MSI N560GTX Ti Twin Frozer II review - Introduction

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 01/25/2011 03:00 PM [ ] 0 comment(s)

Features and specification

Aah yes, yet another GPU to review! So today I wanted to keep things nice and simple. The GeForce GTX 560 Ti is in fact the GF104 GPU, it is tweaked a little to allow higher clock speeds with a presumably lower power draw. The GeForce GTX 560 has 384 Shader processor cores, 32 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide memory interface that connects to four 64-bit controllers with each 256MB memory tied to it, so that's 1 GB of memory for the product released today.

The new GPU has holstered rather high GPU clock speeds, with 822 MHz core, 1644 MHz on the shader cores, and 4000 MHz (GDDR5 effective datarate) memory, chunking 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 the basis 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 and as you'll learn a heck of an overclocker.

Reference specifications:

Graphics card	GeForce GTX 460 768MB	GeForce GTX 460 1024MB	GeForce GTX 560 1024MB	MSI GTX 560 Twin Frozer II
Graphics Processing Clusters	2	2	2	2
Streaming Multiprocessors	7	7	8	8
Shader processor	336	336	384	384
Texture Units	56	56	64	64
ROPs	24	32	32	32
Core Clock	675 MHz	675 MHz	822 MHz	880 MHz
Shader Clock	1350 MHz	1350 MHz	1644 MHz	1760 MHz
Memory Data rate	3600 MHz	3600 MHz	4008 MHz	4200 MHz
Graphics Memory	768MB GDDR5	1024MB GDDR5	1024MB GDDR5	1024MB GDDR5
Memory interface	192-bit	256-bit	256-bit	256-bit
Memory bandwidth	86 GB/s	115 GB/s	128 GB/S	134 GB/s
Fab node	40nm	40nm	40nm	40nm
TDP	150 Watts	160 Watts	170 Watts	180 Watts

If you look closely at the SM (Streaming Multiprocessor) partitions, then you can see and calculate that the 336 Shader processors based GF104 on the GeForce GTX 460 has in fact seven SM partitions. 7 are enabled = 336 Shader processors. The GF114 GPU has 384 shader processors, and has that last available SM cluster enabled.

Okay so the GeForce GTX 560 Ti is still 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 and accompanying PolyMorph Engine added, an extra 8 Texture units and sure, much faster clock frequencies. So is the GF 114 in fact a GF104? Yep, it sure is.

All cards deriving 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 DVIs and a mini-HDMI connector. HDMI will again pass sound through, including bit streaming support for Dolby TrueHD 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 PCBs. Okay, the next stop will be an extensive photo-shoot of today's product.

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MSI N560GTX Ti Twin Frozer II review
The MSI GTX560 Ti Twin Frozer II tested today indeed comes all customized and factory overclocked, Armed with some Military grade components and a robust build the dark PCB of the MSI GTX560 Ti Twin Frozer II will carry a GPU clocked at 880 MHz and it's memory at 4200 MHz, both thus a nice chunk faster than reference. To top things off, MSI put the Twin Frozr II cooler on this card and that admittedly does do wonder as we measure peak temperatures BELOW 55 Degrees C.