MSI GTX560 Ti Twin Frozr II OC Review

Videocards/VGA Reviews by leeghoofd @ 2011-08-09

Once in a while a card pops up, that turns the head of many gamers. Not necesarrily because it's being the fastest card in games. But mostly as it's one of the cards that delivers amasing performance for the buck. The GTX560 Ti isn't a new revolutionary design though. Look more at it as a souped up GTX460 256bit 1Gb card. Without further adue time to see how the MSI performs in a few games, but more importantly to see if she can be pushed a bit more.

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Out of the box results :

Time to give the MSI card a run for it's money. Our test setup comprises of the following hardware parts :

Asus Rampage 3 Extreme

Intel 990X @ 4000mhz, 3200mhz uncore

Corsair 6Gb Dominator PC12800 C8-8-8-24 1T

Corsair 1000HX Power supply

 

GPUs tested : GTX460 1gb, GTX480, GTX560 Ti , MSI GTX560 Ti OC and the GTX580.

 

First we test some games all running at 1280 x 1024 and the max resolution of our 24" Samsung monitor : 1920 x 1200 60hz.

For the SLI tests we only used the 560 Ti cards only at 1920 x 1200 resolution.

First up the game tests of the following games :

  • Far Cry 2
  • Crysis 2 at Gamer and Hardcore detail setting
  • Mafia II
  • Resident Evil 5

Afterwards we run the synthetic tests of Futuremark : 3DMark06, Vantage and 3DMark11 and Unigenes Heaven benchmark.

Before we look at the Far Cry 2 tests, a small recap on what to watch. The difference between the GTX460 and 560 Ti, as the latter is just a testosteron version of the former. And watch the difference between the MSI GTX560 OC and the ref card. Our test review card running at higher GPU/RAM clocks than the reference GTX560 Ti. Now let's get on with the show :

 

 

Due to the increased clocks the GTX 560 Ti is pulling nicely away from the older GTX460 card. Pretty logic and similar to what we have tested before. To achieve a good boost in game performance an overclocked GPU is far more beneficial than an OC'ed CPU. The factory overclocked version of the MSI OC Twin Frozr II even comes pretty close to the hot GTX480 Fermi card. In SLI modus, the frames per second are blistering fast. Pretty impressive stuff as two of these OC'ed cards cost about 100 euro less as a single GTX580 card.  We have had a lot of request to include Crysis 2 in our GPU tests. By using the integrated benchmark we obtained the following numbers.

 

 

 

In the Gamer modus the detail settings are less demanding, ideal for older GPU solutions. Even the GTX460 is able to render the benchmark pretty smoothly. The GTX 560 Ti giving a substantial boost, even at 1920 x 1200 resolution. The MSI OC version nicely inbetween the stock version and the GTX480 card.  With the GTX580 you can clearly notice the optimisations in computing performance of the new architecture. It's got so much raw performance, quite astonishing for a  Single GPU card. Though it get's beaten again by the SLI setup, not only in performance but also in price : 380 euros versus 450 euros. Time to crank up the detail level and go hardcore.

 

 

Hardcore Crysis 2 is a feast for the eye. Insane detail levels at the cost of almost half the framerates of the Gamer mode. At 1280 x 1024 there's no problem for any of these cards, even the GTX460 goes well above the 60FPS cap.  60 FPS is still considered as a minimum by many First Person Shooter enthousiasts. Keeping the framerate smooth all the time in heavy enemy territory is a must for survival. Once the resolution goes up only the GTX 580 is well clear of the 60 FPS limit. The reference clocked GTX 480 is close, but the GTX 560 Ti cards are trailing. By doing some manual OCing around 950Mhz (a slight bump in voltage was required ) we got similar than GTX480 performance with this little card. The SLI setup is again well ahead of any card tested here.

 

 

Next up is Mafia II, the gangster game in which you can explore some of the shooting action Bonny and Clyde enjoyed soo much. The GTX 460 has a hard time following it's younger brethern. Ofcourse the GTX 460 has more potential left as it too can easily be clocked up to 900mhz clocks. But the focus is on out of the box performance. The 80mhz higher GPU clocks of the MSI continually allow it to render more FPS. Nvidias Scalable Link Interface is again insanely fast in Mafia II, coming close to 90% more frames. Take note however these games are all tested using the integrated benchmark and real in gaming frames per second can slightly differ.

 

 

More bodycounts in Capcoms Resident Evil 5 game. This zombie slaughter fest was tested in DX11 mode and is absolutely no problem for the GTX560 Ti cards to keep the FPS above 100FPS even at 1920 x 1200. The MSI OC'ed card is in fact here a big rival for the scorching hot GTX480 at lower resolutions. But at 1920 the higher specced cards pull away.

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Comment from Teemto @ 2011/08/11
As I'm currently benching the exact same card I'll add some additional scores:

AM3: 383149 1035/1200
3DMark01SE: 103431 1040/1200
3DM03: 92282 1010/1200
3DM05: 47079 1010/1200
3DM06: 35904 1000/1200
3DM011E: 9140 1000/1200
3DM011P: 5633 1000/1200
3DM011X: still to do
Vantage: still to do
Unigine DX9: 2937.27 1000/1200
Unigine DX11: still to do

Voltage is between 1.11V and 1.135V
Cooling is stock Twin Frozr II air cooler

Seems Albrecht's card can clock a bit better on air.
Comment from Teemto @ 2011/08/12
3DM011X: 1867 1000/1200
Vantage: 23883 980/1200
Unigine DX11: 1243.012 960/1200

 

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