Introduction

As much as I love the recently looked at Lightning cards from MSI, their high price tag continues to let us know that they're not for everybody. This is ultimately where the HAWK series comes in to the picture.

Essentially the HAWK series is very similar to that of the Lightning when it comes to what MSI want to achieve, but instead of aiming for the fastest card overall like they do with the Lightning, they aim for the fastest at the easier to swallow mid-range price point.

The GTX 560 Ti looked the goods when the model launched and like the GTX 460 we knew it was going to be only a matter of time till MSI offered us this new mid-range beast under the HAWK tag. Well, that time has come now; but before we see exactly what's on offer in performance land, let's check out the package, the card itself and the specifications the MSI GTX 560 Ti HAWK carries out of the box.

Package

Looking at the bundle, it's very HAWK. We get all the normal stuff you expect to see from a bundle, but being a HAWK card means you also get the little voltage connectors to see the power draw on the AUX, Core and Memory. We've also got a little mini-HDMI to HDMI connector in the bundle.