ECS GeForce GTX 560

Posted by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 05/16/2011 01:00 PM [ 0 comment(s) ]

Features and specifications

Features and specifications

So before we begin, we need to explain the differences in-between a GTX 560 regular and the GTX 560 Ti editions. Ti will be the more advanced version whereas the regular editions will be a notch slower as one cluster of shader processors (SM) was cut off.

Both products are based on the GF114 GPU whereas the GTX 460 based based on the GF104 GPU, it is tweaked a little though to allow higher clock speeds with presumably a lower power draw.

The GeForce GTX 560 Ti has 384 shader processor cores, 32 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide memory interface that connects to four 64-bit controllers each with 256MB memory tied to them.
The GeForce GTX 560 has 336 shader processor cores, 32 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide memory interface that connects to four 64-bit controllers each with 256MB memory tied to them.
The GeForce GTX 460 has 336 shader processor cores, 32 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide memory interface that connects to four 64-bit controllers each with 256MB memory tied to them.

So with some shader processors disabled, the GTX 560 is spec by spec precisely the same as the GTX 460. But the based on the GF114 GPU, it allows it to be clocked higher, overclocked you might see products even nearing 1 GHz on the graphics core.

The new GPU has holstered a higher GPU clock speed, with 810 MHz core, 1620MHz on the shader cores, and 4008 MHz (GDDR5 effective datarate) memory, churning out a very decent 128 GB/s in memory bandwidth.

Now, most of all this sounds familiar eh? Yeah... remember the GF104 being used in the GeForce GTX 460 series? The new GF114 is in fact based of that IC, yet now with all shader processors enabled.

For the bigger part of the specifications the two feel similar when it comes to shader processor count, memory bus and clock frequencies, the GTX 560 definitely will be a good chunk faster.

Reference specifications:

Graphics card	GeForce GTX 460 1024MB	GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1024MB	GeForce GTX 560	ECS GTX 560 Sonic
Graphics Processing Clusters	2	2	2	2
Streaming Multiprocessors	7	8	7	7
Shader processor	336	384	336	336
Texture Units	56	64	56	56
ROPs	32	32	32	32
Core Clock	675 MHz	822 MHz	810 MHz	810 MHz
Shader Clock	1350 MHz	1644 MHz	1620 MHz	1620 MHz
Memory Data rate	3600 MHz	4008 MHz	4008 MHz	4008 MHz
Graphics Memory	1024MB GDDR5	1024MB GDDR5	1024MB GDDR5	1024MB GDDR5
Memory interface	256-bit	256-bit	256-bit	256-bit
Memory bandwidth	115 GB/s	128 GB/S	128 GB/S	134 GB/S
Fab node	40nm	40nm	40nm	40nm
TDP	160 Watts	170 Watts	150 Watts	150 Watts

If you look closely at the SM (Streaming Multiprocessor) partitions below, then you can see and calculate that a 336 shader processor based GF104 on the GeForce GTX 460 has in fact seven SM partitions. 7 are enabled = 336 Shader processors.

Not the GF114 GPU has 384 shader processors, and has that last available SM cluster enabled for the Ti model, yet what you need to remember is that for the regular GTX 560 only 7 SMs are enabled... thus it has 336 Shader/Cuda/Stream processor units.

The GeForce GTX 560 is based on a 40nm fabrication node, still has 1.95 billion transistors and thus looks and feels like the GTX 460, yet now with 48 shader processors per SM and accompanying PolyMorph Engine added. All cards derived from and based on this GPU will be based on a dual or even triple-slot cooling design based on what the AIB/AIC partners prefer and come with two dual-link DVI and a mini-HDMI connector. HDMI will again pass sound through, including bit streaming support for Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master.

Being a mid-range product, only 2-way SLI will be allowed and thus you'll only see a single SLI finger/connector on the PCB. Okay, the next stop will be an extensive photo-shoot of today's tested product.

In this article we test the ECS GeForce GTX 560 which we'll have a closer look at in a minute, but first the following.

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