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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560: A Retrospective and Relevance in 2025

We explore who might find use for this legendary graphics card 14 years after its release.

1. Architecture and Key Features

Fermi Architecture: A Legacy from 2011

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560, released in 2011, is based on the Fermi architecture (GF114). This was NVIDIA's second generation, focusing on enhancing general-purpose computing (GPGPU). The manufacturing process is 40 nm, which looks outdated by 2025 standards (modern GPUs use 5–7 nm).

Lack of Modern Technologies

The GTX 560 does not support ray tracing (RTX), DLSS, or FidelityFX. In an era where games actively utilize neural network upscalers and realistic lighting, this is a significant drawback. However, the card performed well with DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.1, which is still relevant for retro gaming.

2. Memory

GDDR5 and Modest Capacities

The graphics card was equipped with either 1 GB or 2 GB of GDDR5 memory with a 256-bit bus. The bandwidth is 128 GB/s. In comparison, modern models with GDDR6X reach up to 1008 GB/s (for example, the RTX 4090). Even basic games in 2025 require at least 4–6 GB of VRAM, making the GTX 560 suitable only for older projects or 2D tasks.

3. Gaming Performance

Retro Gaming and Indie Projects

In 2025, the GTX 560 can run games from the 2010s at medium settings in 1080p:

- The Witcher 3 (2015): ~25–30 FPS on low settings.

- CS:GO: 60–80 FPS in Full HD.

- Minecraft (without shaders): stable 60 FPS.

Modern Games Are Not Its Strong Suit

Even less demanding titles like Fortnite or Valorant will run at minimum settings with frame rates below 30 FPS. Resolutions higher than 1080p (1440p, 4K) are unattainable due to memory limitations and a weak chip.

4. Professional Tasks

Limited CUDA Capabilities

The GF114 includes 336 CUDA cores. Its power is insufficient for editing in DaVinci Resolve or Blender: rendering a 10-minute video in 1080p would take 2–3 hours. In 3D modeling (Autodesk Maya), the card can only handle simple scenes. For scientific computations (OpenCL/CUDA), its performance lags behind even budget modern GPUs.

5. Power Consumption and Heat Generation

TDP of 150W: Surprisingly High for 2025

Despite its modest performance, the GTX 560 consumes up to 150W. In comparison, the modern RTX 4060 (115W) is 3–4 times more powerful.

Cooling Recommendations

- A case with good ventilation (2–3 fans).

- Thermal paste replacement is mandatory (the card is over 14 years old).

- The ideal choice is systems with an open side or mini-servers for passive cooling.

6. Comparison with Competitors

Historical Counterparts and Modern Budget Cards

In 2011, the main competitor was the AMD Radeon HD 6870. Both cards lag behind even budget models from 2025:

- NVIDIA GTX 1650 (2020): +200% performance at similar TDP.

- AMD Radeon RX 6400 (2022): support for PCIe 4.0, 4 GB GDDR6.

Conclusion: The GTX 560 is only interesting as a collectible or a temporary solution for PCs with older power supplies.

7. Practical Advice

Power Supply and Compatibility

- Minimum PSU: 450W (considering component wear).

- Compatibility: only motherboards with PCIe 2.0/3.0. It will work on boards with PCIe 4.0/5.0 but with bandwidth limitations.

Drivers and OS

- Official driver support ended in 2018.

- Windows 10/11: errors may occur. The best option is Linux with open-source Nouveau drivers.

8. Pros and Cons

Pros:

- Low price on the secondary market ($20–40).

- Support for legacy projects and retro gaming.

- Easy maintenance (no complex cooling systems).

Cons:

- Not suitable for modern games and professional tasks.

- High power consumption relative to performance.

- Risk of acquiring a worn-out unit.

9. Final Conclusion: Who Is the GTX 560 For in 2025?

This graphics card is a choice for:

1. Retro tech enthusiasts building PCs from the 2010s.

2. Owners of old systems needing a replacement for a burnt-out graphics card.

3. Office PCs for document work and video playback.

Why not use it for gaming? Even budget options like the Intel Arc A310 ($90) or AMD RX 6300 ($100) will offer 3–5 times more performance with less power consumption. The GTX 560 is a story of the past, not of the future. But if you’re nostalgic for Skyrim from 2011— it will manage.

Basic

Label Name

NVIDIA

Platform

Desktop

Launch Date

May 2011

Model Name

GeForce GTX 560

Generation

GeForce 500

Bus Interface

PCIe 2.0 x16

Transistors

1,950 million

TMUs

Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) serve as components of the GPU, which are capable of rotating, scaling, and distorting binary images, and then placing them as textures onto any plane of a given 3D model. This process is called texture mapping.

Foundry

TSMC

Process Size

40 nm

Architecture

Fermi 2.0

Memory Specifications

Memory Size

1024MB

Memory Type

GDDR5

Memory Bus

The memory bus width refers to the number of bits of data that the video memory can transfer within a single clock cycle. The larger the bus width, the greater the amount of data that can be transmitted instantaneously, making it one of the crucial parameters of video memory. The memory bandwidth is calculated as: Memory Bandwidth = Memory Frequency x Memory Bus Width / 8. Therefore, when the memory frequencies are similar, the memory bus width will determine the size of the memory bandwidth.

256bit

Memory Clock

1000MHz

Bandwidth

Memory bandwidth refers to the data transfer rate between the graphics chip and the video memory. It is measured in bytes per second, and the formula to calculate it is: memory bandwidth = working frequency × memory bus width / 8 bits.

128.0 GB/s

Theoretical Performance

Pixel Rate

Pixel fill rate refers to the number of pixels a graphics processing unit (GPU) can render per second, measured in MPixels/s (million pixels per second) or GPixels/s (billion pixels per second). It is the most commonly used metric to evaluate the pixel processing performance of a graphics card.

11.34 GPixel/s

Texture Rate

Texture fill rate refers to the number of texture map elements (texels) that a GPU can map to pixels in a single second.

45.36 GTexel/s

FP64 (double)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy, while single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.

90.72 GFLOPS

FP32 (float)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.

1.067 TFLOPS

Miscellaneous

SM Count

Multiple Streaming Processors (SPs), along with other resources, form a Streaming Multiprocessor (SM), which is also referred to as a GPU's major core. These additional resources include components such as warp schedulers, registers, and shared memory. The SM can be considered the heart of the GPU, similar to a CPU core, with registers and shared memory being scarce resources within the SM.

Shading Units

The most fundamental processing unit is the Streaming Processor (SP), where specific instructions and tasks are executed. GPUs perform parallel computing, which means multiple SPs work simultaneously to process tasks.

336

L1 Cache

64 KB (per SM)

L2 Cache

512KB

TDP

150W

Vulkan Version

Vulkan is a cross-platform graphics and compute API by Khronos Group, offering high performance and low CPU overhead. It lets developers control the GPU directly, reduces rendering overhead, and supports multi-threading and multi-core processors.

N/A

OpenCL Version

1.1

OpenGL

4.6

DirectX

12 (11_0)

CUDA

2.1

Power Connectors

2x 6-pin

Shader Model

5.1

ROPs

The Raster Operations Pipeline (ROPs) is primarily responsible for handling lighting and reflection calculations in games, as well as managing effects like anti-aliasing (AA), high resolution, smoke, and fire. The more demanding the anti-aliasing and lighting effects in a game, the higher the performance requirements for the ROPs; otherwise, it may result in a sharp drop in frame rate.

Suggested PSU

450W

Benchmarks

FP32 (float)

Score

1.067 TFLOPS

Hashcat

Score

31509 H/s

Compared to Other GPU

FP32 (float) / TFLOPS

Quadro K4000M

1.131 +6%

GeForce 940M

1.102 +3.3%

GeForce GTX 560

1.067

Radeon HD 6770 Green Edition

1.028 -3.7%

Tesla M2070 Q

1.007 -5.6%

Hashcat / H/s

GeForce GTX 470

34753 +10.3%

Radeon R9 M275

33607 +6.7%

GeForce GTX 560

31509

GeForce GTX 660

25551 -18.9%

GeForce GTX 765M

24493 -22.3%