The GTX 560 Ti is essentially a slightly faster clocked GTX 560. Also, "Ti" is the short form of the element Titanium.

ahh, thank you sir

nVidia used to use the "Ti" designation back in the early 2000s when they were competing with the Radeon 9800s. So, they are reusing the moniker for a slightly different reason (back then, all of nVidia's cards had the Ti designation).

doing a comparison on newegg, the ti has more cores than the non ti. the clock speeds where the same on both gpus. more cores does not always mean a better card.

I remember the good old days when the nVIDIA 5600Ti was a beast. I believe the GTX 560Ti has better OC capabilities and runs a tiny bit faster; essentially an unlocked GTX 560. Both cards are still great but the Ti version replaced the non-Ti version.

More cores when it's AMD vs Nvidia, you're right..more cores doesn't mean a better card. But in terms of Nvidia vs Nvidia or AMD vs AMD from the same series family, more cores always means a better card. The 560ti outperforms the GTX 560 by about 15%.

The difference between the GTX 560 and the GTX 580 is simply..more cores.