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Which GTX 560 to choose?
The recently released Nvidia GTX 560 comes in various forms. Different brands offer different clockspeed, coolers and also memory size. How do you decide which one to get?
Nvidia is banking heavily on overclocked versions of the GTX 560 to combat AMD. Most of their partners have at least one special edition, with some even forgoing the reference GTX 560.
The card with the highest overclock out of those listed here is Zotac's GTX 560 AMP! edition, which pushes the core clock to a whopping 950MHz and the memory to 4400MHz.
The key factors to look out for are:
1) Price - In a perfect world, price would scale with clockspeed. But this isn't always the case across brands.
2) Memory Size - A few manufacturers are offering 2GB versions of the GTX 560. The performance difference, however, will not be evident except at very high resolutions (think 2560 x 1600) or with anti-aliasing turned up.
3) Cooler - Having a good heatsink fan allows higher overclocks. Some manufacturers reuse the same heatsink across differently clocked models - If you get the cheaper model and overclock it yourself, chances are that you can match or even surpass the more expensive model.
4) Clockspeed - For Nvidia GTX 560, having a higher clockspeed in core frequency, shader frequency and memory frequency will get you better performance in games. However, one need not be so concerened in getting the highest overclocked edition GTX 560 as you can do it easily with the help of Nvidia System Tools or other overclocking utilities provided by the manufacturers.
5) Warranty - The longer, the better.
Note that the prices listed are estimates based on a search of online stores. After rebates and other discounts, your mileage may vary. Variants which we could not find in stores have no price listed.
GTX 560 DirectCu
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GTX 560 DirectCu II OC
GTX 560 DirectCu II TOP
ASUS has three variants of the GTX 560, all of which has a memory size of 1GB. ASUS GTX 560 DirectCu is the basic model which follows the clockspeed of the reference Nvidia GTX 560. The DirectCu II models are overclocked versions and have a different heatsink fan compared to the DirectCu models.
GTX 560
GTX 560 Superclocked
GTX 560 2048MB Superclocked
EVGA has three different types of GTX 560. One is the basic GTX 560 which follows the reference Nvidia GTX 560 clockspeed. The other two are the overclocked versions of the GTX 560 1GB and 2GB models.
GTX 560 Golden Sample
GTX 560 Phantom
GTX 560 2048MB
GAINWARD has three models as well. It has the 2GB version which runs at the default frequency. The other two 1GB versions have the same clockspeed, a slight overclock from 810MHz (core) to 822MHz. However, they have a different set of cooler. The Phantom have 2 smaller fans concealed within the heatsink.
GTX 560
GTX 560 GC
GALAXY has two versions. Both are 1GB models, one running at the reference clockspeed 810MHz (core) and the other is overclocked to 905MHz.
GTX 560 Ultra Durable
GIGABYTE has only one model available. It has a 1GB memory and a slightly overclocked core frequency and shader frequency.
GTX 560
GTX 560 OC
Inno3D has two models. Both are the 1GB version, one running at the reference clockspeed and the other is an overclocked card (880MHz core frequency and 1025MHz memory frequency).
GTX 560
GTX 560 OC
Leadtek has two versions as well. One is the reference Nvidia GTX 560 1GB version, the other is the overclocked version (850MHz core) which has a different cooler as well.
GTX 560
GTX 560 Twin Frozr II
GTX 560 Twin Frozr II OC
MSI has three different models. All three models are the 1GB version and they all have non reference heat sinks. Two of them are running at the same reference clockspeeds but they have different coolers. The other one runs at an overclocked frequency of 870MHz (core).
GTX 560
GTX 560 Sonic Platinum
GTX 560 2GB
PALIT offers three different models. A reference clocked GTX 560 1GB and a reference clocked GTX 560 2GB. The last model is the overclocked version of the GTX 560 1GB. All three have a different heatsink fan design.
GTX 560
PNY has only one model which is the reference clocked graphics card.
GTX 560 2048MB
Point of View has only one model as well which is the GTX 560 2048MB. The frequency follows that of a reference Nvidia GTX 560.
GTX 560
GTX 560 OC
SPARKLE has two versions of the 1GB GTX 560. One is the reference model and other is an overclocked version.
GTX 560
GTX 560 AMP!
GTX 560 2GB
ZOTAC has three models. Two of the cards, the 1GB and 2GB version are slightly overclocked from 810MHz (core) to 820MHz. The last card, GTX 560 AMP! has the highest overclocked settings amongst the rest of the GTX 560. It has a 950MHz core frequency, 1900MHz shader and 1100MHz memory.
Summary Table:
Which GTX 560 to choose?
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