo - 27 Jan 2011

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti SLI Performance Analysis

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti SLI Performance Analysis

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti replaces the old GeForce GTX 470 and it is a very impressive offering from NVIDIA to start the year. Packing 384 CUDA cores, rumors were that the GeForce GTX 560 Ti would replace the older GeForce GTX 460. However, NVIDIA has set its sights higher as the GeForce GTX 560 Ti was eventually revealed to be the replacement for the older GeForce GTX 470. And despite having less CUDA cores, our earlier review revealed that it’s more than a competent replacement, offering improved performance, while running cooler too. Our only gripe was that its power efficiency was a bit poor compared to NVIDIA’s recent offerings.

We also predicted in our conclusion that AMD would be forced to make changes to their pricing strategy to counter NVIDIA’s new threat, and we were right on the money. Barely a day after the launch of the GeForce GTX 560 Ti, AMD announced that prices of both 2GB and 1GB variants of the Radeon HD 6950 and also the Radeon HD 6870 would be reduced. This makes things interesting. What this means is that AMD is now positioning the 1GB variant of Radeon HD 6950 to do battle with the GeForce GTX 560 Ti. Sadly, we don't have a 1GB Radeon HD 6950 on hand yet, but we're definitely looking to investigate this soon. Anyhow, the new prices of the Radeon cards are as follows:

  • Radeon HD 6870 - US$219
  • Radeon HD 6950 1GB - US$259
  • Radeon HD 6950 2GB  - US$269 – $289

To follow up, we’ll now be analyzing its performance in a 2-way SLI configuration. NVIDIA has made great improvements in the way their SLI multi-GPU configurations scale and we fully expect our two GeForce GTX 560 Ti cards to post some impressive numbers.

768 CUDA cores waiting to be unleashed.

To evaluate the GeForce GTX 560 Ti’s performance in a 2-way SLI configuration, we will be testing our cards at the reference clock speeds. Our  Intel X58 testbed has the following specifications:

  • Intel Core i7-975 (3.33GHz)
  • Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P motherboard
  • 3 x 1GB DDR3-1333 G.Skill memory in triple channel mode
  • Seagate 7200.10 200GB SATA hard drive
  • Windows 7 Ultimate

The full list of cards and driver versions used:

  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2-way SLI (ForceWare 266.56)
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB GDDR5I (ForceWare 266.56)
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 (ForceWare 263.09)
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 1560MB GDDR5 (ForceWare 262.99)
  • AMD Radeon HD 6870 2-way CrossFireX (Catalyst 10.12)
  • AMD Radeon HD 6970 2GB GDDR5 (Catalyst 10.11)
  • AMD Radeon HD 6950 2GB GDDR5 (Catalyst 10.11)
  • ATI Radeon HD 5970 2GB GDDR5 (Catalyst 10.9)
  • AMD Radeon HD 6870 1GB GDDR5 (Catalyst 10.12)
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