We were foiled in our quest to find the best vendor-provided
GPU cooler for Nvidia's GeForce GTX 560. But out of the ashes sprung a
round-up of cards armed with those very same solutions. Which of these
five GF114-based boards is right for you?
This story was conceptualized as a means to compare graphics card coolers from different vendors. Because no two GPUs have the exact same overclocking headroom, we wanted to take one GeForce GTX 560 and drop solutions from Asus, ECS, Galaxy, MSI, and Zotac onto that bare board. With thermal, acoustic, and performance data, we would have been able to give you a definitive answer as to whose heat sink and fan combination does the best job of pulling heat away from Nvidia's GPU. Surely, this would have been great information to have when overclocking.
Unfortunately, that plan was foiled by a number of variables that we simply couldn’t overcome to our satisfaction. For example, the cooler designers employ a surprisingly diverse range of fan power cable plugs, which aren't interoperable with any one card's connector. Moreover, fan temperature profiles vary from one card's firmware to another's, affecting our thermal and acoustic results.
With five GeForce GTX 560 cards in-hand, though, we still had the makings of a respectable round-up. So, we abandoned the idea of isolating cooler/fan effectiveness and forged ahead to bring you a comprehensive look at five examples of Nvidia's roughly-$200 contender.
As you can see, there’s a wide range of specifications applied to these cards, none of which match Nvidia’s reference 810 MHz core and 1002 MHz frequencies. The Galaxy model comes closest with its 830/1002 MHz clocks, but Zotac's AMP! edition goes all the way to 950/1100 MHz.
There’s a lot more distinguishing one board from the others than operating clock rates, though, as all of the coolers are unique as well. There's only one that matches the reference design. Some cards also include value-adds like games, and the Galaxy MDT supports as many as four display outputs and triple-monitor surround gaming. Of course, we also have to gauge how far our samples can be overclocked.
This story was conceptualized as a means to compare graphics card coolers from different vendors. Because no two GPUs have the exact same overclocking headroom, we wanted to take one GeForce GTX 560 and drop solutions from Asus, ECS, Galaxy, MSI, and Zotac onto that bare board. With thermal, acoustic, and performance data, we would have been able to give you a definitive answer as to whose heat sink and fan combination does the best job of pulling heat away from Nvidia's GPU. Surely, this would have been great information to have when overclocking.
Unfortunately, that plan was foiled by a number of variables that we simply couldn’t overcome to our satisfaction. For example, the cooler designers employ a surprisingly diverse range of fan power cable plugs, which aren't interoperable with any one card's connector. Moreover, fan temperature profiles vary from one card's firmware to another's, affecting our thermal and acoustic results.
With five GeForce GTX 560 cards in-hand, though, we still had the makings of a respectable round-up. So, we abandoned the idea of isolating cooler/fan effectiveness and forged ahead to bring you a comprehensive look at five examples of Nvidia's roughly-$200 contender.
| Asus GTX 560 DirectCU II TOP | ECS Black GTX 560 | Galaxy MDT4 GeForce GTX 560 | MSI N560GTX Twin Frozr II OC | Zotac GeForce GTX 560 AMP! | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Graphics Clock | 925 MHz | 870 MHz | 830 MHz | 870 MHz | 950 MHz |
| Shader Clock | 1850 MHz | 1740 MHz | 1660 MHz | 1640 MHz | 1900 MHz |
| Memory Clock | 1050 MHz | 1000 MHz | 1002 MHz | 1020 MHz | 1100 MHz |
| GDDR5 Memory | 1 GB | 1 GB | 1 GB | 1 GB | 1 GB |
| Cooler | DirectCU II | Reference | Custom | Twin Frozr II | Custom |
| Size | 10.25" x 5" | 9.5" x 5" | 8.75" x 5" | 10" x 5" | 9.5" x 5" |
| Connectors | 2 x DL-DVI, 1 x mini-HDMI | 2 x DL-DVI, 1 x mini-HDMI | 4 x DVI, 1 x mini-HDMI | 2 x DL-DVI, 1 x mini-HDMI | 2 x DL-DVI, 1 x mini-HDMI |
| Form Factor | Dual-slot | Dual-slot | Dual-slot | Dual-slot | Dual-slot |
| GPU Voltage | 0.912 V Idle 1.012 V Load | 0.950 V Idle 0.987 V Load | 0.912 V Idle 0.987 V Load | 0.912 V Idle 0.987 V Load | 0.912 V Idle 1.15 V Load |
| GPU Voltage Adjustment | Asus Smartdoctor | Not supported (MSI Afterburner) | Galaxy Xtreme Tuner HD | MSI Afterburner | Not supported (Stock 1.15 V) |
| Special Features And Software | N/A | N/A | Quad-Display Support | Includes game: Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light | Includes game: Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood |
| Warranty | 3-Year parts & labor | 2-Year labor 3-Year parts | 2-Year labor 3-Year parts (if registered in 30 days) | 3-Year parts & labor | 2-Year Standard, Limited Lifetime Extended (if registered in 30 days) |
| Newegg Price | $219.99 | $192.99 | $229.99 | $199.99 | $219.99 |
As you can see, there’s a wide range of specifications applied to these cards, none of which match Nvidia’s reference 810 MHz core and 1002 MHz frequencies. The Galaxy model comes closest with its 830/1002 MHz clocks, but Zotac's AMP! edition goes all the way to 950/1100 MHz.
There’s a lot more distinguishing one board from the others than operating clock rates, though, as all of the coolers are unique as well. There's only one that matches the reference design. Some cards also include value-adds like games, and the Galaxy MDT supports as many as four display outputs and triple-monitor surround gaming. Of course, we also have to gauge how far our samples can be overclocked.
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