EVGA GeForce GTX 580 Superclocked 1536 MB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 2DVI/Mini-HDMI SLI Ready Limited Lifetime Warranty Graphics Card, 015-P3-1582-AR
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- GEForce GTX 580 Superclocked with 797 MHz core clock
- PCI Express 2.0
- 1536 MB 384-bit 0.4ns GDDR5 memory
- 4050 MHz memory clock and 1594 MHz shader clock
- NVIDIA 2-way, 3-way and 4-way SLI ready
Introducing the fastest DirectX 11 GPU, the EVGA GeForce GTX 580. This card rips through the latest DirectX 11 games with up to 8x the tessellation performance over competing GPUs, and runs quieter than the previous generation. Experience a whole new level of interactive gaming with SLI and combine up to three displays for the ultimate 3D gaming experience. With these features and more, the EVGA GeForce GTX 580 does not just dominate the competition, it obliterates it. Specifications include the GTX 580 (797MHz core clock) chipset, 1536MB of 0.4ns GDDR5 memory with a 4050 MHz effective memory clock and 194.4 GB/second memory bandwidth, 384 bit memory interface, 1594 MHz Shader Clock, 512 CUDA cores, 51 GT/s texture fill rate and PCI Express 2.0 compatibility. Additional features include Microsoft DirectX 11 Support, NVIDIA PhysX and NVIDIA PureVideo HD Technologies, NVIDIA 2-way, 3-way and 4-way SLI readiness, NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround readiness, NVIDIA CUDA technology with CUDA C/C++,
Evga motherboard
EVGA GeForce GTX 580 Superclocked 1536 MB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 2DVI/Mini-HDMI SLI Ready Limited Lifetime Warranty Graphics Card, 015-P3-1582-AR
List Price: $ 509.99
Price:
The way it was meant to be played…7 months ago!,
Okay, from the title of my review one would think this is going to be a negative review. NOT! I want to state right up front that this is a great video card. I won’t go into an illustrious hardware review as there are plenty of computer hardware review websites out there that have conducted much better and more detailed analysis on the GTX580. So, I will just give you my opinions.
I just bought and installed three EVGA GTX580 Superclock (SC) cards as an upgrade from my “old” three EVGA GTX480 Superclock (SC) cards. The GTX480s have served me well and the only complaint I have is the fan noise they generate when under full load (when gaming or benchmarking). Here are the pros and cons that I have noted thus far when comparing the GTX580 SC to the GTX480 SC:
Pros:
– Cost of the new GTX580 is reasonable; NVidia had to remain competitive and released the new GTX580 with a very reasonable sticker price while dropping the price of the “old” flagship GTX480 at the same time!
– Lower fan noise (5-7db difference under full load) when running a single or 2-way SLI configuration
– GTX580 runs cooler at idle and under full load (10C cooler at idle and about 5-7C cooler under full load)
– GTX580 performs better by 15-30% in every game and benchmark that I have ran (Crysis, Crysis Warhead, Metro 2033, Just Cause 2, Battlefield2, Alien VS Predator, 3DMark Vantage, Heaven 2.1)
– Overclocks better than one would expect; I overclocked my three GTX580 SCs to 850Mhz (GPU), 1700Mhz (Shaders), 2250Mhz (memory) and it was rock stable with no artifacts, lockups, or crashes; one thing to note is that the GPU and shader clocks are locked together and cannot be overclocked separately – just like the GTX480
– 2-way SLI scaling is awesome – just like the GTX480
– First generation driver for this card appears to be fairly stable with most games – albeit there have been complaints about Medal of Honor: Black Ops having lag issues; it has not been determined whether or not a game problem or a graphics driver problem. Hopefully the issue will be fixed soon via game patch or driver update…
Cons:
– A noticeable reduction in fan noise can only be gained by running either a single card or running 2-way SLI and leaving a space between the two cards; once in a 3-way SLI configuration, most of the cooling efficiency of the new vapor cooler is lost; while this one is a “kind of a con”, it must be stated so expectations regarding the lower fan noise is put into proper perspective
– I can’t justify the cost of upgrading if you already own two or more GTX480s; I lost money selling my GTX480s just to upgrade; the loss of money VS. the performance gain was not worth it IMHO
– GTX580 consumes more power VS. the GTX480; this may cause some of you to have to upgrade your power supply if you want to run two or more GTX580s – the GTX580 consumers about 20 Watts more per card VS. the GTX480)
– Need at least a 1200 Watt power supply if you want to run three cards – just like the GTX480
– Minimal gain in performance with three or four-way SLI; two GTX580s in more than enough; only a few games that take advantage of 3 and 4-way SLI and only when the game settings and resolutions are maxed
– NVidia should have released this version of the Fermi GPU back in April; but at least they learned from their “mistakes” and listened to customer feedback. The GTX580 is a better and more refined product. Is it too late to the party? You decide!
So, if you are looking for an early Christmas gift and don’t already own two or more GTX480s then by all means go for it! If you already own one GTX480, get a GTX580 and run the GTX480 as a Physx card 🙂
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|The best single-GPU solution available today… But not the best value,
I have to give it 5 stars because it delivers the promised performance, at remarkably stable and low temperatures (the stock cooler is excellent and a great reason to choose a reference design, it is extremely effective and very quiet for its performance – even under maximum load, temperatures are lower than any top-of-the-line nVidia card for generations). There are no multi-GPU rendering issues, as can affect multi-card configurations or multi-GPU on one card configurations. I don’t aim that specifically at ATI, as nVidia has their fair share of driver difficulties as well, but in general a single GPU card is a safer bet for cutting edge games as any scaled multi-GPU setup will require a compatibility profile update in order to work correctly.
The card overclocks beautifully. I feel like I haven’t even touched its maximum performance, yet at 1080p, there are no games that exceed my visual desires that would justify even higher settings. A 10% overclock over reference GTX 580 settings comes with a commensurate performance increase; it’s my feeling, though I don’t have any hard evidence, that these EVGA models are binned for superior performance, so the price premium isn’t just for the stock moderate overclock, but for what I perceive as a higher likelihood of taking it further.
As mentioned, the temperatures are well-controlled. Absolutely no complaints there. The card is much quieter than the nVidia GTX 280 that it replaced, as well.
The problem comes in with the question of value. I don’t want to go into a long tear about it, but you’re just straight-up better off buying a EVGA GeForce GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card with Lifetime Warranty 012-P3-1570-AR if you want almost the same level of performance for a substantial savings. In SLI, you could run three GTX 570s in SLI for the price of two GTX 580s. In some games, at modern resolutions, you’ll pay over $50 per additional FPS going from the GTX 570 to the GTX 580. Do you really, really think $50 per frame for an additional 3 FPS in The Witcher 2 is worth the money? I don’t. And ATI has price to performance on lockdown with their 6950 2GB reference models that can be safely flashed to 6970 specification.
So, is this an awesome card? Absolutely. It’s the best single GPU card on the planet at the moment. That’ll change, it always does. Next generation’s less pricey option will perform identically to this. Look at the GTX 570 vs the GTX 480 – virtually identical performance. And the GTX 560Ti is no slouch, lagging only a few real-world frames per second behind its more costly brethren to hold the nVidia price:performance sweet spot. Take these facts into consideration before purchasing. You’re paying – I paid! – an extraordinary premium to have “the best.” The theoretical maximum improvement over the previous generation’s unrealized Fermi – the GTX 480 – is 17%. In the real world, you get between 6% and 12%.
There’s just no way around admitting that this is far past the point of diminishing returns. It excels, but at an extraordinary price. If I had the decision to make over again, I would likely have gone with the GTX 570, as it offers very close performance at a substantial discount. Smart money might be on the ATI 6950 that magically turns into a 6970 with no added expenditure, but I don’t like Xfire (any more than I like SLI). Single GPU for me. This is the king… but much lighter is the wallet that buys the crown.
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|A review of the thermal and noise levels,
In a room with an ambient temperature of about 75F, and in an Antec 1200 case (3 front 120mm intake, 2 rear 120mm exhaust, 1 top mounted 250mm exhaust) the GTX 580 idles (in P8, or low performance mode, which it idles in if you aren’t playing a game) at 46C and an automatic fan speed around 40% (which is the minimum in the driver). At load (tested in Crysis, and a few other games) the card reaches about 68C, with a fan speed not much over 50%. It could be kept cooler, but anywhere above 50% and the GPU fan becomes audible over the case fans (in my setup, anyway). With the lifetime warranty of an EVGA card comes a few drawbacks. The first is the reference design of the card, that keeps temps around 5-10C warmer than the custom cooled designs of companies like MSI and Asus. This means less headroom for overclocking, although I have seen pretty competent overclocks on this particular card (I haven’t tried myself, however) The second is the reference fan, which is louder than similar models from EVGA’s competitors at the same speed. The up side to reference cooling is that air is pushed directly out the back of the card, instead of inside the case. This is a good feature for anyone without excellent ventilation in their case, because it takes the hot air away from the other components in the case.
Coming from an ATI HD4850 to the GTX 580 has been like night and day. All of my games run much faster (obviously), and unlike the HD 4850 (that got over 100 degrees Celcius at load, and idled at 70 Celcius) it doesn’t sound like a vacuum cleaner as I’m trying to play games.
At $500, I assume that you know exactly what you are looking for in a card, or at least I would hope so. This card delivers excellent gameplay at 1080p, with everything maxed out on my system in Crysis, and a few other taxing games that I have tried it out on. Beyond 1080p, you might need to look at the 3gb model GTX 580 (I see 1+GB usage in Crysis at 1080p, and I can only imagine that stepping up to 2560×1200 or whatever other 27-30″ resolutions are out there, would stretch the card to the breaking point. It could be done, but you’d need to sacrifice AA passes, Vsync, and possibly a few other bells and whistles to make it work).
I would recommend this card to someone that wants to simply drop the best single-GPU card in their machine, and be done with it. More performance can be had for the money through SLI’ing 560ti’s, or 480’s, or any number of other lesser cards, but the drawbacks of SLI make those solutions unattractive to me. While others are desperate for SLI or Crossfire drivers that work with Battlefield 3, those with this card will be playing the game and not worrying about it.
Oh, and before I forget: I was seeing about 300w of power draw (max) in game from this card. I’ve heard that it can go to 350+ if you overclock, so if you are thinking about getting this card (and especially if you are going to SLI) make sure you’ve got at least 600w (for a single) and maybe 850-1000w for SLI. It’s better to spend the extra 30-40 bucks for adequate power, than to either run the card with inadequate power, or run it at the maximum of your PSU (which will fry the PSU, sooner or later).
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