Gigabyte GTX560 Ti SOC
Conclusion
Published: 25th February 2011 | Source: Gigabyte | Price: £229.99 |
Conclusion
It would be very easy to look at our results and come to the conclusion that whilst the Gigabyte GTX560Ti SOC promises much, it doesn't really deliver enough to make it a worthwhile purchase over a stock card, especially as all highly factory overclocked cards come with a suitably large price-premium.
That isn't actually the case here, and Gigabyte have cleverly positioned the SOC at the perfect price-point.
A reference GTX560Ti card is a penny shy of £200, whereas the SOC is only £30 more. For that extra £30 you're getting a couple of key things, which you can judge upon their importance and decide for yourself.
Firstly there is that overclock. Whilst the SOC doesn't outperform a manually overclocked reference card there are a some clear benefits to buying one at 1000MHz rather than trying to push a stock one to those heights. Firstly as we all know not every chip can make it up to 1000MHz. While all those we've tested can, it's still possible that there will be some that cant thanks to the wonder that is the 'Silicone Lottery'. Secondly you're getting that overclock out of the box. No messing about with stability testing and the like, plus it's all under warranty.
The other big thing you're getting is that cooler. The reference cooler wasn't exactly hot or loud at stock but when running a 1GHz clock it was a completely different matter. The Gigabyte twin-fan design is as good as silent as any you're likely to find. It's genuinely whisper quiet in pretty much everything but extended day long romps of F@H and even then its quieter than most.
*Video will be added once YouTube stops messing about!*
So the choice is yours. If you're willing to have a single fan and take your chances manually overclocking, you can save £30 and buy a reference. If you want the reassurance of a card guaranteed to hit 1000MHz, under warranty, and with a very effective and attractive cooler, the extra thirty notes isn't such a difference to break the bank.
If it's our money, we'd get the Gigabyte. There might not be any headroom left over, but it's a small price to pay for the comfort of knowing that you've got a great chip kept cool and quiet.
Thanks to Gigabyte for providing the GTX560Ti SOC for review. Discuss it in our forums.
Most Recent Comments
I want to get a 560 but i'm waiting till after the 590 comes out for the price drops. I usually go with Asus for my GPUs but I think i'll give Gigabyte a try after seeing the results for this card.
Also 14,471 PPD
my 6850 only gets 3.000 PPD 
Also 14,471 PPD
my 6850 only gets 3.000 PPD I am really wondering if this specific FERMI card will do the same in my EVGA board and PCI-E slot one 
Thank you for the review.
Nice review there Tom, looking forward to seeing the video to get a good idea of the fan sound.
I may upgrade to one of these and sell my 5850, the Twin Frozr II cooler is just a tad too loud when above 65% speed for my liking... excellent cooling though.
Plus I keep meaning to try a new nVidia card.
I may upgrade to one of these and sell my 5850, the Twin Frozr II cooler is just a tad too loud when above 65% speed for my liking... excellent cooling though.
Plus I keep meaning to try a new nVidia card.
Tbo Gigabyte’s SOC series are amazing if they just get the price right, then 10 out of 10 in everything
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Originally Posted by silenthill
Tbo Gigabyte’s SOC series are amazing if they just get the price right, then 10 out of 10 in everything |
How is Aria's service nowadays?
Had a really bad experience with them 2 years ago and haven't tried them since.
Had a really bad experience with them 2 years ago and haven't tried them since.
Realy like this card, it does suprisingly well in the benchmarks. Havent seen a Blue PCB like that since my HD 4870 
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Originally Posted by suenstar
How is Aria's service nowadays? Had a really bad experience with them 2 years ago and haven't tried them since. |
Grrrr @ youtube I wanna see the video. I was considering getting this for my rig but it seems to be pre order everywhere so I got the msi gtx 560 which I really like the look of from aria for £195 seems to have gone up £10 now though 
.
Once again nice review but I wanna see the vid!! I prefer video reviews if didn't notice.
.Once again nice review but I wanna see the vid!! I prefer video reviews if didn't notice.
Im all confused whether or not to by 2 gtx 570 gainward glh or 2 of theses
It's been a concern to me, probably since the HD69xx reviews, that OC3D's performance graphs don't make the sense that I'd personally expect with comparisons of cards vS card vS oc'd cards.
Either that or cards since I've been seeing the variations are self governing themselves via their respective bioses ? I can't imagine that to be the case.
I wonder if you guys could either internally review the reviews or have some kind of 1-off face-off between those cards typical in todays review comparison.
In simple terms, you bench a card at stock, then bench it overclocked, it's hard to imagine how on earth it could bench with a lesser performance. (just for example) For sure, if you overclock a card and something within the OS kicks in (like windows just loves to do) it can certainly hamper performance. I've noticed particularly with failed overclocks, Windows 7 runs a program called something like "ApSafetyBlahBlah.exe" that you have to check is not running before you bench again cos it does take up cycles. I think it's Windows trying to help the user not have the same problem again that might've caused the system failure.
Just a suggestion, not having a poke.
Tis a decent card btw, used to love Gigabyte's productions. But instinct would dictate buying the standard card and overclocking it - as mentioned above, it's a hard thing to suggest looking at some results.
Either that or cards since I've been seeing the variations are self governing themselves via their respective bioses ? I can't imagine that to be the case.
I wonder if you guys could either internally review the reviews or have some kind of 1-off face-off between those cards typical in todays review comparison.
In simple terms, you bench a card at stock, then bench it overclocked, it's hard to imagine how on earth it could bench with a lesser performance. (just for example) For sure, if you overclock a card and something within the OS kicks in (like windows just loves to do) it can certainly hamper performance. I've noticed particularly with failed overclocks, Windows 7 runs a program called something like "ApSafetyBlahBlah.exe" that you have to check is not running before you bench again cos it does take up cycles. I think it's Windows trying to help the user not have the same problem again that might've caused the system failure.
Just a suggestion, not having a poke.
Tis a decent card btw, used to love Gigabyte's productions. But instinct would dictate buying the standard card and overclocking it - as mentioned above, it's a hard thing to suggest looking at some results.
I really want a card that exhaust OUT of the case for a change.. 
If this had a complete shroud I'd actually swap out my 2 460s for it and not even care about the loss in performance.. shame that isn't the case though.
If this had a complete shroud I'd actually swap out my 2 460s for it and not even care about the loss in performance.. shame that isn't the case though.
Are you going to review MSI 560 twin frozer or are you waiting for the 560 HAWK with the twin frozer 3?If not then how do YOU compare the SOC and 560 twin frozer 2?
Cheers.
Cheers.
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Originally Posted by suenstar
How is Aria's service nowadays? Had a really bad experience with them 2 years ago and haven't tried them since. |
Nice review Tom.
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Originally Posted by suenstar
How is Aria's service nowadays? Had a really bad experience with them 2 years ago and haven't tried them since. |
Glad to hear good reports on Aria, I guess I was just insanely unlucky that time.
I may give them another try sometime in the near future then.
I may give them another try sometime in the near future then.
good card but its out of market when you can have 6950 cheaper and unlock to 6970 and with more v ram and faster
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Originally Posted by AraS
good card but its out of market when you can have 6950 cheaper and unlock to 6970 and with more v ram and faster |
i doubt it will void your warranty when you have dual bios switch . it is there for a reason , also there nothing stated on warranty that you cant unlock it as i am aware.
point is 560 soc is to expensive.
point is 560 soc is to expensive.
I have seen a couple of people on other forums who have bricked their 6950s after flashing the BIOS to a 6970, but apparently it was only after they did that and tried overclocking them further. I don't know if it would happen if you just flashed the BIOS and didn't OC further but i'd say just play it safe and get a 560 which has loads of overclock headroom anyway.
I dont think the 560 SOC is too expensive. It is only 20 dollars more than reference. Your getting near gtx 570 performance (speculating) for a hundred bones cheaper. A couple of these in SLI would be epic.
about 90%+ of the 6950's can be unlocked with no problems ,,,infact its most prob more than that since they are the same PCB just 6970's are higher up on the binning process but with a aftermarket cooler I dont think you would run into any problems, but sayin that its best just buy the card you want than to buy the one lower and hope you can flash it problem free imo
but getting back on topic (my bad) these cards look like the best bet and thats coming from a AMD fan lol
Very good review as asual. I like this card.-
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Originally Posted by SilentTyrant
about 90%+ of the 6950's can be unlocked with no problems ,,,infact its most prob more than that since they are the same PCB just 6970's are higher up on the binning process but with a aftermarket cooler I dont think you would run into any problems, but sayin that its best just buy the card you want than to buy the one lower and hope you can flash it problem free imo |
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Originally Posted by murphy7801
Dont take this the wrong way but like to see what evidence you have to support this claim. |
ok found it, very high pass rate indeed
http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159
http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159
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Originally Posted by SilentTyrant
ok found it, very high pass rate indeed http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159 |
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Originally Posted by SilentTyrant
about 90%+ of the 6950's can be unlocked with no problems ,,,infact its most prob more than that since they are the same PCB just 6970's are higher up on the binning process but with a aftermarket cooler I dont think you would run into any problems, but sayin that its best just buy the card you want than to buy the one lower and hope you can flash it problem free imo |
I'd only do it with a card I didn't pay for and planned to bench the crap out of it - which appears to be when they crap the bed.
My own cash ? Or someone who wants advice ? Get a 6970 or 560.
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Originally Posted by murphy7801
Im all confused whether or not to by 2 gtx 570 gainward glh or 2 of theses |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pZB4FMp-2w
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Originally Posted by murphy7801
Again not meaning say that your intentions aren't well placed but this statics give you no indication to actual failures merely what cards could not be unlocked. This doesn't give indication that cards after this was done broke at a later date. |
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Originally Posted by Jerome
570's have more GDDR5 memory. That helps though 1 580 now or 2 if you can will help alot. going by this vid 480 has 1.5GB GDDR5 like the 580 and produces a significantly better result at crunch time to the 570. What resolution will you run them? this vid is 1920x1080 and there isn't alot of games demanding like metro 2033 i think so it's a future proof need too http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pZB4FMp-2w |
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Originally Posted by SilentTyrant
scroll down to "Discuss this article in our forums" on that link,,, over 3 months and 79 pages of people talking about their flashed 6950s |
Really is a gorgeous card.
yer its good lookin but..................ide still but a hawk
Wait, if I overclock my twin frozr II one, will it perform the same?
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Originally Posted by darkshadow
Wait, if I overclock my twin frozr II one, will it perform the same? |
@tomlogan:what settings did u use for metro on this card?
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