Another company that knows how much this editor loves short product names, Sparkle Computer’s Calibre X560 is the highest-frequency card in today’s lineup.
High frequencies require extra cooling, and Sparkle went full-force with its choice of Arctic Cooling’s Twin Turbo Pro twin-fan, four-heat pipe design.
Multi-fit coolers like this require an extra slot of space beneath the sink to cool on-card components, extending the Calibre X560 to a three-slot design. Forward-facing PCIe power connectors can be difficult to reach in some cases, while heat pipes that extend beyond the outer edge of the card extend its mounting width to 5.4”.
A 1000 MHz GPU clock is matched by Gigabyte’s two-slot card, but the GDDR5-4800 memory data rate will be unique in today’s performance charts.
Premium products typically include premium packaging, and Sparkle even enhances the kit’s value with a six-foot HDMI cable. A VGA and two PCIe power adapters are also provided, but we wouldn’t recommend using more than one power adapter with most power supplies.
While third-party utilities work to further overclock Sparkle cards, the company hasn’t provided us a recent version of its own utility.
- Not Quite Extreme, Way Beyond Mainstream
- Asus GTX560 Ti DirectCU II TOP
- Asus SmartDoctor
- Gigabyte GTX 560 Ti SOC
- Gigabyte OC Guru
- Jetway N560-E8-1GV
- MSI N560GTX-TI Twin Frozr II/OC
- MSI Afterburner
- Palit GTX560Ti Sonic
- Palit VTune
- Sparkle Calibre X560
- Sparkle SX560T1024D5MH
- Test Settings
- Benchmark Results: 3DMark11
- Benchmark Results: Aliens Vs. Predator
- Benchmark Results: Crysis
- Benchmark Results: F1 2010
- Benchmark Results: Just Cause 2
- Benchmark Results: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call Of Pripyat
- Power, Heat, and Noise
- Conclusion
