I have owned 3 gtx 480 and now this gtx 580 and they are all great cards but the boys at geforce scammed us a bit. Once you remove the voltage protection all these gtx 580 are, are gtx 480 with the extra cores enabled. All this BS about better power usage is that BS, once you remove the voltage protection. It does have a bit better cooler and it will overclock slightly higher but trust me if they had put the same voltage protection and cooler on a gtx 480 there would be zero difference. Even as it is I'm not seeing much difference in performance maybe 5 frames per second and my AMD chip at 4.3ghz isn't bottlenecking this chip. I'm seeing maybe 10c temp defferences under extreme load but the gtx 480 can take that so is that really an issue. Plus with W1zzards voltage protection removal command and a bit of overclocking the GTX580 rapidly approaches the GTX480 thermal envelope. Before you guys get your panties in a bunch this is a great card and I do like it but it isn't truly what Nvidia is telling you it is. All it is, is a gtx480 with a voltage regulator/temp sensor and a bit better cooler. Still there was nothing wrong with the GTX480 to begin with so any improvement is a good one. If you own a GTX480 this is not a true upgrade, and I don't think it's worth the extra 100.00 to 150.00 depending on new or used. Buy a AXP or Zalman after market coolers and keep what you have. With those after market coolers the gtx 480 will run about 30c cooler under load than a stock cooled gtx 580 and be even quieter. Plus it will over clocks just as well or near so. Love you guys but
I calls them as I sees them.
Okay blast away!!!