I got an unusual GTX 560 Ti

[Panormitis]

I'm have a sort of Workstation Pc (I made it from parts, it's not a branded one) which I upgraded last month, it's not the fastest pc, but it gets the job done better than before, so I'm satisfied.
Basically I changed the motherboard, cpus and graphic card. Now it has a Supermicro X7DWE motherboard, 2x Xeon X5460 CPUs and a GTX 560 Ti graphic card.

I got the GTX 560 Ti for less than $90, It was listed as an OEM/Bulk version, new not used. I considered it a good deal (for the price, since a branded one costs a lot more) so I gave it a try.
The graphic card works fine, it's stable (no problems like artefacts or crashes etc.), and according GPU-Z and Nvidia Inspector it's a real GTX 560 Ti (please check the attached images) and it has an ASUS Subvendor ID.
Now the weird things:
1. The card has only one 6-pin power supply connector (I thought all GTX 560 cards have two).
2. It has GDDR3 1GB memory, not GDDR5.
3. It seems to be under-clocked (GPU Clock 650MHz, Memory 900MHz, Shader 1625MHz)
4. Now the weirdest thing, it has only 96 / 128 shaders. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought all the GF114 / GTX 560 Ti GPUs have 384 shaders, I thought this is how it's built from NVIDIA and none subvendor or anyone else can change that.

By the way GPU-Z and NVIDIA Inspector disagree on some things:
GPU-Z says the card it's an A1 revision has 96 unified shaders & 48 ROPs.
NVIDIA Inspector says it's an B1 revision and has 128 unified shaders & 24 ROPs.
You probably noticed that the card it's on a PCI-e x4 slot. I put the card there on purpose, because I don't play games much and I wanted the faster x8 slots for other things (for example SAS Raid cards)

So, I wanted to ask you guys/girls because you have more experience in graphic cards than me: What kind of card do I have? Don't get me wrong, I'm not dissatisfied with it's performance (as I said I don't play games much) but obviously this is not a normal GTX 560 Ti card.
I have two theories:
1. It might be an engineering sample, but it doesn't state anything like that on the PCB.
2. Perhaps the GPU failed to pass some tests on NVIDIA, so they under-clock it and made a cheaper graphic card.

So, what do you think? Any ideas? Have you seen something like this before?

NVIDIA Inspector:


GPU-Z:

[CrazyNutz]

Seems to me like GPUZ, and Nvidia inspector may not be fully aware of this card. Try opening nvidia control panel (right click on desktop) and click "System Information" on the lower left hand corner.
See what that has to say about the specs.

[BenchZowner]

Run 3D Mark11 @ Xtreme Preset and show us the score ( screen cap, we need to see the individual fps and scores )

[Panormitis]

Seems to me like GPUZ, and Nvidia inspector may not be fully aware of this card. Try opening nvidia control panel (right click on desktop) and click "System Information" on the lower left hand corner.
See what that has to say about the specs.

This is the system information:
NVIDIA System Information report created on: 12/11/2012 04:02:13
System name: ARMOR

[Display]
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate, 64-bit
DirectX version: 11.0
GPU processor: GeForce GTX 560 Ti
Driver version: 306.97
DirectX support: 10
CUDA Cores: 128
Core clock: 650 MHz
Shader clock: 1625 MHz
Memory data rate: 1800 MHz
Memory interface: 384-bit
Total available graphics memory: 4095 MB
Dedicated video memory: 1024 MB GDDR3
System video memory: 0 MB
Shared system memory: 3071 MB
Video BIOS version: 70.26.25.00.00
IRQ: 56
Bus: PCI Express x4

[Components]

easyDaemonAPIU64.DLL 1.10.8.0 NVIDIA Update Components
WLMerger.exe 1.10.8.0 NVIDIA Update Components
daemonu.exe 1.10.8.0 NVIDIA Update Components
ComUpdatus.exe 1.10.8.0 NVIDIA Update Components
NvUpdtr.dll 1.10.8.0 NVIDIA Update Components
NvUpdt.dll 1.10.8.0 NVIDIA Update Components
nvui.dll 8.17.13.0697 NVIDIA User Experience Driver Component
nvxdsync.exe 8.17.13.0697 NVIDIA User Experience Driver Component
nvxdplcy.dll 8.17.13.0697 NVIDIA User Experience Driver Component
nvxdbat.dll 8.17.13.0697 NVIDIA User Experience Driver Component
nvxdapix.dll 8.17.13.0697 NVIDIA User Experience Driver Component
NVCPL.DLL 8.17.13.0697 NVIDIA User Experience Driver Component
nvCplUI.exe 4.8.750.0 NVIDIA Control Panel
nvWSS.dll 6.14.13.0697 NVIDIA Workstation Server
nvViTvS.dll 6.14.13.0697 NVIDIA Video Server
NVSTVIEW.EXE 7.17.13.0697 NVIDIA 3D Vision Photo Viewer
NVSTTEST.EXE 7.17.13.0697 NVIDIA 3D Vision Test Application
NVSTRES.DLL 7.17.13.0697 NVIDIA 3D Vision Module (0)
NVMCTRAY.DLL 8.17.13.0697 NVIDIA Media Center Library
nvDispS.dll 6.14.13.0697 NVIDIA Display Server
PhysX 09.12.0604 NVIDIA PhysX
NVCUDA.DLL 8.17.13.0697 NVIDIA CUDA 5.0.1 driver
nvGameS.dll 6.14.13.0697 NVIDIA 3D Settings Server

As you can see, system information claims my card has DirectX10 support, however GPU-Z claims that it has DirectX 11 support. This is weird.

Run 3D Mark11 @ Xtreme Preset and show us the score ( screen cap, we need to see the individual fps and scores )

3D Mark 11 couldn't run because it says that my card doesn't have DirectX 11 support, so I run 3D Mark Vantage.
Here are the results: http://www.3dmark.com/3dmv/4447206 The graphic score is lower than expected. If you click "Detailed Scores" you can check the individual fps.

Any ideas anyone?

EDIT:
I just found this: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Users...s-219512.shtml
Could my card be a fake? I mean, someone could print a fake name on the box/decals etc. but is it possible to fake the hardware name & GPU code name (GTX 560 Ti / GF114)?

[CrazyNutz]

128 cuda cores
384 bit
GDDR3

This is a 8800gtx (g80). I think you may have a fake.

Can you take some pictures please?

[Panormitis]

128 cuda cores
384 bit
GDDR3

This is a 8800gtx (g80). I think you may have a fake.

Can you take some pictures please?

Interesting, I didn't know that graphic cards can be faked. I thought it wasn't possible. It's a bit difficult to remove the card and take pictures (because this pc has to stay on most of the time 24/7), but I can provide a link: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/GTX56...643539809.html (you might need to click "see full item description" to see the pictures). This is the same card as mine, only mine has NVIDIA logo decals on the fans, and a red PCB.
I'll be more careful next time, no more OEM cards for me.

[[XC] Oj101]

The 650 MHz core / 1625 MHz shader lines up with a GeForce 8800 GTS, but it has too much memory (the 8800 should be 512 MB) running too slowly (900 MHz instead of 970 MHz) and the wrong bus width (384-bit instead of 256-bit). It could also be an overclocked 8800 GT (stock 600 MHz core / 1500 MHz shader / 900 MHz memory) which also came out in a 1 GB version, but even then the bus is too larger and PCB also seems too short for an 8800 GT?

Here's the card be bought:



From the from of a graphics card (by the DVI/VGA connectors) to the back of the PCIe connector is about 258 mm, so the above card is about 314 mm long. The 8800 GT seems to be about 328 mm long.

It could be an overclocked 8800 GTX (stock 575 MHz core / 1350 MHz shaders / 900 MHz memory) but the memory size is wrong.

[Panormitis]

The 650 MHz core / 1625 MHz shader lines up with a GeForce 8800 GTS, but it has too much memory (the 8800 should be 512 MB) running too slowly (900 MHz instead of 970 MHz) and the wrong bus width (384-bit instead of 256-bit). It could also be an overclocked 8800 GT (stock 600 MHz core / 1500 MHz shader / 900 MHz memory) which also came out in a 1 GB version, but even then the bus is too larger and PCB also seems too short for an 8800 GT?

Here's the card be bought:

The card was bought from http://www.aliexpress.com/item/GTX56...643539809.html and this picture is more precise (however the fan decals and the pcb color is different).
In case it matters, the connectors on the bracket/back are: DVI at the bottom, HDMI in the middle and VGA at the top.

From the from of a graphics card (by the DVI/VGA connectors) to the back of the PCIe connector is about 258 mm, so the above card is about 314 mm long. The 8800 GT seems to be about 328 mm long.

It could be an overclocked 8800 GTX (stock 575 MHz core / 1350 MHz shaders / 900 MHz memory) but the memory size is wrong.

Can we find out what card is it, if I extract/provide the BIOS using GPU-Z?
Also, here's a screenshot of NVIDIA Inspector with overclocking section open. The voltage adjustment is disabled:

[davidkozat]

Well this is False Advertisement and I have seen it before, so I suggest taking it up with the seller.

[Panormitis]

Well this is False Advertisement and I have seen it before, so I suggest taking it up with the seller.

This is a first for me, I wasn't expecting that a GPU information (read by GPU-Z etc.) can be faked.

[[XC] Oj101]

I reckon it just reads whatever the BIOS tells it to report?

[davidkozat]

Yeah some companies are very good at playing dumb and they offer a product that looks and feels the same for a cheaper price... my instinct makes me avoid cheap hardware all together... reason to what I dont like buying hardware on Ebay or sites like that... anyway man good luck, if the seller is stupid enough to provide an image with the information.



and then that information doesnt match, you got pretty good evidence of wrong doing...

[Panormitis]

I reckon it just reads whatever the BIOS tells it to report?

I see, they modified the BIOS to make it display what they wanted.

anyway man good luck, if the seller is stupid enough to provide an image with the information.
and then that information doesnt match, you got pretty good evidence of wrong doing...

Actually there is not much I can do, this card costed me 67 euros but If I send it back using a courier (otherwise the seller might claim he didn't receive the item), the postage is about 35 euros, so basically I'll get only 32 euros ($41) of my money back. Also, Aliexpress disputes can be more frustrating than ebay disputes. It seems too much of a hassle.
Probably I'll just buy a branded card for that pc, and keep the fake card as a spare, or put it in some old pc.

[davidkozat]

Lesson learned, never by that doesnt look legit, if is too cheap, is for a reason. Sorry to hear that Bro

[Panormitis]

Lesson learned, never by that doesnt look legit, if is too cheap, is for a reason. Sorry to hear that Bro

Yeah, the whole thing started because I thought that a graphic card can't be "masqueraded"/faked like that. Lesson learned now, at least I learned something I didn't know before.

[K404]

I ended up with a fake card a couple weeks ago too. My "GTX460" was basically a GT430 with 256MB of memory. I got my money back though.

If you remove the HSF, what does the core say?

[Ket]

Take the cooler off and take a pic of what it says on the GPU. Its very rare to happen but not uncommon for a graphics card to have a vBIOS thats not fully functional but the only cases like that I've heard / seen are ES samples. As this card is supposed to be OEM, who knows, maybe its just got a ES vBIOS on it. Its a long shot though, I think you have more than likely been duped.

[Panormitis]

I ended up with a fake card a couple weeks ago too. My "GTX460" was basically a GT430 with 256MB of memory. I got my money back though.

Fortunately you got your money back. Was it from ebay or aliexpress?

If you remove the HSF, what does the core say?

Take the cooler off and take a pic of what it says on the GPU. Its very rare to happen but not uncommon for a graphics card to have a vBIOS thats not fully functional but the only cases like that I've heard / seen are ES samples. As this card is supposed to be OEM, who knows, maybe its just got a ES vBIOS on it. Its a long shot though, I think you have more than likely been duped.

If I remove the heatsink I'll probably have to remove the old thermal paste and apply new one, right? I don't have thermal paste right now to try this, but I'll get some in the next days and I'll attempt this. I'm curious to see what GPU chip is underneath.
I'm planning to buy some Arctic Cooling MX-4, is it good enough for this, any suggestions?

[davidkozat]

Yeah MX-4 is godd enough just be careful not over doing it... too much is worse that not enough in my opinion...

[Boulard83]

i too want to see a core pics !!!

[Panormitis]

Yeah MX-4 is godd enough just be careful not over doing it... too much is worse that not enough in my opinion...

Yeah I'll be careful.

i too want to see a core pics !!!

When the thermal paste arrives, (this might take a while) we'll see what's underneath, it's probably an 8800 series GPU, it doesn't seem faster than that.

EDIT
Arctic Cooling MX-4 is not available so I'll purchase Arctic Ceramique 2. I guess I should purchase thermal pads too, or can I use Arctic Ceramique 2 wherever a thermal pad is placed?
For thermal pads, I'm thinking to get some Phobya WLP XT Thermal Pad 120 x 20 x 1mm. I suppose most graphic cards use 1mm thermal pads, right?
Also, I googled up the BIOS version number of the graphic card (70.26.25.00.00). I don't know if the number is real/accurate or not, but some GTS 450 graphic cards have the same BIOS version number.
However the GTS 450 timings (GPU clock, memory, shaders) are different.

[STEvil]

I would be surprised if it were an 8800 series.

Its not uncommon for "workstation" cards to be underspeced from their desktop counterparts, but the amount of neutering on yours seems rather large. If anyone remembers the TNT2/M64/Vanta that was a similar amount of neutering..

[Ket]

Any further news on this? If this card truly is a GF114 its sure as hell not a 560Ti... more like the severely deformed mentally retarded brother of the 560Ti that was supposed to be killed at birth.

[Panormitis]

The thermal paste & thermal pads should arrive here at Wednesday, once I get them, I'll remove the cooler and post pictures.
Even if we suppose that the GPU might be some 8800 series, shouldn't the 3D Mark Vantage scores be higher than what I got?
Maybe the card is even lower than an 8800 series GPU.

[Ket]

Probably not... the card really is crippled.