KFA² GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB LTD OC Review

Performance analysis

In Dirt 2 at 1,920 x 1,080 with 4x AA, the LTD OC managed a minimum frame rate of 97fps - 10fps more than a basic card. This was also 6fps faster than the £275 GeForce GTX 570 1.3GB, and much faster than any single-GPU graphics card from AMD. Increasing the resolution to 2,560 x 1,600 saw the minimum frame rate drop to 62fps, just 3fps slower than the GTX 570 1.3GB.

Meanwhile, in Black Ops at 2,560 x 1,600 with 4x AA, the LTD OC's minimum frame rate of 69fps was 12fps faster than a standard card, and was a match for the GTX 570 1.3GB too. The AMD Radeon HD 6970 2GB was 10fps faster than the LTD OC, though, with a minimum frame rate of 79fps.

Similarly, in Bad Company 2 at 1,920 x 1,080 with 4x AA, the LTD OC managed a minimum frame rate of 40fps, which was only 2fps slower than the GTX 570 1.3GB. The HD 6970 2GB was 2fps slower than the LTD OC, while a stock-speed GTX 560 Ti 1GB was way off the pace with a minimum of 32fps.

Our Arma II: Operation Arrowhead benchmark is very demanding at 1,920 x 1,080 with 4x AA, but the LTD OC still managed a minimum frame rate of 42fps. Amazingly this was 2fps faster than the GTX 570 1.3GB – an incredible result given the extra GPU resources, memory and price of this card. The LTD OC was a significant 6fps faster than a basic GTX 560 Ti 1GB card too.

This is all very impressive, but can the GTX 560 Ti LTD OC go any faster than? KFA² provides its own overclocking software, called Xtreme Tuner HD. However, the software looks unpolished, and with the proven MSI Afterburner offing a similar set of tweaking tools, we decided to use that instead. We managed to push the LTD OC's GPU core speed a further 100MHz to 1,050MHz, while the memory could be pushed by another 100MHz, boosting the effective frequency from 4.4GHz to 4.8GHz.

This saw a 4fps increase in the minimum frame rate in Arma II at 1,920 x 1,080 with 4x AA, rising by 10 per cent to 45fps. We saw a similar boost in Dirt 2 at the same resolution, with the minimum frame rate increasing by 7 per cent, from 97fps to 104fps.

The LTD OC proved to be fairly quiet at stock speeds, although it was audible when gaming. The noise got worse when we overclocked it, though, as it became louder than any other GTX 560 Ti 1GB card we've tested. It was also less pleasant to sit next to than the GeForce GTX 570 1.3GB. The cooler did a fantastic job of cooling the overclocked innards of the graphics card, however, with the delta T not rising above 36°C. This is 11°C lower than the reference cooler of a GTX 560 Ti 1GB. Meanwhile, its power consumption topped out at 286W in games.

Conclusion

The KFA² GeForce GTX 560 Ti LTD OC is a great example of how overclocking can result in great performance at bargain prices. Throughout our testing, the LTD OC keep pace with the more expensive GTX 570 1.3GB, and there’s even headroom to overclock the LTD OC further.

One downside is that the LT OC isn’t particularly quiet. Even before we'd overclocked the card, it was noisier than a reference GTX 570 1.3GB card, and pushing it further made it noisier still. However, the cooler proved effective, so some tinkering with fan speed profiles will bring some joy on the noise front. Saving £40 over a GTX 570 1.3GB card while getting much the same performance is a no-brainer, and you should only be put off this card if noise is a particular concern.

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• 9/10

• Features
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• 8/10

• Value
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• 8/10

Score Guide