Specifications and Testing Configuration

As I noted before, all of our testing was done with the MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Power Edition, which is seen in our GPU-Z screenshot here:

gpuz.png

Version 0.5.6 correctly recognizes the card as having 448 cores and the clock speed of 750 MHz and memory speed of 975 MHz are verified as well.  Huh…it also knows the release date…fishy. 

Based on the information I have from both MSI and EVGA, here is how their pricing is going to stack up.

  • MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 – $289
  • MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Power Edition – $299
  • EVGA GTX 560 Ti 448 Cores FTW – $289
  • EVGA GTX 560 Ti 448 Cores Classified – $299

With such a small gap between the "base" designs and the higher end ones, it would seem to make sense to grab either the Power Edition or Classified models.  How do these prices compare to other cards on the market today?

UPDATE: These are now showing up online at Newegg though currently only the EVGA models are being sold at the MSRP prices!

These prices are all based on the current conditions at online stores like Newegg and Amazon.com. 

NVIDIA needed the new GTX 560 Ti 448 to close that gap between the current GTX 560 Ti and the GTX 570.  In that $100 window the Radeon HD 6950 was winning the war and NVIDIA only had two options: lower the price of the GTX 570 (and likely the GTX 580) or creating something new to fill in the hole in the GPU lineup.  While I think you’ll find the GTX 560 Ti 448c will do that every nicely, if it is as limited as NVIDIA says it is, this will be short lived and may put NVIDIA back in the same problem before 28-nm GTX 600 and Radeon HD 7000 cards are on the streets.

Our benchmarking and testing setup remains unchanged:

  • Testing Configuration
  • ASUS P6X58D Premium Motherboard
  • Intel Core i7-965 @ 3.33 GHz Processor
  • 3 x 2GB Corsair DDR3-1333 MHz Memory
  • Western Digital VelociRaptor 600GB HDD
  • Corsair Professional Series 1200w PSU
  • Benchmarks used: 3DMark Vantage, 3DMark11, Metro 2033, Lost Planet 2, Civilization V, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Battlefield 3, DiRT3, Skyrim, Unigine Heaven
  • NVIDIA Driver: 285.88
  • AMD Driver: 11.11b

So what comparisons are we going to focus on?  Well, basically, all of them.  The GTX 560 Ti 448c needs to be faster than the GTX 560 Ti to even have a shot.  The GTX 570 performance levels could also be in jeopardy as the GTX 560 Ti 448c doesn’t lose much in terms of hardware features and with a lower price, it could be the better option while it’s available.  As for the Radeon HD 6950 2GB card, can it actually keep up with the new NVIDIA offerings from MSI and EVGA or will it need a price drop to keep up?

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