EVGA GeForce GTX 560 SC Video Card Review

EVGA GeForce GTX 560 SC Video Card Introduction

With the way the economy has been the past few years the vast majority of gamers are looking to save money yet maximize gaming performance at the same time. Last July NVIDIA launched the GeForce GTX 460 video card and not only did they release a powerful graphics card that was capable of running today’s graphics intensive games, but they also released it for $199.99. In keeping with competitive pricing that is vital to this segment of the graphics market NVIDIA is ready to do it again with today’s launch of the GeForce GTX 560. EVGA sent over their GeForce GTX 560 Superclocked Graphics Card (01G-P3-1461-KR) for us to try out and that is what we’ll be reviewing today against the AMD Radeon HD 6850 an Radeon HD 6870 graphics cards.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 SC (Fermi) GPU is based on the very same core as the NVIDIA GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) Video Card and comes fully equipped with 336 CUDA cores, 56 texture units and 32 ROPs. With the included 7 Polymorph Engines for proper tessellation you are now armed and ready to play some of the most advanced Direct 11 games on the market now and those in the very near future. Although it is very similar in every way to the GTX 460, instead of using the GF 104 core the EVGA GeForce GTX 560 SC (Fermi) Video Card makes use of the Fermi based GF 114 core that allows the EVGA GeForce GTX 560 SC (01G-P3-1461-KR) to obtain higher clock speeds while using less power overall. So not only will you be getting more performance, you will be getting
that performance for darn near the same amount of money a whole year
later.

Most of the gamers today, unlike the hardcore enthusiast crowd, are making use of older cards. A good measure of this statistic is that according to the latest Steam data the most widely used GPU is by far the 9800 GT and coming in a close second is the 8800 GT. But as we all know, more and more high definition displays are becoming the norm for our gaming rigs. But the big problem here is, GPU’s like the 9800 GT Graphics Card are not capable of playing the latest games at the resolutions that these monitors support, nor do they support Direct X 11 for that matter. So most of these gamers are forced to use the low to medium in game settings that deprive them of the beautiful graphics that makes these games immersive and so very fun to play.

But with the release of a card like the EVGA GeForce GTX 560 SC Video Card (01G-P3-1461-KR) these gamers can actually afford to upgrade their systems and will be able to take advantage of the rich and detailed graphics that are provided by the very technologies that are built right into cards like the EVGA GeForce GTX 560 SC Fermi Video Card (01G-P3-1461) such as Direct X 11, PhysX and, of course, 3D Vision. So ask yourself, “Wouldn’t it be cool to play newer games like Crysis 2 or Eve Incarna or, even better yet, the new Alice: Madness returns they way they were meant to be played?” Which is in really high detail or even, for the hardcore gamer in all of us, in 3D. One of the things we will be doing a lot today is looking at the results of the game testing we did to put the EVGA GeForce GTX 560 SC Video Card (01G-P3-1461-KR) through its paces. But it’s not just the benchmarks that are important when it comes to a review or for buying a new GPU, I would have to think that during times like these price plays a huge factor in what we do and don’t buy for our computers.

EVGA currently makes 6 different versions of the GTX 560 Series GPU:

• EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti Maximum Graphics Edition Crysis 2

900 MHz Core Clock/4212 MHz memory clock at $269.99

• EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti Superclocked

900 MHz Core Clock/4212 MHz memory Clock at $262.15

• EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti DS Superclocked

900 MHz Core Clock/4212 MHz memory Clock at $249.99

• EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti

822MHz Core Clock/4000 MHz memory Clock at $249.99

• EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti FPB

850MHz Core Clock/4104 MHz memory Clock at $239.49

• EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Superclocked

850MHz Core Clock/4104 MHz memory Clock at $209.99

With its core clock at 850 MHz and a memory clock of 4104 MHz using the new GF114 GPU core, this adds up to a really good upgrade for an older graphics card, but add in a price like $209.99 and kick in a 3 year warranty and you would have the makings of a great upgrade. EVGA is offering the ability to upgrade to a 5 to 10 year warranty when
you register your card with them and they are having a promo right now
as we speak for a 10 year warranty if you purchase your card in May or
June. So there are two more reasons to upgrade your old video card. Our main concern with the pricing on this new video card is that you can find the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Titanium) Graphics Card for $10.50 more after rebates with shipping included. The GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) Graphics Card is faster as it has more stream processors.

EVGA GeForce GTX 560 SC Video Card Specs:

• Core Clock: 850 MHz
• Memory Clock: 4104 MHz
• Shader Clock: 1700 MHz
• CUDA Cores: 336
• Bus Type: PCI-E 2.0
• Memory: 1 GB GDDR5
• Memory Bit Width: 256 Bit
• Memory Bandwidth: 131.3GB/sec
• Texture Fill Rate: 47.6 GT/s

EVGA GeForce GTX 560 SC Video Card Features:

• Microsoft Direct X 11 Support
• Nvidia CUDA Technology
• Nvidia PhysX Technology
• Nvidia Pure Video HD Technology
• Nvidia 2 Way SLI Ready
• Nvidia 3D Vision Surround Ready
• Two dual-Link HDCP Capable Connectors
• One Mini-HDMI 1.4 Connector
• OpenGL 4.1 Support