MSI GTX 560 Ti-448 1280MB Twin Frozr III Power Edition Video Card Review

Introduction and The Package

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The launch of the new GTX 560 Ti 448 today I think is a prime example of why NVIDIA does so well in the video card market. You just have to look at the current release schedule of games, or the games that have just recently been released and know that we're going to have a flood of PC Gamers get their game on over the next few months.

Unfortunately no one has any new high end cards ready to go and instead at the moment we're seeing refreshes of popular models from partners, but nothing from the AMD / NVIDIA level today.

Rumors of the GTX 560 Ti 448 Core card have been around for a little bit now and were pretty much confirmed the other week as pictures of partners cards came out, but there hasn't been as much talk about this model as you might expect. The launch of the Sandy Bridge-E platform from Intel, though, stole a lot of attention. Combined with the fact that the new GTX 560 Ti 448 we're looking at today is going to be released only into specific regions means that not everyone has needed to pay attention to it, because not everyone is going to have access to it.

Reserved mainly for North America and Europe, the new model is designed to sit between the much loved GTX 560 Ti and the higher end GTX 570 which has always been a bit of a dull card. Before we get into the performance side of things, though, the first thing we need to do is take a closer look at the MSI GTX 560 Ti 448 Twin Frozr III Power Edition card we have on hand. We'll start with a look at the package before moving onto the card itself which will then lead us into the specifications side of things.

Once we've done all that, we'll of course get into the performance side and see just what the new NVIDIA model is doing for us before we wrap everything up. But first, let's get into the package to see what MSI are offering us here today.

The Package

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Looking at the box, you can see that MSI has opted for a design that opens up and gives us a look at the card. This is something we generally see on their higher end models, but being part of the "Power Edition" series definitely makes it stand out a bit more. You can see as you move throughout the box there's just an absolute wealth of information talking about the benefits the "Power Edition" tags bring along with talk about the Twin Frozr III cooler.

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Moving inside the box, there's not heaps going on with some paperwork, driver CD, two Dual Molex to 6-Pin PCIe power connectors along with a DVI to VGA and mini HDMI to HDMI converter.

The Card & Specifications

The Card

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Checking out the card, there's nothing too out of the ordinary when we look at it thanks to the Twin Frozr III, a cooler we've seen MSI use a little bit, taking over majority of the PCB. Behind the fans we can see the massive heatsink that is present and across the bottom you can see our heatpipes.

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Making our way around the card, we can see towards the back we've got two 6-Pin PCIe power connectors to power the card while moving a little closer to the front you can see we've got a switch here that lets us swap between the two BIOS' that are installed on the card.

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Moving right up to the front, you can see our two SLI connectors which give us the ability to run up to three of these cards in Tri-SLI. While the cooler is pretty big and takes up almost all of the card, it doesn't interfere with the SLI connectors across the top which is always a good thing.

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Moving over to the I/O side of things, we've got our mini HDMI port on the left which can be converted to full size HDMI via the included connector in the box we saw on the last page. Next to that we've then got two Dual-Link DVI connectors while across the top we've simply just got some vents to let the hot air escape.

Specifications

The main specification that stands out on the GTX 560 Ti 448 is of course the 448 CUDA Cores that are mentioned in the actual name of the card. This of course sees the card sit between the GTX 560 Ti which carried 384 CUDA Cores and the GTX 570 which carries 480 CUDA cores.

From a CUDA Core stand point, though, you can see the card sits significantly closer to the higher end GTX 570 than it does the popular mid-range GTX 560 Ti which should give us a rough idea on the performance of the card.

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In the clocks department the MSI GTX 560 Ti 448 will sit a little higher today as it carries with it the "OC" tag. That means as you can see above, our core comes in at 750MHz while our 1280MB of GDDR5 memory carries a clock speed of 3900MHz QDR.

Test System Setup

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We would like to thank the following companies for supplying and supporting us with our test system hardware and equipment: Intel, ASUS and Corsair.

Looking above at our testbed, there's nothing much that really needs to be said. Instead we'll just get stuck into what we'll be comparing our GTX 560 Ti 448 against today. We've of course got the GTX 560 Ti 448 Twin Frozr II Power Edition from MSI; alongside that, though, we've got the overclocked Twin Light Turbo GTX 560 Ti from Palit and the stock clocked GTX 570 from MSI.

On the AMD side of things we've got representation of the HD 6900 series with the Sapphire HD 6970 and HD 6950. With that all said and done, let's get into the performance side of things and see just what kind of performance we're able to get out of the new model.

Let's get started!

The FPS Numbers Explained

When we benchmark our video cards and look at the graphs, we aim to get to a certain level of FPS which we consider playable. While many may argue that the human eye can't see over 24 FPS or 30 FPS, any true gamer will tell you that as we climb higher in Frames Per Seconds (FPS), the overall gameplay feels smoother. There are three numbers we're looking out for when it comes to our benchmarks.

30 FPS - It's the minimum number we aim for when it comes to games. If you're not dropping below 30 FPS during games, you're going to have a nice and smooth gaming experience. The ideal situation is that even in a heavy fire fight, the minimum stays above 30 FPS making sure that you can continue to aim easily or turn the corner with no dramas.

60 FPS - It's the average we look for when we don't have a minimum coming at us. If we're getting an average of 60 FPS, we should have a minimum of 30 FPS or better and as mentioned above, it means we've got some smooth game play happening.

120 FPS - The new number that we've been hunting down over recent months. If you're the owner of a 120 Hz monitor, to get the most out of it you want to get around the 120 FPS mark. Moving from 60 FPS / 60 Hz to 120 FPS / 120 Hz brings with it a certain fluidity that can't really be explained, but instead has to be experienced. Of course, if you're buying a 120 Hz monitor to take advantage of 3D, an average of 120 FPS in our benchmark means that in 3D you will have an average of 60 FPS, which again means you should expect some smooth gameplay.

3DMark 11

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.1

Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com

Product Homepage: http://www.3dmark.com/3dmark11/

Buy It Here

3DMark 11 is the latest version of the world's most popular benchmark. Designed to measure your PC's gaming performance 3DMark 11 makes extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to consistently and reliably test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.

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Looking at 3DMark 11, we can see straight away the new GTX 560 Ti 448 leans significantly towards the GTX 570 and offers a strong performance leap over the standard GTX 560 Ti model. Compared to the AMD offerings, we can see that performance is bouncing around HD 6970 territory here.

Unigine Heaven Benchmark

Version and / or Patch Used: 2.5

Developer Homepage: http://www.unigine.com

Product Homepage: http://unigine.com/press-releases/091022-heaven_benchmark//

New benchmark grants the power to unleash the DirectX 11 potential in the gift wrapping of impressively towering graphics capabilities. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. With the interactive mode emerging experience of exploring the intricate world is ensured within reach. Through its advanced renderer, Unigine is one of the first to set precedence in showcasing the art assets with tessellation, bringing compelling visual finesse, utilizing the technology to the full extend and exhibiting the possibilities of enriching 3D gaming.

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A strong tessellation showing puts the card right behind the GTX 570 and ahead of both the HD 6950 and HD 6970.

Benchmarks - Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. 2

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.2

Version and / or Patch Used: Benchmark Demo

Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Test

Developer Homepage: http://www.ubi.com/UK/default.aspx

Product Homepage: http://www.hawxgame.com/

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. 2 is an arcade-style flight action game developed by Ubisoft Romania and published by Ubisoft. The game is the sequel to Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X., released in 2009.

The game begins with Colonel David Crenshaw participating in a routine patrol mission in the Middle East. After halting an insurgent attack, a volley of missiles is fired at the Air Force base that Crenshaw was stationed at, with one of the missiles disabling Crenshaw's aircraft, resulting Crenshaw being in enemy captivity. A joint strike force composed of the U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, and a Ghost Recon squad executes an operation to rescue Crenshaw. In Scotland, Royal Navy Pilot Colin Munro encounters an unidentified passenger aircraft that explodes from an on-board bomb when undergoing training exercise. In Russia, an air force squadron led by Colonel Denisov and Captain Dmitri Sokov engages separatist aircraft but is ordered to retreat from the region after numerous Russian military installations have been attacked.

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As always, the NVIDIA cards show us a strong presence under H.A.W.X. 2 and we can again see that performance sits right behind the GTX 570 while compared to the AMD offerings the NVIDIA cards offer significantly higher performance.

Benchmarks - Mafia II

Mafia II

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.2kczech.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.mafia2game.com/

Buy It Here

Mafia II is a third-person action-adventure video game, the sequel to Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. It is developed by 2K Czech, previously known as Illusion Softworks, and is published by 2K Games. The game is set from 1943 to 1951 in Empire Bay (the name is a reference to New York's state nickname "The Empire State"), a fictional city based on San Francisco and New York City, with influences from Chicago and Detroit. The game features a completely open-ended game map of 10 square miles. No restrictions are included from the start of the game. There are around 50 vehicles in the game, as well as licensed music from the era.

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Under Mafia II we see some strong performance with an excellent showing at 1920 x 1200 and 1680 x 1050 which shows it bouncing around HD 6970 performance again. Moving to 2560 x 1600, though, we see it drop down a little bit and here its performance is similar to the HD 6950.

Benchmarks - Lost Planet 2

Lost Planet 2

Version and / or Patch Used: Benchmark Demo

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark - Test A Scene 1

Developer Homepage: http://www.capcom.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.lostplanet2game.com/

Lost Planet 2 is a third-person shooter video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the sequel to Lost Planet: Extreme Condition which is also made by Capcom, taking place ten years after the events of the first game, on the same fictional planet. The story takes place back on E.D.N. III 10 years after the events of the first game. The snow has melted to reveal jungles and more tropical areas that have taken the place of more frozen regions. The plot begins with Mercenaries fighting against Jungle Pirates. After destroying a mine, the Mercenaries continue on to evacuate the area, in which a Category-G Akrid appears and attacks them. After being rescued, they find out their evacuation point (Where the Category-G appeared) was a set-up and no pick up team awaited them. The last words imply possible DLC additions to the game, "There's nothing to be gained by wiping out snow pirates... unless you had some kind of grudge."

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Another very heavy tessellation game sees the GTX 560 Ti 448 perform strong, offering us playable numbers at 1920 x 1200 and 1680 x 1050, with the higher resolution only getting playable numbers out of the GTX 560 Ti 448 and GTX 570. Moving to 2560 x 1600, we again see some good performance with it coming out ahead of the AMD offerings; unfortunately we're below that 60 FPS mark we aim for on every card then.

Benchmarks - Aliens vs. Predator

Aliens vs. Predator

Version and / or Patch Used: Standalone Benchmark

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.rebellion.co.uk/

Product Homepage: http://www.sega.com/games/aliens-vs-predator/

Aliens vs. Predator is a science fiction first-person shooter video game, developed by Rebellion Developments, the team behind the 1999 original PC game, and published by Sega for Microsoft Windows, the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. The game is based on the Alien vs. Predator franchise, a combination of the characters and creatures of the Alien franchise and the Predator franchise. There are three campaigns in the game, one for each race/faction (the Predators, the Aliens and the Colonial Marines), that, while separate in terms of individual plot and gameplay, form one overarching storyline.

Following the storyline of the campaign modes comes the multiplayer aspect of the game. In this Multiplayer section of the game, players face off in various different gametypes in various different ways.

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Moving to Aliens vs. Predator, we see that we've again got playable FPS at 1920 x 1200 and 1680 x 1050 with the card sitting behind the HD 6970 slightly. It continues to have no trouble dealing with the HD 6950, though, which is offering us a 57 FPS average at 1920 x 1200.

Benchmarks - Just Cause 2

Just Cause 2

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.0.0.2

Timedemo or Level Used: Dark Tower

Developer Homepage: http://www.eidos.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.justcause.com/

Just Cause 2 employs the Avalanche Engine 2.0, an updated version of the engine used in Just Cause. The game is set on the other side of the world from the original Just Cause, on the fictional island of Panau in Southeast Asia. Panau has varied terrain, from desert to alpine to rainforest. Rico Rodriguez returns as the protagonist, aiming to overthrow the evil dictator Pandak "Baby" Panay and confront his former mentor, Tom Sheldon.

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We continue to see a strong showing from the MSI GTX 560 Ti 448 and you can see we're bouncing around HD 6970 performance again. Moving to 2560 x 1600, like our previous two games, we see all the cards here fall over with numbers coming in around the 45 FPS mark on most cards.

Benchmarks - Metro 2033

Metro 2033

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.4a-games.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.thqnordic.com/

Metro 2033 is an action-oriented video game with a combination of survival horror and first-person shooter elements. The game is based on the novel Metro 2033 by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky. It was developed by 4A Games in Ukraine and released in March 2010 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360.[3] In March 2006, 4A Games announced a partnership with Glukhovsky to collaborate on the game.[4] The game was announced at the 2009 Games Convention in Leipzig;[5] a first trailer came along with the announcement.[6] A sequel was announced, currently titled Metro: Last Light.

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Looking at Metro 2033, we can see that the GTX 570 and GTX 560 Ti 448 are neck and neck when it comes to performance. Compared to the HD 6900 series, we can see under Metro 2033 we line up more with the HD 6950 with playable numbers at 1680 x 1050 and performance dropping below 60 FPS on both cards at 1920 x 1200 and higher.

Benchmarks - Dirt 3

Dirt 3

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.codemasters.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.dirt3game.com/

DiRT 3 boasts more cars, more locations, more routes and more events than any other game in the series, including over 50 rally cars representing the very best from five decades of the sport. With more than double the track content of 2009's hit, DiRT 3 will see players start at the top as a professional driver, with a top-flight career in competitive off-road racing complimented by the opportunity to express themselves in Gymkhana-style showpiece driving events.

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Dirt 3 sees strong performance again out of the GTX 560 Ti 448 and we're ahead of the HD 6970 again with playable numbers at 1920 x 1200 and 1680 x 1050. It isn't 'till 2560 x 1600 where we see the card falling below those playable numbers.

Benchmarks - Far Cry 2

Far Cry 2

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.01

Timedemo or Level Used: Ranch Long

Developer Homepage: http://www.ubi.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.farcry2.com/

Buy It Here

The Dunia Engine was built specifically for Far Cry 2 by the award-winning Ubisoft Montreal development team. It delivers the most realistic destructible environments, amazing special effects such as dynamic fire propagation and storm effects, real-time night-and-day cycle, dynamic music system, non-scripted enemy A.I. and so much more.

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Looking at Far Cry 2 there's no surprise that we've got playable numbers across the board. As for performance, we can see it sits between both the HD 6900 cards with it leaning towards the HD 6970 in some instances and the HD 6950 in others.

Benchmarks - High Quality AA and AF

High Quality AA and AF

Our high quality tests let us separate the men from the boys and the ladies from the girls. If the cards weren't struggling before they will start to now.

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While Far Cry 2 doesn't have any issues with a strong showing still, you can see under Mafia II performance drops just below that 60 FPS mark we want and under Aliens vs. Predator we're a good chunk below that 60 FPS mark we aim for on all cards.

Temperature Test

The temperature of the core is pulled from MSI Afterburner with the max reading used after a completed run off 3DMark Vantage and the Performance preset.

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Looking at the temperature of the card, it honestly comes as no surprise that the performance is strong. Considering we've got similar performance to the GTX 570, though, the 20c drop in temperature is really nice.

Sound Test

Pulling out the TES 1350A Sound Level Meter we find ourselves quickly yelling into the top of it to see how loud we can be.

After five minutes of that we get a bit more serious and place the device two CM away from the fan on the card to find the maximum noise level of the card when idle (2D mode) and in load (3D mode).

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Noise level sits towards the top, but there's not much between all the setups here with just a few dB separating them all.

Power Consumption Tests

Using our new PROVA Power Analyzer WM-01 or "Power Thingy" as it has become quickly known as to our readers, we are now able to find out what kind of power is being used by our test system and the associated graphics cards installed. Keep in mind; it tests the complete system (minus LCD monitor, which is plugged directly into AC wall socket).

There are a few important notes to remember though; while our maximum power is taken in 3DMark06 at the same exact point, we have seen in particular tests the power being drawn as much as 10% more. We test at the exact same stage every time; therefore tests should be very consistent and accurate.

The other thing to remember is that our test system is bare minimum - only a SSD hard drive is used with a single CD ROM and minimal cooling fans.

So while the system might draw 400 watts in our test system, placing it into your own PC with a number of other items, the draw is going to be higher.

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Power consumption on the card is strong and comes in a little lower amongst these higher end cards here.

Final Thoughts

The GTX 570 has never been a card that's really stood out; it's offered some good performance, but for the most part if you were looking at GTX 570 money, you could spend a bit more and go down the GTX 580 path or the HD 6970 was a really good option thanks to the more aggressive pricing it offered.

The GTX 560 Ti on the other hand has been an absolute gem of a card. The problem with the model, though, is companies attacked the design of it from launch and nearly 12 months on, there's not much companies can do to it and the model sits a bit stagnate now when it comes to getting exposure.

In steps the GTX 560 Ti 448, and here we see the power of the marketing team at NVIDIA. You've got a card that sits so close to the GTX 570; why not bring it in under the GTX 570 name to some degree? You'd think it's because the GTX 570 doesn't have this stand out name for value and performance like the GTX 560 Ti does. Instead of people also looking at it like a crippled GTX 570, we look at it as this supped up GTX 560 Ti.

With limited samples coming from companies and the model being released to only a limited amount of regions, the GTX 560 Ti 448 is clearly designed to bolster the holiday sales for NVIDIA in their biggest markets.

The MSI version of the card as you'd expect is fantastic. The Twin Frozr III cooler is a great one and coming under the "Power Edition" line means we've got more options when it comes to overclocking; something we'll be looking at very shortly.

If you find yourself needing a new video card for your holiday gaming, the GTX 560 Ti 448 is probably going to be at the forefront of your decision. The pricing should come in at a great point, the fact that it's a brand new model is going to get people more excited than older established ones and we should see the limited run of card come out in some really nice versions from companies.

The GTX 560 Ti 448 shows us the power of the NVIDIA marketing machine. There's no reason this card won't be at the top of peoples to buy list. The only reason you won't buy this is if you're happy to spend GTX 580 money. Apart from that you'll probably find yourself stealing a little bit more money from the Christmas present budget to buy this over a standard GTX 560 Ti.