KFA² MDT X5 GTX 560 Ti 1GB Review

Performance Analysis

With a spec so similar to that of a standard GTX 560 Ti 1GB, it wasn’t surprising to see identical results in our game tests. For example, in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 at 1,920 x 1,080 with 4x AA, the MDT X5 GTX 560 managed a minimum frame rate of 32fps. This is about right for a standard spec GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB, but it's slower than the overclocked examples we’ve seen – KFA²’s own GTX 560 Ti LTD OC was 8fps faster in this test.

It was a similar story at the same resolution in Arma II: Operation Arrowhead and Call of Duty: Black Ops, with the MDT X5 GTX 560 again returning identical minimum frame rates compared with a stock-speed GTX 560 Ti 1GB – 35fps and 79fps respectively. The pattern was the same in all the other tests, bar power consumption, where the MDT X5 GTX 560 drew 292W – 16W more than a standard GTX 560 Ti 1GB, undoubtedly due to the VMM1400 chip.


In Bad Company 2 using three monitors at 5,040 x 1,050, we saw a minimum frame rate of 14fps. This rose to 18fps if we disabled AA, but in demanding games such as this, a GTX 560 Ti 1GB isn’t up to the job.

Overclocking

Overclocking wasn't great either; we only managed to raise the core clock speed to 930MHz and the memory frequency to 2,050MHz (4.1GHz effective). Typically, we'd expect to see an overclocked core frequency of 950MHz from a GTX 560 Ti 1GB. At 1,920 x 1,080 with 4x AA, we saw a 7fps and 4fps increase in the minimum frame rates in Arma II and Bad Company 2 respectively. However, the custom cooler was quiet and kept the delta T below 39˚C under load.

Conclusion

At £236, the KFA² MDT X5 GTX 560 Ti 1GB is close to £50 more expensive than a standard GTX 560 Ti 1GB, and the same price as some pre-overclocked models. The ability to use up to five monitors, with four in spanned mode, will be valuable to those who use mixing suites and similar programs that demand plenty of screen real estate. However, patchy game support for the spanned resolution makes the MDT more of a multi-screen workplace product than a competitor to AMD’s Eyefinity for multi-screen gaming.