MSI gtx560 hawk EDIT: BENCHMARKS!

[tviceman]

For those interested in upgrading, the MSI twin frozr II cooler is pretty damn exceptional and their "Hawk" line of cards are nothing short of extremely high end components. Whether it's the hd6950 or the gtx560, if you are looking to upgrade and these cards are within your price range, they are well worth the premium costs over reference models. I know I pimp out the MSI twin frozr cards quite often - and I just want to say I have absolutely no affiliation with MSI whatsoever. I've had nothing but great experience with both their customer service and previous twin frozr product I owned.

I currently do see a Hawk 6950 listed on Newegg, but here's the gtx560 version:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127578

http://www.msi.com/product/vga/N560GTX-Ti-Hawk.html

I just placed my order - I'm looking forward to overclocking this card and posting my results/benchmarks online!

EDIT

Here are some benchmarks.

GPU information

Metro2033 (high settings, physx HIGH)

Mafia II (max settings, physx HIGH)

Unigine Heaven 2.5

Crysis Warhead

Batman Arkham Asylum (max settings, physx high, 4x AA, 16x AF)

All games ran at 1920x1200. Max temp reached was in Crysis Warhead 67 degrees @ 50% fan speed. The card came at a stock voltage of 1.075. I've lowered it to 1.037, upped the core by 50mhz, upped the memory by 150mhz, and still 100% stable. At 40% I cannot hear the fans at all. At 50%, with no other sound in the room, I can perceive a pressure change in air volume from the case, but still cannot hear the fans. Obviously, when playing a game I cannot perceive any sound at all from the computer. I probably will not overclock any further since I'm extremely happy with these results.

My system is a i7 2600k @ 4.5ghz, Asus P8P67 Pro, 8 gigs DDR 1600 ram, and corsair 750 watt PSU.

 

[notty22]

This Golden edition caught my eye. I know its shiny, I'm guilty !
The one you linked used the TF III design, the Golden the older TFII ?

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Direct 2 CU series are better. That is all.

 

[tviceman]

Direct 2 CU series are better. That is all.

I beg to differ!!!! It might be better, I really don't know.

This Golden edition caught my eye. I know its shiny, I'm guilty !
The one you linked used the TF III design, the Golden the older TFII ?

This is correct.

 

[notty22]

Have you read the roundup at Hardware Canucks ?
The DirecCu gtx 560 managed a o/c of 945mhz

The Hawk comes clocked at 950mhz
Good luck with the card, give us some review.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Have you read the roundup at Hardware Canucks ?
The DirecCu gtx 560 managed a o/c of 945mhz

The Hawk comes clocked at 950mhz
Good luck with the card, give us some review.

That really comes down to silicon and not the cooler usually. I got my Direct 2 cu 580 to 950mhz without really even trying. Load temps 63c with a slight increase in fan speed. You can't beat that. I run it at 902mhz 24/7 though.

 

[edplayer]

nice card, $265 though

I'll wait about 4~6 months and buy it for half price or less.

 

[happy medium]

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...tx-560-ti-roundup-asus-evga-gigabyte-msi.html

Looking at that review the best gtx560 is still the Gigabyte superoverclock at 1000 core for 269$.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...162&CatId=3669

 

[stahlhart]

Hey, new avatar!

Goddamit so much, though. As soon as you pull the trigger, you're screwed, no matter whan you pull it.

 

[happy medium]

Hey, new avatar!

Goddamit so much, though. As soon as you pull the trigger, you're screwed, no matter whan you pull it.

270$ (no rebate) for gtx570/6970 performance @ 1900x1080 is not to much, in fact its 30 to 45 dollars cheaper then the cheapest gtx570/6970 after there rebates.

 

[stahlhart]

Exactly. I could have SLIed them for $30-40 more than I paid for the ones I got. Ugh. Oh, well...

 

[RussianSensation]

270$ (no rebate) for gtx570/6970 performance @ 1900x1080 is not to much, in fact its 30 to 45 dollars cheaper then the cheapest gtx570/6970 after there rebates.

Unless of course you are gaming at 2560x1600 in which case the 6970 blows away the 1000mhz 560. Even at 1920x1080 4AA, a 1000mhz 560 still can't beat an HD6970. You can still buy an HD6950 2GB and unlock it into a 6970 for $250. This makes the 560 a difficult sell at $270.

And even when overclocked to 950mhz, the 560 still loses in a recent game such as Bulletstorm to a stock 6950 1GB version. Having 2GBs of RAM may be better for games like BF3. In fact, if you take away Lost Planet 2, Dirt 2 and Civilization V, then the 560 card is no better than a stock 6950 1GB as that TechReport review shows.

 

[tviceman]

Unless of course you are gaming at 2560x1600 in which case the 6970 blows away the 1000mhz 560. Even at 1920x1080 4AA, a 1000mhz 560 still can't beat an HD6970. You can still buy an HD6950 2GB and unlock it into a 6970 for $250. This makes the 560 a difficult sell at $270.

And even when overclocked to 950mhz, the 560 still loses in a recent game such as Bulletstorm to a stock 6950 1GB version. Having 2GBs of RAM may be better for games like BF3. In fact, if you take away Lost Planet 2, Dirt 2 and Civilization V, then the 560 card is no better than a stock 6950 1GB as that TechReport review shows.

Did you seriously just say "if you don't benchmark XX XXX XX games then they're the same speed?" Isn't that the point of benchmarking multiple games? To see which video card is faster all around??? If we are going to throw out Civ V, Dirt 2, and Lost Planet then lets just throw out all the AMD favored benchmarks too. NEAT.

The gtx560 hawk cards are cherry picked GPU's. Overclocked, it will trade blows with a gtx570 stock. And even when overclocked, it's going to run quieter, cooler, and consume less power than a reference gtx570. And since a gtx570 is generally equal to or slightly faster than a hd6970 performance wise up to 1920x1200 (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_6790/22.html) , I'm quite happy
with the value of my purchase.

 

[notty22]

Overall the 6950 may be slightly faster, you can cherry pick from games to show either faster.
Its funny AMD used to be faster at BFBC2,
For new games, where will BFBC3 favor ? Also Dirt3 will it run on Nvidia cards like Dirt2 or the way F1 does. F1 is one of the biggest to favor AMD right now, that at least catches my interest.
Also for new games : The dreaded Crysis 2 favors Nvidia cards.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

nice card, $265 though

I'll wait about 4~6 months and buy it for half price or less.

Sometimes it's okay to splurge. Even at $265 that is a lot of gpu for the money. Should be a great overclocker.

 

[notty22]

Sometimes it's okay to splurge. Even at $265 that is a lot of gpu for the money. Should be a great overclocker.

I agree, it be great if we could always get the exact card we want at the cheapest price, but it does not always work out that way, or do most admit it , lol
I paid more for my Cyclones than most would think 1gb gtx 460's could be had for, but all you have to do is look at the price history.
One of them I got during a 15% off special.

 

[tviceman]

Updated OP with some benchmarks.

 

[load81]

Your minimum fps in Heaven would be alot better if you let it loop a time or two before hitting benchmark. There is one spot where my card dips to 9 if I dont let it loop once but if I do it never goes below 20 at those settings. Dont know if its still like that in v2.5.

Direct 2 CU series are better. That is all.

With all the room it takes up it better be

 

[notty22]

Your minimum fps in Heaven would be alot better if you let it loop a time or two before hitting benchmark. There is one spot where my card dips to 9 if I dont let it loop once but if I do it never goes below 20 at those settings. Dont know if its still like that in v2.5.

Its a glitch thats even worse in 2.5 imo. I can hit benchmark and sometime see as low as 10, and other times, starts with min at 29, it may go a little lower at one point in the actual benchmark, but it shows the initial low, was a false result.

 

[tviceman]

Your minimum fps in Heaven would be alot better if you let it loop a time or two before hitting benchmark. There is one spot where my card dips to 9 if I dont let it loop once but if I do it never goes below 20 at those settings. Dont know if its still like that in v2.5.

Yeah that minimum is always from the very start. I can do some more benchmarks of different games if anyone would like.

 

[happy medium]

DO you have Shift 2?

 

[Termie]

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...tx-560-ti-roundup-asus-evga-gigabyte-msi.html

Looking at that review the best gtx560 is still the Gigabyte superoverclock at 1000 core for 269$.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...162&CatId=3669

Take a look at Xbit's new 560 test: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/gf-gtx560-ti-roundup_6.html#sect0.

The standard Twin Frozr crushes the competition in overclocking, with a 1050 core (allowing it to match a 570). Then again, they didn't test the strongest competitors. Gigabyte isn't in there, nor is Asus. EVGA is in the test, but I'd say it's starting to lose ground by sticking to the reference cooler designs.

I think the OP has a very good card, and the overclocking is quite impressive. That being said, the 6950 is probably a better value.

 

[WMD]

Very impressive card. Can you do Resident evil 2 benchmark at 1680x1050 4xaa DX9, max setting, motion blur on? The benchmark is free download.

 

[tviceman]

DO you have Shift 2?

No, sorry.

Very impressive card. Can you do Resident evil 2 benchmark at 1680x1050 4xaa DX9, max setting, motion blur on? The benchmark is free download.

Do you mean RE5?

I will download it tomorrow and get back to ya! Although I'm sure that RE5 at those settings the FPS is going to be ridiculously high to the point where it's kind of silly to benchmark.

 

[WMD]

No, sorry.



Do you mean RE5?

I will download it tomorrow and get back to ya! Although I'm sure that RE5 at those settings the FPS is going to be ridiculously high to the point where it's kind of silly to benchmark.

Thanks. Yes RE5. I am considering switching to Nvidia from my 5850 and this looks very interesting.