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Gainward GTX 560 Phantom reviewed

by on17 May 2011

Index

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Review: Where did the 'Ti' go? 


Nvidia’s Geforce GTX 560 launches today. Note that you shouldn’t confuse it with the GTX 560 Ti that launched on January 25th, as the GTX 560 is here to fill the gap between GTX 560 Ti and GTX 460 cards. GTX 560 owners, however, can expect some nice performance at 1920x1080.

We thought that Nvidia will retire its GTX 460 (based on GF104), but it seems we’ll have to wait a little while more until that happens. As you can see, the GTX 460 is listed in Nvidia’s GTX 560 presentation slides and it still coexists with the GTX 500 series.

560_slide_1080p_gaming

Note that the GF114 is a derivation of GF104. However, the GF114 packs a few improvements inherited from the GF110. The GF114 GPU received plenty of positive acclaim so far and we’ve seen that the card boasts nice performance-per-clock ratio as well. GTX 560 and GTX 560 Ti are based on the GF114, although the new card is slower due to some disabling within the GPU.

Gainward GTX 560 Phantom comes overclocked. However, the overclock is relatively small (13MHz for the GPU and 10MHz for the memory) as you can see from the GPUZ shot below.

560_phantom_gpuz

The GTX 560 Phantom card is a part of Gainward’s Phantom line, aimed at those who like their cooling effective but silent. GTX 580, GTX 570 and GTX 560 Ti already received Gainward’s Phantom treatment, so we guess it’s expected to see the GTX 560 get the same remake.

The reference GTX 560’s dual slot cooling is used on many other Nvidia’s cards, including the GTX 560 Ti. The cooling has already proven its worth and it should take care of GTX 560 cards quite nicely, as well as be quiet while doing so.

Since GTX 560 and GTX 560 Ti cards use the same PCB, partners won’t have trouble migrating their existing GTX 560 Ti specialized coolers and strap them on GTX 560; in fact, Gainward already did just that.

GW2227_GTX560_PHANTOM_01

 


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