If NVIDIA set out to fill a vacuum between the standard GeForce GTX 560 Ti and GeForce GTX 570, it more than achieved it with the new GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 cores. Cards based on this new SKU are priced somewhere in between the price-points of the two, but the performance measured shows it's tilting precariously close to the GTX 570. And why shouldn't it? The new GTX 560 Ti 448 Cores has everything the GTX 570 has - GF110 GPU, 1280 MB of memory over a 320 bit GDDR5 memory interface, 40 ROPs, and even the same reference clock speeds. It's just that the GTX 570 has about 7% more CUDA cores.
Is this all sounding too good to be true? Well, here's the catch. First, the GTX 560 Ti 448 cores is a "Limited Edition" product, meaning that limited quantities of it will be produced. We think North American and European markets should digest all cards made in this winter shopping season alone. Next, it's a "Limited Availability" product, meaning that it will be available only in select North American and European markets.
ZOTAC's GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Cores comes at the highest out-of-the-box overclock of all the cards tested today, which gives it a slight performance advantage. When taking additional overclocking into account, the card's maximum frequencies are about in the middle of our test group. One reason could be the cooler, which seems a bit small for a card in this performance class - we didn't experience any problems though. The compact cooler results in a fairly compact card overall, especially when compared to the much larger cards from ASUS and MSI that we tested today. This makes the ZOTAC card interesting for users with smaller cases. Another point for the ZOTAC card: it's the cheapest of the three cards we tested today, coming at NVIDIA's MSRP of $289.
The GTX 560 Ti 448 cores has slightly higher power draw compared to the standard GTX 560 Ti, it's based the larger GF110 silicon, though its performance per Watt warrants it. Overall, the GTX 560 Ti 448 cores is a great deal for its $289~$300 price range, but limited availability could be its downfall.