The New EVGA Dual GTX 560 Ti That Thinks It's A GTX 585

[qubit]

EVGA has just announced a new dual GPU card based on the GF114 GPU - check out the product launch page here and the product page here. If their performance graph on that launch page is accurate, then the card is around 30% faster than a GTX 580 when running the Unigene Heaven benchmark. The output panel contains three DVI connectors for NVIDIA 3D Surround, along with a mini HDMI port. The cooler has three fans, which should make for a well-cooled and reasonably quiet card. The marketing blurb says:

Introducing the EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2Win
It may not be called a GTX 585, but it's the next best thing. This card harnesses the power of two EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti GPU's for blistering fast DirectX 11 performance, including tessellation performance that destroys the competition. Experience a whole new level of interactive gaming and combine up to three displays off a single card for the ultimate in 3D entertainment, or disable Surround and combine up to four displays for maximum productivity. With these features and more, the EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2Win gives you double the GPU's and double the win!

Translated, this means that your life isn't worth living without one of these babies in your rig. Apparently.



Primary specs are as follows:

EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2Win

- Part Number: 02G-P3-1569-KR
- Core Clock Speed: 850MHz
- CUDA Cores: 768
- 1GB RAM per GPU
- Memory Clock Speed: 4008MHz
- Memory Bandwidth: 256.6GB/sec
- Shader Clock Speed: 1700MHz
- Bus: PCI-E 2.0
- Interface: DVI-I, DVI-I, DVI-I, Mini-HDMI
- SLI connector, allowing 2 card, 4 GPU setups. UPDATE: according to the reviews, the SLI connector isn't actually functional, so no SLI with another card is possible
- Product Warranty: 3 year warranty upgradable upon registration
- Product Length: 11.5in - 292.1mm

It's a tiny bit overclocked when compared to a single GPU GTX 560 Ti too, which is nice, but won't be felt in practice.



This looks like an interesting card, but of course its viability is very tightly coupled to its price, so let's hope that EVGA price this competitively. Note that this card is based on the GF114 GPU and not the more powerful GF110 GPU in the upcoming revised GTX 560 Ti (GTX 570 in disguise) that we reported on here a couple of weeks ago.

There are already some reviews out on it, with AnandTech & Hardware Canucks both having reviewed it. Note that AnandTech have stated that it's price is $519, "a little more than a GTX 580". According to them, a GTX 580 is $489, so this isn't too much of a price difference. Of course, how reasonable that price actually is, all depends on how well-priced the particular GTX 580 one is looking at online is, as some etailer "own brand" models can be significantly cheaper than average, because you don't know which actual brands you're getting. However, those cards are just as good as their up-front branded counterparts, where the only difference between them is the little branding sticker when it comes to reference models.

While a nice card, remember that this does have all the issues of any dual or multi GPU card of any brand (NVIDIA or AMD) game profiles in particular, so this must be weighed up carefully when deciding to go for a product like this. Generally speaking, more consistent and trouble-free performance is obtained from a single GPU card. If someone already has a GTX 580, then replacing it with this is not a worthwhile investment, as it only offers a 30% frame rate improvement, along with the issues mentioned.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[alexsubri]

meh..its a nice card, don't get me wrong. But, only 1GB VRAM? :shadedshu

 

[radrok]

It's a good card indeed but I think that EVGA made a big mistake by not increasing the VRAM from 1GB to something more... as Anand pointed out the price tag is such of an high end card and surely it isn't aimed at gaming on 1080p because a single 560ti would just do it, the problem is that with 1GB per GPU you would surely hit the wall at which you'd be suffering by using this instead of what to say a 6950 2GB CFX or a 580 3GB even 1,5GB

As Qubit already mentioned by using a dual GPU solution you'd be exposed to the microstuttering phenomenom that as far as I know it's going to outweigh the 30% framerate advantage over a single 580.
I'm still of the way of thinking of going for the fastest single chip before thinking a dual gpu configuration, then if the fastest single chip is not enough then you'd be going for a dual solution based on the fastest chip... of course if possible.

 

[3volvedcombat]

Love the card, Love that they whore'ed on the cooling for the card(its going to need it).

I just have to note this to anybody interested:

*NOTE*** "CAN give you the performance 2Win!!"

What they need to do is release a card that is shown and proven, in multiple setups that it really does have great dual GPU performance, and you do not need to have the selected hardware and tweaks to actually be a Win. I might be wrong though, express the criticism

But, If I remember right, Sometimes the second gpu never gets fully utilized, Sometimes there are stuttering issue's, Sometimes there are power issue's, Sometimes there are Unsafe Heat Issue's, and Sometimes there are under utilization issue's that are huge in some cases.

But great for the uni bench!!!

meh..its a nice card, don't get me wrong. But, only 1GB VRAM? :shadedshu

1GB vram per GPU, 2gb overall total...
But If I am right, I believe you are talking about issue's that will arise, when 1 GPU is maxed out on Vram, and software utilization and frame-rate lockups will occur,
Very possible, and is a negative in some aspects.

 

[radrok]

Love the card, Love that they whore'ed on the cooling for the card(its going to need it).

I just have to note this to anybody interested:
http://img.techpowerup.org/111105/Capture347.jpg

*NOTE*** "CAN give you the performance 2Win!!"

What they need to do is release a card that is shown and proven, in multiple setups that it really does have great dual GPU performance, and you do not need to have the selected hardware and tweaks to actually be a Win. I might be wrong though, express the criticism


But, If I remember right, Sometimes the second gpu never gets fully utilized, Sometimes there are stuttering issue's, Sometimes there are power issue's, Sometimes there are Unsafe Heat Issue's, and Sometimes there are under utilization issue's that are huge in some cases.

But great for the uni bench!!!

There was a good article on Tom's that was linked on this forum some time ago that analyzed microstuttering, one of the simpliest way to avoid it was to add a third GPU to the mix to even the minimum framerate, as far as I know this one does not have the SLI bridge.

EDIT : by looking another time at the pics it seems to have the SLI bridge so it seems you can add another one to counter micro stutter

EDIT2 : here I've found the thread for who might be interested and maybe missed it
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=151155

 

[qubit]

Good points people

Yes, that 1GB RAM is quite a limitation for a graphics card at this performance level. Well spotted.

Makes the thing a bit of a sidegrade, doesn't it?

@radrok: The SLI bridge is actually listed in the specs in the article.

 

[radrok]

Yes, that 1GB RAM is quite a limitation for a graphics card at this performance level. Well spotted.

Makes the thing a bit of a sidegrade, doesn't it?

@radrok: The SLI bridge is actually listed in the specs in the article.

Thanks, I totally missed it, maybe it's time to take a nap, it's 2:00 AM

 

[dj-electric]

I'd take two HD6950 2GB's graphics cards K10XBI

 

[mediasorcerer]

Its a well funky looking unit, a lot of releases lately, especially dual/triple fan and dual gpus on one card. Good to have the choice though, i would have thought it would support more than 3 monitors?

 

[hhumas]

I was planing to get GTX 560ti ... but i think i should go for it ...

 

[mediasorcerer]

Id have a really good look around before i got this card, it seems somewhat overpriced to me, just my opinion though.

Its a dual config setup even though its one card, you could get two 2gb radeons for around the same outlay, that would total 4 gb memory in dual config.If you are using more than 1 monitor, the extra memory is the go far as i know.

 

[radrok]

Id have a really good look around before i got this card, it seems somewhat overpriced to me, just my opinion though.

Its a dual config setup even though its one card, you could get two 2gb radeons for around the same outlay, that would total 4 gb memory in dual config.If you are using more than 1 monitor, the extra memory is the go far as i know.

Yeah but remember, in SLI/Cfx configuration the VRAM does not add, it mirrors, if you have a pair of 2GB VGA you'll have a total of 2GB anyway!

 

[Darkleoco]

SMH why not actually improve cards instead of just adding dual gpu crap.....

 

[Frizz]

Seems like this card was made to compete with the HD6870x2 2GB.

 

[Mussels]

1GB vram per GPU, 2gb overall total...
But If I am right, I believe you are talking about issue's that will arise, when 1 GPU is maxed out on Vram, and software utilization and frame-rate lockups will occur,
Very possible, and is a negative in some aspects.

ram isnt additive in SLI, so its only 1GB of usable VRAM.

 

[blibba]

Won't this end up using more power than a 590?

 

[Arctucas]

<SNIP>

EDIT : by looking another time at the pics it seems to have the SLI bridge so it seems you can add another one to counter micro stutter
<SNIP>
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=151155

From http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...-geforce-gtx-560-ti-2win-dual-gpu-review.html

"There is also an SLI connector but since quad SLI isn’t supported for the GTX 560 Ti in NVIDIA’s driver stack, there is currently no way to run two of these cards in parallel for additional performance."

 

[micropage7]

nice card, but the cover like that would reduce intake air?

 

[Zubasa]

From http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...-geforce-gtx-560-ti-2win-dual-gpu-review.html

"There is also an SLI connector but since quad SLI isn’t supported for the GTX 560 Ti in NVIDIA’s driver stack, there is currently no way to run two of these cards in parallel for additional performance."

Doesn't EVGA tends to get special love from nVidia?

 

[Arctucas]

Doesn't EVGA tends to get special love from nVidia?

In have no idea, I merely quoted a reviewer on another website.

 

[newtekie1]

If their performance graph on that launch page is accurate, then the card is around 30% faster than a GTX 580 when running the Unigene Heaven benchmark.

Until you raise the settings to the point that the 1GB of graphics memory is overwhelmed and performance in the benchmark hits the shitter...

But really, in real world game play 1GB will be the limiting factor, but not as limiting as a lot would thing. The GTX560 Ti scales beautifully in SLI, even with only 1GB of VRAM. Yes, in extreme situations this card will probably lag down to the level of a GTX580 or slightly lower, which is probably why it is priced right at the same price point as the GTX580. I don't think they are trying to get people to move over from a GTX580 to this card, I think they are trying to just give people a different option that are thinking of upgrading.

Anyway, I was kind of expecting this, considering the GF114 is pin compatible with GF104, so when they announced the GTX460 2Win after the GTX500 series already launched, I knew they would just make a GTX560 2Win using the same PCB once they used up the GF104 cores.

EDIT : by looking another time at the pics it seems to have the SLI bridge so it seems you can add another one to counter micro stutter

Nope. When they originally designed the PCB, they were hoping to get 4way SLI working with two of the cards combined, but never did. So the SLI finger on the PCB is useless.

 

[mediasorcerer]

Yeah but remember, in SLI/Cfx configuration the VRAM does not add, it mirrors, if you have a pair of 2GB VGA you'll have a total of 2GB anyway!

Ok didnt know that, good to know, thankyou.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

If they double the vram it'd be over $600. Not because it adds that much to the cost of course. It's cause they're dicks.

 

[alexsubri]

Until you raise the settings to the point that the 1GB of graphics memory is overwhelmed and performance in the benchmark hits the shitter...

But really, in real world game play 1GB will be the limiting factor, but not as limiting as a lot would thing. The GTX560 Ti scales beautifully in SLI, even with only 1GB of VRAM. Yes, in extreme situations this card will probably lag down to the level of a GTX580 or slightly lower, which is probably why it is priced right at the same price point as the GTX580. I don't think they are trying to get people to move over from a GTX580 to this card, I think they are trying to just give people a different option that are thinking of upgrading.

Anyway, I was kind of expecting this, considering the GF114 is pin compatible with GF104, so when they announced the GTX460 2Win after the GTX500 series already launched, I knew they would just make a GTX560 2Win using the same PCB once they used up the GF104 cores.

Nope. When they originally designed the PCB, they were hoping to get 4way SLI working with two of the cards combined, but never did. So the SLI finger on the PCB is useless.

Correct. However, games like BF3 and other future technology games are going to require more VRAM through out time. BF3 uses over 2GB VRAM

This is what is keeping me from not buying this card.

Recent video cards are now more commonly equipped with 2 GB of VRAM. Such cards need 64-bit Windows. We advocate using 64-bit Windows 7 for gaming as this provides the expanded memory capacity to use more VRAM.

Looking forward we expect to see 4 GB on top model gaming cards soon. Even 8 GB cards are not outside the range of technology. Memory is usually a smaller die size so more can be made from a given wafer.

Better fabs can make higher density memory chips making this practical. Intel's new 14 nm line could even provide 16 GB memory for video cards easily. For this reason we expect VRAM will continue to increase. Intel is spending $5 billion on the facility located in Arizona. The new line is called Fab 42 and it will be placed near the existing Fab 32 facility. We expect Intel will be able to achieve 10-11 nm towards 2015.

edit: what i am trying to say is that this card should've been at least 2GB for a bang buster. However, due to the price of a GTX 580 and current sales, they wouldn't want to endanger that aspect of the market. A Dual GTX 560 TI 2GB would be around the same price as a GTX 580 and would dissemblance their [nVidias] g-spot.

I am waiting for ATI 7xxx coming rumored Dec 2011 and nVidia's GTX 6xx Kepler in Feb 2012

 

[dj-electric]

Correct. However, games like BF3 and other future technology games are going to require more VRAM through out time. BF3 uses over 2GB VRAM

When i tested BF3 1920X1200 ultra settings 4XAA it took about 1320MB of VRAM at max. And dont get your hopes high, you wont see kepler before may