GeForce GTX 560 Ti
As with the GeForce GTX 580/570, the organization of the new core has not changed. Essentially, the GF114 is a fully active GF104 optimized to achieve higher clock speeds while keeping power consumption within reasonable limits.
Two GPC clusters include four multiprocessors, each of which, in turn, carries 48 universal thread cores, and, accordingly, the total number of these cores is 384. Each multiprocessor is served by eight texture operations units, so the total the number of active TMUs in the new chip is 64. The architecture of texture processors has not changed since the GF104. They are capable of full-speed filtering of FP16 textures, along with the traditional INT8 format. But texture filtering in FP32 format is four times slower. The volume of the second level cache, as in the GF104, is 512 KB.
In addition, each multiprocessor also includes a PolyMorph Engine, which puts GF114 head and shoulders above any AMD solution in the field of geometry processing and tessellation. Even two third-generation tessellation units in Cayman are unlikely to compete on equal terms with eight units of GF114. The configuration of the raster subsystem of GF114 has remained the same and includes 32 RBE units. Since this subsystem is directly connected to the memory subsystem, the latter still consists of four 64-bit controllers, so the total width of the bus connecting GPU with local memory bank is 256 bits.
As for multimedia capabilities, no noticeable innovations were noticed here, but they, in essence, are not needed: the GF104 could already do everything necessary by modern standards, including full hardware decoding and scaling of high-resolution video in H.264 and VC-1 formats , as well as protected multi-channel audio output in Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio formats via Protected Audio Path. The only significant advantage that AMD can boast in this area is support for hardware DivX decoding.
In general, the GF114 perfectly complies with the principle of “reasonable sufficiency” - it supports all modern graphics and multimedia technologies, but does not contain any rarely required extras, such as the ability to simultaneously connect six monitors. In fact, the new mainstream NVIDIA graphics processor is nothing more than a natural evolutionary development of the ideas embodied in the GF104.
So, it is obvious that the new GeForce GTX 560 Ti is to the GeForce GTX 460 1GB what the GeForce GTX 580 and 570 are to the GeForce GTX 480 and GeForce GTX 470, respectively. In other words, this is another “old fairy tale in a new way”, however, there is nothing wrong with this, since the Fermi architecture itself is very successful, with the exception, perhaps, of the texture subsystem not being very productive in comparison with the solutions of its competitor.
| Characteristics of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti |
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First of all, the significantly increased core clock speeds are striking - over 800 MHz for the main domain and over 1.6 GHz for the computing domain. For NVIDIA solutions, taking into account their architectural features, this is a very serious achievement. Previously, such frequencies were subject only to individual GeForce models with factory overclocking, but from now on AMD should start to worry seriously, since even the main domain of the GF114 works faster than the entire core of the Radeon HD 6950. In addition, the latter has a total of 352 universal VLIW4 processors versus 384 scalar ones ALU for GF114.
The GF114 has 64 texture processors capable of performing FP16 texture filtering at full speed, since each TMU has four filtering units per texture addressing unit. True, the predecessor of the new product, the GF104 chip, had the same capabilities in the field of working with textures. Like other NVIDIA solutions, in high-resolution video decoding mode, core frequencies drop to 405/810 MHz, and in idle mode they drop to 51/101 MHz, so in such modes you can expect the GeForce GTX 560 Ti to be as efficient as the GeForce GTX 460 .
Unfortunately, in the design of the reference cooling system GeForce GTX 560 Ti, the NVIDIA development team decided not to repeat the successful discovery with the vapor chamber, which has proven itself so well in the cooling systems of the GeForce GTX 580 and 570. In this case, a more conservative design with a round central radiator is used, reminiscent of the heatsinks of Intel box coolers. Using three heat pipes, the central section is connected to two additional arc-shaped radiators. The latter are blown due to the fact that a conventional axial fan blows not only downwards, but also to the sides. Note that part of the heated air with this arrangement will be ejected to the right, into the interior of the case.
The new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti did not disappoint: it can be called a worthy addition to the GeForce 500 family. Despite the fact that the recommended price of the GeForce GTX 560 Ti is only $249, it is able to fight on equal terms not only with the Radeon HD 6870, which it was initially against was aimed, but also with a more powerful and expensive Radeon HD 6950.