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Today we are using one of KitGuru’s most powerful systems, a Core i7 970 based configuration – liquid cooled to 4.33ghz, with a Corsair AX1200 power supply – all built into a sexy Thermaltake Level 10 chassis.
Processor: Core i7 970 @ 4.33ghz
Cooling: Coolit Vantage
Motherboard: MSI X58A-GD65 (MS-7522)
Chassis: Thermaltake Level 10
Power Supply: Corsair Ax1200
Memory: 6GB GSkill Performance Gaming ram @ 902.9 MHz (2:10) @ 9-9-9-24
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V+ 512GB Gen 2 SSD (Storage) / Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB (OS boot)
Monitors: Hazro Ultra Sharp HZ230Wi, Dell Ultrasharp U2410 Rev A00
System validation is available over here.
Other graphics cards for comparisons:
AMD HD6970
PowerColor HD6970 PCS+ (940/1425)
AMD HD6950
AMD HD6870
Sapphire HD6870 Toxic Edition (970/1150)
AMD HD6850
AMD HD5870
AMD HD5850
Asus GTX580 Direct CU II (782/1002)
nVidia GTX570
eVGA GTX460 FTW (850/1000)
nVidia GTX460
eVGA GTX460 768MB SC (763/950)
XFX HD5830 XXX (740/1125)
Software:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
3DMark Vantage
3DMark 11
Catalyst 12.1
Forceware 266.66 WHQL
Fraps Professional
Steam Client
FurMark
TessMark
ShaderToy
HQV 2.0 Software
Technical Monitoring and Test Equipment:
Nikon D300S with R1C1 kit
Keithley Integra unit
Thermal Diodes
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp
Extech digital sound level meter & SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter
Games:
Resident Evil 5
Colin McRae Dirt 2
Lost Planet 2
Dead Space 2
Far Cry 2
Alien V Predator
Mafia 2
Tom Clancy H.A.W.X. 2
Metro 2033
Left4Dead2
All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests all games across five closely matched runs and average out the results to get an accurate median figure.
damn, thats a nice card. MSI certainly have created one of the nicest looking cards !
Thats what im talking about. under £200 too ! wow, was expecting it to be 230. best buy right now? must be up there with the best.
Have to hand it to MSI, they know their card designs. I dont buy into that ‘military grade’ stuff myself, but the cards get plenty of attention to detail and thats worth a lot of credit when some other manufacturers can be very lazy.
Excellent, glad to see a good 560 here, even among the 40,000 AMd reviews 😉
I have the 460 GTX from MSI, which I read here and on bitech last year, its been the best video card ive owned. I dont really need this card, but the next generation 660 ? ill be getting that from MSI. awesome boards.
560 is an awesome card, thanks for the review Z, awesome as always.
Wish they would do a 2GB version. lets also hope the new generation will support 3 screens without needing two.
Very impressed with this board, 60c under load when gaming? thats better than a 5770 I have in another case !
Great price point to achieve. would be my first choice for a new card.
nvidia tessellation performance gets to me everytime. AMD have still such a long way to go.
proves a point too that when AMD fans say Nvidia suck a lot of power, the new designs have it sorted. 🙂