NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 1536 MB

[LAN_deRf_HA]

LAN_deRf_HA I think you will be able to use OCCT, you just need to find a way to circumvent the power limiter, which a fair few reviewers have done already.

Could you point a method out? All I've seen is wizzard's momentary method and reviewers switching to unknown programs.

 

[Frick]

I intend to!

No offense, but you should totally get a new CPU to match it.

 

[Red_Machine]

I know. I'm considering getting a quad core if my payout from my old boss if healthy enough. But I was reccommended to wait until the summer when Bulldozer comes out.

 

[TRIPTEX_CAN]

For anyone in the market for a FAST single GPU card the 580 looks pretty good but being 12 months behind the 5000 series and a few weeks before the 6900 series I dont think Nvidia will see the sales they expect.

I find it strange to see enthusiast priced GPUs release only to side-grade the previous generation.

A 580x2 card would be pretty sweet (and actually feasible) but if a single GPU us $500 the dual GPU models will be stupidly expensive.

Not to rain on this launch but I think this might be a short lived victory celebration for the green camp.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

Great review W1zzard. Can we expect an upcoming Pci-Ex Scaling review on one of these as was done on the 5870 and 480 to see by how much they exceed 8x? In a perfect world I'd go with a 32 lane, X58 MB running 16x/16x, but I'm not so savvy at CPU OCing and have been hit by unexpected auto expenses lately. I'm also thinking the 1156 platform will be dirt cheap once 1155 debuts. The 875k would be much easier for me to OC too.

 

[WhiteLotus]

I am really not impressed with the idle noise. I mean when I want to watch a film I don't want to even hear anything else other than the film.

But I guess I prefer silence and mild performance over loud and lots of performance.

 

[DaedalusHelios]

Both companies are doing this small upgrade to their current line up. AMD and Nvidia chose to do this. AMD 6-series is not so far, and will not be, a huge performance upgrade either. Nvidia fixed what AMD/ATi fanboys were complaining about on the 480 and made the better version a GTX 580. But of course some people always complain. The 580 is what I predicted it to be. A better card than the 480 and I will be waiting to see if AMD can produce a game changing price war or if they will just bring more of the same.

I am really not impressed with the idle noise. I mean when I want to watch a film I don't want to even hear anything else other than the film.

But I guess I prefer silence and mild performance over loud and lots of performance.

Lets hope you wouldn't use a GTX 580 as an HTPC card. Even if you did for some reason, it has fan control support and HD Video would not throttle that card enough to need more than 20% fan. Remember to switch it back when gaming though.

 

[Tatty_Two]

I am really not impressed with the idle noise. I mean when I want to watch a film I don't want to even hear anything else other than the film.

But I guess I prefer silence and mild performance over loud and lots of performance.

To be fair, lots of cards with reference coolers from whichever side can be noisy under load and often if the fan profiles are poor.... under idle speeds as well, thats why I go for non reference cards with better cooling designs, damn my old xfx 4870x2 even with a fan speed of 60% was like a tornado engine, scared the cats off trying to shit on my lawn outside my study window though

 

[newtekie1]

For anyone in the market for a FAST single GPU card the 580 looks pretty good but being 12 months behind the 5000 series and a few weeks before the 6900 series I dont think Nvidia will see the sales they expect.

I find it strange to see enthusiast priced GPUs release only to side-grade the previous generation.

A 580x2 card would be pretty sweet (and actually feasible) but if a single GPU us $500 the dual GPU models will be stupidly expensive.

Not to rain on this launch but I think this might be a short lived victory celebration for the green camp.

Look at history, this price point will not stay long if ATi manages to get a card out that matches it. But while this card is on the market only being challenged by the HD5970 it will be priced in the same ballpark.

I am really not impressed with the idle noise. I mean when I want to watch a film I don't want to even hear anything else other than the film.

But I guess I prefer silence and mild performance over loud and lots of performance.

Fan noise to me is usually a moot point in the review, because I almost never use the stock fan profiles. With this card idling at only 45°C, there is no reason the fan speed couldn't be turned down to make it quieter, probably even damn near silent, while idle.

 

[N3M3515]

All that is needed for the GTX580 to go down in price is that 6970 performs equal to it for 400 USD.

 

[the54thvoid]

Great review!

Now for my subjective opinion, I am impressed. It matches the 5970 well, msrp is cheaper at least in EU, and we're speaking of a single gpu card here. (Now I'm no nvidia fanboi - I own a 5970 and one of the nvidia cards in my laptop died after only a bit more than 2 years of use but I see nice potential in this card - nvidia would pwn the 5970 if it releases a dual gpu version of the 580)

Yes it would. But thats a moot point as the 6970 if crossfired will also annihilate the 5970. The 5970 is a year old - it's now 'old tech'. We shouldn't be comparing the 580 to a 5970. I know the 580 was meant to be 'last year' too but it wasn't.

The real comparison is 580 to 6970.

But for the record, I am trying very hard to not buy a GTX 580 now because i want to hold for either:
A) Custom cooling solutions like (http://www.techpowerup.com/134204/Sparkle-Announces-Calibre-X580-Graphics-Card.html) or
B) The HD 6970.

 

[arnoo1]

I intend to!

lol, you will see no performans difference whit that slow basis system of yours lol, you have a major cpu botlleneck and memmory botlleneck, even for my system it's to fast.

no offense

 

[the54thvoid]

What is interesting is that a few sites are reporting 'same as' or higher power draw than a GTX 480.

I'm thinking the throttling is throwing a smokescreen over the true nature of the card. I want to be wrong because I will be buying a single GPU new card to replace a x-fire set up and it's the 580 or the 6970....

 

[Red_Machine]

lol, you will see no performans difference whit that slow basis system of yours lol, you have a major cpu botlleneck and memmory botlleneck, even for my system it's to fast.

no offense

I'm upgrading everything except the CPU right now, so I'll be getting new DDR3 to go with it. Depending on the payout I get from my old boss, I may get a quad-core now rather than waiting for next summer.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

Can something be done to the card to physically disable the throttling?

 

[mdm-adph]

What is interesting is that a few sites are reporting 'same as' or higher power draw than a GTX 480.

I'm thinking the throttling is throwing a smokescreen over the true nature of the card. I want to be wrong because I will be buying a single GPU new card to replace a x-fire set up and it's the 580 or the 6970....

My dear gentleman, the whimsy and satire found within the bounds of your system specs is most refreshing -- verily, it is a most droll repast upon which I am now savoring, for the level of palaver of this nature found in the environment in which we now converse can be somewhat sparse from time to time.

 

[ShogoXT]

This really should have been called GTX 490. I dislike naming schemes like this when its not a new design. Also it consumes less power than 480? I wonder how they managed that.

Also whats with the note at the bottom of the first page? Did someone else release your review or leak it? Or was it posted too early? I must have missed it.

 

[springs113]

decent card, but my main gripe with those that say it beats the 5970...technically it is not the true dual card of the 5800 series...i don't think that this card is as good as ppl are making it out to be because the main thing i gathered from the benchmarks is that as you increase the reso, the margin of victory over the 5870 shrinks pretty noticably.

 

[mtosev]

If the HD 6950/6970 series will be faster than the GTX 580 then its price will fall.The best thing for now is to wait and see what happens when ati releases its the high end cards

 

[newtekie1]

This really should have been called GTX 490. I dislike naming schemes like this when its not a new design. Also it consumes less power than 480? I wonder how they managed that.

Also whats with the note at the bottom of the first page? Did someone else release your review or leak it? Or was it posted too early? I must have missed it.

I believe what happened is that W1z uploaded the reviews to the webserver early so that they would be ready exactly when the NDA lifted. And some sneaky people figured out the URLs and posted them, effectively leaking the reviews before the NDA was lifted by nVidia.

 

[ShogoXT]

I believe what happened is that W1z uploaded the reviews to the webserver early so that they would be ready exactly when the NDA lifted. And some sneaky people figured out the URLs and posted them, effectively leaking the reviews before the NDA was lifted by nVidia.

Yea I just found it in the comments section of the forum. Google and guessing URLs did it.

 

[qubit]

Exactly qubit, its a huge factor that people seem to overlook.

Also, take this into consideration. The GTX 580 is about 18-20% faster than a 5870. That means for the 6970 to even compete with the GTX 580, it has to be at least 20% faster than the 5870. For it to be superior to the GTX 580, it needs to be 30-32% faster than the 5870.. do you guys think that's possible... 30-32% faster than the 5870? I sure don't, but I hope so, lol.

Oh, a 30% speedup is certainly possible, even 40% or 50%. The problem is doing it within the constraints of cost and power envelopes and the corporate policies at AMD. Thing is, for the last few years, AMD hasn't really gone for the fastest single chip card crown, instead preferring to make a "high value" card at a lower price point.

What's not helping matters are all these console ported games not requiring the most powerful systems to get the best out of them. For example, my system (see specs) is hardly new, yet runs all my games very well at decent resolutions and image quality settings. So what incentive do I have to upgrade it? Of course, because I'm an enthusiast like others here, I don't actually need a reason but you can see the problem on a wider scale.

I think this is a shame, because head to head competition is reduced. The technology then ends up not being pushed as hard as possible. If it had, we would actually end up getting faster products with more features at any particular price point and the top-end products would also be better.

However, it does look like the new AMD high end out soon might compete head to head, so here's crossing fingers!

 

[springs113]

I do think that this year will have a nice battle, i also think AMD is using its head this time around because the specs on the 6900 series are really tight lipped and they can be tweaked to offset the 580s importance.

 

[r9]

This is amazing NVIDIA has chosen to cut the core for 10% in transistors and raise the price for 10%. That is great thinking. If AMD can do this why not NV. In the resent times like ATI and NV are competing in who will screw the customer more.

 

[Fourstaff]

This is amazing NVIDIA has chosen to cut the core for 10% in transistors and raise the price for 10%. That is great thinking. If AMD can do this why not NV. In the resent times like ATI and NV are competing in who will screw the customer more.

What's wrong with a re-engineer? Cutting down transistors does not mean that they are cutting down on anything especially if they are optimising the transistors. After all, you would happily pay just as much (or slightly less) for a 300m Athlon II X3 rather than 1.05Billion transistors of the 5750.