GTX 580 - should I?

[MainframeTM]

Greetings,

I'm thinking of jumping on the 580 bandwagon. Currently I'm running 2 BFG 260s Slied. I've heard that 1 580 (am I saying that right?) is better then both cards together. I thought about getting 1 @ 1st & then a 2nd maybe a month down the line. Then using a 260 as a physics card. My question is would I see any real difference in performance? I typical game @ 1920x1080 & my current set up is a i7 950Bloom Feild Oced up to 4.0 - 6 gigs of memory & a Asus Sabertooth x58 board.

Thanks for looking & thoughts?

 

[sneekypeet]

A single 580 is comparable to SLI 280's. You will see a bit of performance gain, plus only one card.(add more performance once you can afford another)
Adding another later is always good
The rig is fine to handle the cards.
Dont bother with the 260 for dedicated PhysX, the 580 will do a better job on its own.

 

[overclocking101]

tons of these threads lately, and all are answered the same, why would one think a 260 would do better then a 580 for its own physx?

 

[the54thvoid]

----

my bad, thanks sneeky.

 

[sneekypeet]

Does your spec say a dual core processor?

Why bother with two 580's? Your CPU will hinder their performance. One 580 will be enough and use the 260 for Physx (and with that money you didnt spend on another 580, get a quad core cpu and/or newer mobo).

Alternatively, if physx isn't essential wait till the 13th Dec to see how the 6970 performs. Good chance it might drive down 580 prices as it will have competition.

read the OP, he has a i7 950 in the rig in question

 

[the54thvoid]

But still, two 580's and a 260 for physx is overkill. Two 580's way more than enough.

 

[sneekypeet]

as I stated in post #2, one would do better than he has now, and no need for the 260.

 

[the54thvoid]

I'm not disagreeing

I'm finding it hard enough not buying a 580 right now. Trying to hold out till the 13th to gauge the 6970. Then i burn muchos cash.

 

[sneekypeet]

I cant say that that is a bad idea either, but you know how the burn is. Cash in hand, new stuff out that you want, must have now!!!!!

 

[the54thvoid]

I actually bought new case to fend off the need to buy a gfx card. It didnt work!! Tech is my vice.

But on OP - yes, buy a bloody 580 and tell me how good it is.

 

[MainframeTM]

Wow thanks guys. It blows my mind that a single 580 beats 2 260s but I totally understand. Plus with newegg having most of the 580s sold out I think waiting is the best for now anyway. Plus if I wait till mid Dec I can pick up 2 @ 1 time. Now gotta figure out what to do with my other system. lol (the 1 in my specs)

 

[newtekie1]

tons of these threads lately, and all are answered the same, why would one think a 260 would do better then a 580 for its own physx?

A lot of people over-estimate how much power PhysX actually takes to run, and think a dedicated PhysX card is a must. When really anything GTX460 and higher can run PhysX without a dedicated PhysX card without a problem, with no performance hit from hardware PhysX.

 

[MainframeTM]

And yes I agree tech is a vice. (I"m thinking of buying a SSD for my desktop system so I can finally get a Hard drive score in WIN7 above a 5.2) but shes a fickle mistress - always something new about to come out..always the next best thing. you buy..you buy..yet theres always that bigger better thing just over the horizon!

 

[newtekie1]

And yes I agree tech is a vice. (I"m thinking of buying a SSD for my desktop system so I can finally get a Hard drive score in WIN7 above a 5.2) but shes a fickle mistress - always something new about to come out..always the next best thing. you buy..you buy..yet theres always that bigger better thing just over the horizon!

Oh I know, ever day I have to resist the urge to buy something new for my computers. My willpower has grown over the years.

 

[moshpit]

I highly recommend the GTX 580 as a great card, but waiting might not be bad if you want to save some money. Even if 6970 doesn't prove able to topple GTX580 for overall performance (which I don't expect it to, in fact I rather think 6970 versus GTX580 will be identical contest as 5870 versus GTX480), it's price difference will force GTX 580 down regardless.

Of course, I've given advice here I couldn't follow for myself, I jumped on the GTX 580 bandwagon the day after they launched. The thought of "Fermi done right" intrigued me enough to have to see.

 

[MainframeTM]

I highly recommend the GTX 580 as a great card, but waiting might not be bad if you want to save some money. Even if 6970 doesn't prove able to topple GTX580 for overall performance (which I don't expect it to, in fact I rather think 6970 versus GTX580 will be identical contest as 5870 versus GTX480), it's price difference will force GTX 580 down regardless.

Of course, I've given advice here I couldn't follow for myself, I jumped on the GTX 580 bandwagon the day after they launched. The thought of "Fermi done right" intrigued me enough to have to see.

Sounds good. I ordered the card Thursday. Kept waiting for tigerdirect to the Asus one due to no tax where I live however it never happened. So after seeing the card sell out twice I jumped on it from Newegg. It shipped today. =)

 

[{JNT}Raptor]

Just pulled the trigger on the EVGA GTX 580 myself.....I've wanted this card since the day it came out....and now it's mine...mine...mine.... LOL

Good luck with yours Bro.

 

[the54thvoid]

Well, waited for the reviews of the 6970 and was looking for somethingn to replace my 5850's with consistent frame rates and single solution.

So I just ordered an EVGA 580 too! Will download the evga tool that lets you alter the clocks to below 40% for idling quietly. Bjorn of Iceland mentioned it somewhere.

 

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

you mean the fan.. unlocks it to 30% to 100% in precision / afterburner.

Evga GTX580
Evga GTX580 SC Edition / FTW

Not sure if later batches are already unlocked. But early batch's fan was definitely locked to 40% - 85%

 

[Flibolito]

Reviews are out now and I say go for it. The 6900 series is nice but not the powerhouse people were hoping for. Especially the fact that overclocking them might be useless due to they safety mechanism that keeps the TDP down which kicks in under heavy gpu load (when the extra clockspeed really helps).

 

[the54thvoid]

you mean the fan.. unlocks it to 30% to 100% in precision / afterburner.

Evga GTX580
Evga GTX580 SC Edition / FTW

Not sure if later batches are already unlocked. But early batch's fan was definitely locked to 40% - 85%

Yes, fan..oops. Thanks dude.

 

[moshpit]

I have to say, the EVGA GTX 580's are really nice OC'ers.

 

[travva]

all of the 580's overclock pretty nicely.

 

[qubit]

Yes, I think you should. But if you want the best deal, I think you should wait 2 or 3 weeks for the price of the 580 to hopefully drop.

Of course, because the 6970 is another 2900 saga* it doesn't provide much competition for the 580, so one won't see the significant price drop that one hoped for, but you might see some.

This power usage limitation is really hampering the progress of video performance. I mean look, the GTX 580 is a lot faster than the GTX 285, but not really that much considering how old the 285, or even the 280 is. The weak competition from AMD is really proving this point.

*Performance is meh compared to a card that came out 7 months ago.

 

[erocker]

Yes, I think you should. But if you want the best deal, I think you should wait 2 or 3 weeks for the price of the 580 to hopefully drop.

Not happening. Get one now while you can as prices are going up.