MSI N560GTX-Ti Hawk Video Card Review @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

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MSI N560GTX-Ti Hawk Video Card Review - Microstar's latest Hawk video card is here, packing a highly overclocked NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti. Can its enhanced PCB and cooler fend off the Radeon HD 6950's falling prices? Does it actually offer anything over a standard GeForce GTX 560 Ti? The end results are incredible and price drops have completely changed the landscape.
 
Very nice card. Unfortunately there are better options price wise.
 
Man- the prices on those 6xxx series cards are really making it hard NOT to buy AMD. the 6950 may be a little warmer due to the reference cooler, but using significantly less power, and still proving to be faster while coming in at ~$50 less is really hard to beat! Thats not even mentioning the overclocking and unlocking potential of the 6950. The 560 Hawk is nice, but hard to recommend.
 
Very good review. This is another proof of nVidia gpus handling some gory volts. I sometime wonder how Fermi can sip power like diet-coke and scale the performance likewise. Another remarkable thing is the efficiency of that twin frozr/hawk fans, although for me the reference design on the 560 Ti is already more than enough. As far as physical design goes, AMD cards used to be Superior, not any more. That #1 hawk took a whopping 90W more than the 6950 yet remained ~20* cooler! Interesting would be to see what Twin frozr III version of the HD6950 does.
 
Now this is how you do a GTX560 Ti correctly, as this is an amazingly designed card. Not only does it utilize some high quality parts, but that cooling system is just frickin amazing. Anytime a highly overclocked factory card is able to not much hotter than idle under full load, it is amazing. I agree with the conclusion that if this card was competing against only other 560Ti's on the market, it is a good trade off between price and what you get for the additional money.

That said, what I find amazing is that even at stock clocks, we are exceeding the power draw of the GTX 570's. That is a lot of extra heat that has to go somewhere literally, since the stock cooling system is so good at getting it away from the card itself.

I suppose the only problem here as mentioned in the article, is that we have 1gb 6950's selling for $210 right now, and 2gb 6950's selling for $240. On top of that, the 2gb reference design 6950's are very overclockable and also come with a roughly 90% chance of unlocking into a full 6970.

Overall, great review although I think it should be made a little more clear in the article that the $210 6950's that are mentioned are the 1gb models that are linked to on Newegg. Most people probably assume that when a 6950 is linked, it is a 2gb model since most of us until this recent price drop would probably never have considered a 2gb model if buying a 6950.
 
Um, it looks like you've got your links mixed up. The 560 Ti is selling for $209 after rebate, and your link to the 6950 for that price goes to the 560 Ti. Where is the AMD card you're comparing it against? What is the $260 part you're talking about? Nothing makes sense in this article at the end.
 
amdgamer said:
snip.

Overall, great review although I think it should be made a little more clear in the article that the $210 6950's that are mentioned are the 1gb models that are linked to on Newegg. Most people probably assume that when a 6950 is linked, it is a 2gb model since most of us until this recent price drop would probably never have considered a 2gb model if buying a 6950.
Click to expand...

So are they comparing it to the 1gb version or the 2gb version? Would it make sense to pay the extra 30 and grab the 2gb?

I'm thinking of buying a card for playing diablo 3 on my TV at 1080p, whenever that game comes out. I wonder if there's a need to go for the 2gb, or even 6950 over the 6850 which is quite a bit cheaper....
 
EODetroit said:
Um, it looks like you've got your links mixed up. The 560 Ti is selling for $209 after rebate, and your link to the 6950 for that price goes to the 560 Ti. Where is the AMD card you're comparing it against? What is the $260 part you're talking about? Nothing makes sense in this article at the end.
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The links at the end link to this XFX 1gig 6950 card for $209

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=3891137&SID=194r0

The link at the end of his article for the MSI review card go to this for $265.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=3891137&SID=194r0

I'm not sure what you are reading or where you are searching, but the cheapest nVidia 560 ti based card I can find is still $230 after rebate for a Galaxy.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...on=GTX 560 ti&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=20

chrnochime said:
So are they comparing it to the 1gb version or the 2gb version? Would it make sense to pay the extra 30 and grab the 2gb?

I'm thinking of buying a card for playing diablo 3 on my TV at 1080p, whenever that game comes out. I wonder if there's a need to go for the 2gb, or even 6950 over the 6850 which is quite a bit cheaper....
Click to expand...

I hope they clarify soon as i'm confused myself. They quote the price for an XFX 1 gig 6950, and it is unclear in the article whether they utilized a 1 gb or 2gb ATI test card for comparison against the MSI. I think it is a no brainer to pay an extra $30 for the 2gb, especially for a reference design one that can be flashed for a 90% chance to convert into a full 6970.

From what we've seen in the little tidbits that have been released about Diablo 3 so far, I wouldn't be surprised if you don't need much GPU muscle.
 
being the owner of a MSI 460GTX Hawk Talon Attack card, I can tell you if you want a factory overclocked and tweakable card these MSI cards are top notch and the quality of them appears to be very top tier if not the best overall. Wondering if they will produce a Talon Attack model of this card......I know on the 460GTX TA model they gave it better memory than the "standard Hawk" so you were paying for better hardware, not just another slightly higher overclocked SKU....
 
amdgamer said:
I'm not sure what you are reading or where you are searching, but the cheapest nVidia 560 ti based card I can find is still $230 after rebate for a Galaxy.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...on=GTX 560 ti&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=20

I hope they clarify soon as i'm confused myself. They quote the price for an XFX 1 gig 6950, and it is unclear in the article whether they utilized a 1 gb or 2gb ATI test card for comparison against the MSI. I think it is a no brainer to pay an extra $30 for the 2gb, especially for a reference design one that can be flashed for a 90% chance to convert into a full 6970.

From what we've seen in the little tidbits that have been released about Diablo 3 so far, I wouldn't be surprised if you don't need much GPU muscle.
Click to expand...

It was linking to this I think, but its fixed now: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162074 . That would be $199 after rebate, I think that's lower than it was earlier today.
 
This Galaxy + Mr. Rebates and your at $201 for some 560 goodness. I'd go for this instead of that, or at most the TF2 which has 6 + 1 SFC, a similar alternative for $230 AR. ^^^ sounds off-topic, but my point is that IMO something like this 560 is too contrived for my needs, and the power consumption is high :eek:.

Well, now that I've stopped giving my personal opinion about it, the cooler is insane. 50* C in BC2 is insane. I thank you guys especially for giving measurements for all of the specs on both cards, it was cool to compare the two together. One had a distinct advantage, the winner in natural selection.

Dear HardOCP: Was the 1GB or 2GB model of the HD 6950 used? I did not notice the VRAM for it mentioned. Thank you.
 
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Hey, you can overclock a 6950 to 6970 levels most of the time. This card is already overclocked so much that it probably doesn't have much headroom left.

Add in the insane power consumption, and I'm really not sure why someone would pay more for an obviously inferior design.

The stock cooler is good, but it's like putting chrome rims on a V-6 mustang.
 
AMD partnership product -
a cartonish looking corridor RPG which in review gave best gameplay experience at 1680x1050...

So this DX11 mess called Dragon Age 2, is the newest addition to a venerable 4-games benchmark?

Go Red team! Nvidia take a knee!

LOL
 
Pricing listed at the bottom of page 1 is for the 6950 1GB.

XacTactX said:
Dear HardOCP: Was the 1GB or 2GB model of the HD 6950 used? I did not notice the VRAM for it mentioned. Thank you.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the review [H]. Quality build aside, the MSI N560GTX-Ti Hawk isn't attractive since I could pick-up a 6950 2GB for roughly the same price.
 
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AceGoober said:
Pricing listed at the bottom of page 1 is for the 6950 1GB.



Thanks for the review [H]. Quality build aside, the MSI N560GTX-Ti Hawk isn't attractive since I could pick-up a 6950 2GB for roughly the same price.
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yeah, some people actually are willing to give up 5% performance difference in order to own higher quality parts. not being sarcastic, i could have gotten some of the lesser 460GTX's at the time I got my Hawk T/A.

But knowing I would not be satisfied with 70*c load temps on my GPU and knowing that the T/A model comes with better memory and knowing that getting a comparable HSF for the card would A. void the warranty and B. cost an additional $50.....i felt like the Hawk was actually well worth a $20 premium

Honestly if I am considering three cards in the same rough price range and performance range, the top performer is not always the best choice.
 
What's wrong with 70 C load temps? GPUs can handle well over 90C without immediate damage.

The power consumption of Nvidia products is unreal. It's like they have a design flaw or something.
 
I got mine for $250 can, when they first came out, the tipping point for me was the 2 games that were bundled with it at the time - Just Cause 2 and Mafia 2 , still $30 value . It was a worthy upgrade, I just hope that PhysX will stop showing up on games at some point so I don't have to worry about missing features if I go AMD.

Canadian prices for the card are pretty low -
$237 and a $15 MIR - MSI 560 GTX
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=12980BD8066&vpn=N560GTX-TI%20Twin%20Frozr%20II/OC&manufacture=MSI/MICROSTAR
 
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