Palit GeForce GTX 560 Sonic Platinum Video Card Review

Introduction

It's easy to be mistaken that we're looking at a card that we've already seen for a while, but the GTX 560 is just that, a GTX 560. Unlike the models either side of it, this one doesn't carry the Ti prefix that we've seen from NVIDIA lately.

I suppose in the older days we would've had the GTX 560 and today we would be looking at the GTX 560 "SE". Instead, the decision for NVIDIA to add the well-known Ti tag that we saw many years ago means they're able to greet a more basic model in a particular series without it.

The biggest problem is when we've seen these deviations from the initial launch model, they've never delivered quite like we had hoped. So the question we ask ourselves today is; will the GTX 560 go against the trend and be a stand out model?

With full freedom given to partners at launch, we're seeing some pretty cool looking models straight away that carry some nice looking cooling solutions and some impressive clocks.

Before we get into the performance side of things, though, and find out just how the new GTX 560 sits in the market, we'll first check out the package that Palit has put together. Once that's done we'll have a closer look at the card and then we'll be checking out the specifications to see exactly what we're dealing with.

Package

Looking at the bundle that Palit has put together, it's pretty bare, with only three items included. We've got a quick installation guide, driver CD and a dual Molex to 6-Pin PCI-E power connector.

Overall, the limited package isn't a surprise; Palit are generally a bit lighter than others when it comes to the bundle and the fact it's a mid-range card means that the bundle is going to be generally lighter than the higher end models we look at.