NVIDIA has launched the new mid-range flagship GeForce GTX 560. Besides skipping the Ti suffix from big brother, NVIDIA has also disconnected one of the CUDA clusters of the GF114 GPU to reduce performance and the price. The latter seems to land around 170€.
GeForce GTX 560 is with NVIDIA’s pricing a direct competitor to AMD Radeon HD 6870, but also big brother GeForce GTX 560 Ti. The physical differences are the lower amount of CUDA cores, 336 vs. 384, and lower clock frequencies. But, NVIDIA allows partners to set their own frequencies and many are expected to turn them up above the reference, which looks to land at around 810 MHz GPU and 4008 MHz memory.
| GTX 580 | GTX 570 | GTX 560 Ti | GTX 560 | |
| GPU | GF110 | GF110 | GF114 | GF114 |
| Node | 40nm | 40nm | 40nm | 40nm |
| Shaders | 512 | 480 | 384 | 336 |
| GPU frequency |
772 MHz | 734 MHz | 820 MHz | >810 MHz |
| Memory type |
GDDR5 | GDDR5 | GDDR5 | GDDR5 |
| Memory buffer |
1.53GB | 1.28GB | 1.2GB | 1.2GB |
| Memory frequency |
4008 MHz | 3800 MHz | 4008 MHz | >4004 MHz |
| Memory bus |
384-bit | 320-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit |
| Max. output | 244W | 219W | 170W | 150W |
GeForce GTX 560 builds on the same base architecture as other cards of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 500 series and brings DirectX 11, CUDA, PhysX and 3D Vision. The exact performance to expect depends on the manufacturer and model. Among the cards that has launched we find frequencies from 810 MHz up to 950 MHz.
This makes recommendations all the harder, all depending on a variety of properties that vary with each model. In the super tight and highly competitive mid-range segment this could prove to be both winning and losing. We will have to wait and see.
GeForce GTX 560 seems like a good choice based on the reviews so far, and can measure up to Radeon HD 6870, but the latter is actually cheaper instead.
