MSI GeForce GTX 560 Twin Frozer II review

Features and specifications

So before we begin, we need to explain the differences in-between a regular GTX 560 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 it is based on the GF114 GPU, this allows it to be clocked higher, and when 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 on the 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 but the GTX 560 will definitely be a good chunk faster.

Reference specifications:

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

Now 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 an 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 MSI TwinFrozer II edition. Let's have a look at her and her perky features.