To help fill a model gap that no one told us about, NVIDIA has just released its GeForce GTX 560, a slight step down from their Ti variant. Featuring a cut of 48 cores and the potential for wildly varying clock speeds, this graphics card is an strange beast. But, we look to pit MSI's Twin Frozr version against our usual fleet of cards to see where it stacks up in the end. Didn't think that it was possible to push another model into NVIDIA's mid-range? Well, the company has proven you wrong, with the help of its GeForce GTX 560. As it appears, these GeForce GTX 560 cards, like its older brother is set to see multiple releases, to help fine tune the choices as well as can be to help precisely match your budget. - Techgage

MSI GeForce GTX 560 TwinFrozr Card Edition Review

With its old GeForce GTX 460, we saw NVIDIA target the different variants at the same kind of gamer, but tweaked them here and there to make sure that people got just the card they wanted and for the price they wanted to pay. If there had to be a rhyme or reason to the GeForce GTX 560 non-Ti's existence, that would be it. It's similar to the Ti version in many ways, but costs a bit less. Of all the cards in NVIDIA's current line-up, the GeForce GTX 560 is special in that there doesn't exist a specific set of specifications for it really. Rather, the company provides a general guideline of officially supported clocks, so it's up to vendors to tweak.

The MSI Twin Frozr variant that we're looking at here today is one of the highest clocked offerings on the market, with a 870MHz core setting. While MSI offers a GeForce GTX 560 with rock bottom reference clocks, the card we were sent is of its Twin Frozr variety. It features a very beefy cooler for optimum cooling power and a sharp design. It's not as blingy as some of the other GPU's on the market, but we're sure this was a consciousness decision on MSI's part, as it's one thing to set it apart from the crowd. MSI states that the dual fan design employed here improves airflow by 50% over the reference design including heatpipes.

The GeForce GTX 560 Ti upon its release filled a gap that needed to be filled in the current generation of cards, but the non-Ti version feels like a card that plugs no holes or stands out of the crowd. Compared to the Ti version released this past January, the non-Ti GeForce GTX 560 features 48 less cores, while easily being able to be clocked the same. If the card was released as such, we might have seen greater differences with our benchmarks, while with even an modest overclock, the card will come so close to the Ti version that NVIDIA's bringing it out at all is interesting. This could actually bring the Ti version at lower sales.

But of course, we just described a $200 card that, when equipped with a minor clock boost, compares nicely to a card that at its minimum can be had for $230. As always, this seems to be a launch that seeks out to win gamer hearts in the pricing department. With the likes of an ASUS graphics card at 925MHz, there's no question that this card could easily surpass the performance of the reference Ti, so for avid overclockers, the GeForce GTX 560 looks to be quite a great $200 choice. The problem with outright recommending the GeForce GTX 560 though, once again boils down to competition and being faster at a certain pricing.

At around $200 the Radeon HD 6870 compares nicely, making it difficult for us to reach a clear cut conclusion. While a slightly odd release, the GeForce GTX 560 card does hold its ground in some regards, and MSI's variant makes things even better with a great cooler and design, and out of the gate clocks that put it on par in some cases with its bigger brother that costs about $50 more.